During the past few years we have seen numerous natural disasters throughout the world. Earthquakes in Japan, Haiti and Chile. Tsunami's in the Pacific islands. Hurricanes, floods, tornadoes and wildfires throughout the United States. These events have created immeasurable damages to the global economy and can affect your small business directly or indirectly. Disasters, unpredictable by nature, can strike anywhere at anytime with little or no warning. Recovering from one can be stressful, expensive and time consuming, particularly for those who have not taken the time to think ahead and prepare for such possibilities. However, when disaster strikes, those who have prepared and made recovery plans, survive with comparatively minimal loss and/or disruption of productivity.
Disasters can take several different forms. Some primarily impact individuals -- e.g., hard drive meltdowns -- while others have a larger, collective impact. Disasters can occur such as power outages, floods, fires, storms, equipment failure, sabotage, terrorism, or even pandemic illness. Each of these can at the very least cause short-term disruptions in normal business operation. But recovering from the impact of many of the aforementioned disasters can take much longer, especially if organizations have not made preparations in advance.
Most of us recognize that these potential problems as possibilities. Unfortunately the randomness of some of these disasters lulls some organizations into a sense of false security-"that's not likely to happen here." However, if proper preparations have been made, the disaster recovery process does not have to be exceedingly stressful. Instead the process can be streamlined, but this facilitation of recovery will only happen where preparations have been made. Organizations that take the time to implement disaster recovery plans ahead of time often ride out catastrophes with minimal or no loss of data, hardware, or business revenue. This in turn allows them to maintain the faith and confidence of their customers and investors.
There are two distinct factors in preparing your organization, Business Continuity (BCP) and Disaster Recovery Planning (DR).
Business Continuity Planning is the way an organization can prepare for and aid in disaster recovery. It is an arrangement agreed upon in advance by management and key personnel of the steps that will be taken to help the organization recover should any type of disaster occur. These programs prepare for multiple problems. Detailed plans are created that clearly outline the actions that an organization or particular members of an organization will take to help recover/restore any of its critical operations that may have been either completely or partially interrupted during or after a disaster or other extended disruption in accessibility to operational functions. In order to be fully effective at disaster recovery, these plans are recommended to be regularly practiced as well as outlined.
In simple terms, a Business Continuity Plan or BCP is how an organization guards against future disasters that could endanger its long-term health or the accomplishment of its primary mission. BCPs take into account disasters that can occur on multiple geographic levels-local, regional, and national-disasters like fires, earthquakes, or pandemic illness. BCPs should be live and evolving strategies that are adjusted for any potential disasters that would require recovery; it should include everything from technological viruses to terrorist attacks. The ultimate goal is to help expedite the recovery of an organization's critical functions and manpower following these types of disasters. This sort of advanced planning can help an organization minimize the amount of loss and downtime it will sustain while simultaneously creating its best and fastest chance to recover after a disaster.
Disaster Recovery (DR) is the process an organization uses to recover access to their software, data, and/or hardware that are needed to resume the performance of normal, critical business functions after the event of either a natural disaster or a disaster caused by humans. While Disaster Recovery plans, or DRPs, often focus on bridging the gap where data, software, or hardware have been damaged or lost, one cannot forget the vital element of manpower that composes much of any organization. A building fire might predominantly affect vital data storage; whereas a pandemic illness is more likely to have an effect on staffing. Both types of disasters need to be considered when creating a DR Plan. Thus, organizations should include in their DR plans contingencies for how they will cope with the sudden and/or unexpected loss of key personnel as well as how to recover their data. DR plans should be well practiced so that the key players are familiar with the specific actions they will need to take should a disaster occur. DR plans must also be adaptable and routinely updated, e.g. if new people, a new branch office, or new hardware or software are added to an organization they should promptly be incorporated into the organization's disaster recovery plan. Companies must consider all these facets of their organization as well as update and practice their plan if they want to maximize their recovery after a disaster.
