The Importance Of Having A Perfect Disaster Recovery Plan

By Author: Salvatore Andrea
Total Articles: 6240
Comment this article

For a business house loss of data has no less than a disastrous impact on the company. Understanding that almost all business related transactions are usually carried on through computers, especially in the companies that believe in "no use o paper", such loss of data cannot be ruled out. That is why every business house must have effective disaster recovery system in place so that business can continue even in the face the worst debacle.

To be precise, disaster recovery (or DR) is nothing but a part of a more comprehensive system called business continuity planning. Both these plans are vital for smooth running of any organization. However, there is a major difference between the two. While DR focuses solely on the technological infrastructure that keeps any business running, the later takes care of all non-IT related aspects such as protection of different facilities, protection of the reputation, crisis communication etc. As we have already mentioned, both ...
... of them together help to keep the business running smoothly even in the face of a great risk.

In each case, however, the planners have to undergo a long-drawn process. First, they start with identifying the possible risks. In general, such risks fall under three categories – natural, technical and man-made. Traditionally, fire has been a major risk for most business organizations; today however, technical failures and sabotages too have become important threats. Nevertheless, once the risks are identified, experts start fixing priorities for each department. Since resources are limited, this becomes an important step. Next, they start determining recovery strategy and once that is complete, they start collecting the data. Planning stage comes next; but the job does not end with making effective plans; testing criteria needs to be fixed too. What is more, such plans need to be updated annually. Only then, a disaster recovery plan can help to protect the company. Indeed, the importance of such plans for the survival of any organization can never be undermined.