DISASTER RECOVERY
Potential Risks
Fires, floods and even sabotage could irreparably damage our IT systems and paper records, and perhaps also destroy our building at the same time. This could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in downtime, lost productivity and in the worst case lost customers.
"43% of insured offices which suffer a large fire go out of business. This figure obviously increases when uninsured offices are included." (Association of Insurers)
"Disaster hits 7.5% of businesses each year. You should plan for when, not if, a disaster will hit your organisation." (The Business Continuity Institute)
Business continuity is the process of planning to ensure that an organisation can survive an event that causes interruption to normal business processes (Global Continuity is presumed).
The majority, if not all businesses are increasingly becoming more reliant on their computing and telecommunications. The loss of computing and telecommunications could bring a business to a halt. Yet there are many companies who are ill prepared to recover from the loss of their assets.
A disaster can be many things. Anything that prevents us from being able to continue on with business can be construed as a Disaster. Natural disasters - weather, power, hardware, software failure, fire, water, sabotage, bomb threat, theft, the list is endless.
As computer systems become faster and better they become more complicated. Hardware and software failure accounts for three quarters of business interruption.
Prevention is better than cure. An important part of the process of business continuity planning is putting measures into place to prevent an interruption in the organisation.
The Disaster Recovery Plan
A computer system disaster can be broadly defined as an event that causes loss or damage to computer stored data and/or prevention of access to data. The purpose of a Disaster Recovery Plan is to reduce the risks typically associated with the storage of this data and consider disasters and recovery processes relating to computer equipment and computer related data.
Most modern businesses are heavily dependent upon their computer systems and stored data. A computer related disaster would have extreme consequences on the business. The Disaster Recovery Plan is designed to minimise the risk and help minimise disruption to business operations in the event of disaster.
The DR plan considers four (4) types of computer related disasters:
- Low system risk - loss / failure of magnetic backup media.
- Minor failure of critical system - loss / failure of one or more server applications, loss of Internet connection, users affected.
- Major failure of critical system - loss of computer hardware - includes loss of file server(s), file server data, file server applications software, loss of client-server connectivity, loss of a/c unit, loss of hubs and cable termination, users affected and unable to work.
- Major disaster - loss of entire computer system - this could potentially incorporate a complete office staff relocation due to environmental conditions.
Talk to Discovery today - we have years of experience in preparing and protecting business and their critical data against the many threats that exist, and placing those businesses in the best position to safely recover, while minimising loss, from an actual disaster whether it is minor or major.
