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The Importance of Disaster Recovery Planning
Imagine
the scenario. Due to some unforeseen disaster, whether it be natural or
man made, you are suddenly unable to access your web site or your
business email system. You may not even be able to access your company’s
facilities. You haven’t planned ahead by setting up remote processing,
and now your business has come to a grinding halt. This happens to
numerous businesses all over the world every day. This can be avoided
entirely by implementing Disaster Recovery Planning.
No
business and/or organization is immune to experiencing a serious
incident which can prevent it from continuing with their normal
operations. Disaster can strike at any day, at any time.
There are a myriad of potential causes of disaster: flooding,
explosions, hurricanes, computer malfunctions, accidents, grievous
acts... the possibilities are endless.
The following information is
designed to help you plan for any one of these scenarios. This
information will help you reduce not only the risk, but also the
impact should the worst occur.
The Basics of Disaster
Recovery Planning
*Get
off on the right foot: To be successful, the planning exercise must have
full support and be well planned. There are numerous good reasons why
the plan development project is essential.
*Make
it a policy: Contingency planning must be company policy in order to
ensure its effectiveness.
*Assess
the risk: Impact and risk analysis will enable you to ensure that your
arrangements and disaster recovery plans are not only feasible, but
appropriate.
*The
recovery plan itself: Having a disaster recovery plan is a basic
responsibility of every organization. Developing one does not need to be
traumatic!
*Review:
How frequently do you review the adequacy of your contingency? Is your
review thorough?
*Back-up:
The more effort that you put into this, the easier recovery will be.
*Frequent maintenance: Changes
within businesses and organizations occur constantly. It is vital that
your plans and continuity arrangements reflect these changes.
Service Level Agreements
The majority of businesses and
organizations are dependent upon services or products provided by
others. The use of a binding service level agreement will stipulate
expectations and responsibilities clearly for both parties involved. The
scheme of the service level
agreement should be crafted to suit your unique situation, just as the
disaster recovery plan itself.
Please feel free to inquire about receiving additional information
on setting up a service level agreement with us. We are always available
to address your questions, comments, and/or concerns.
Please forward this article onto your colleagues,
assistants, partners and friends, BUT NOT
to your competition.
You have permission to publish this article electronically or in
print, free of charge, as long as the bylines, links and website
references are included. A courtesy copy of your publication
would be appreciated.
Your questions, comments, or suggestions are always appreciated.
Thank YOU,
Copyright 2005© |
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