Excerpt:
A number of recent events, changes, and influences are creating 'the perfect storm' of issues that businesses must now deal with to protect themselves from and to survive a disaster. For many organizations, existing disaster recovery plans are inadequate.
The 'perfect storm' consists of several elements:
- A global market has emerged in which businesses of all sizes now compete
- Just-in-time manufacturing and distribution have reduced business costs associated with stock on hand
- No-overhead operations have forced companies to operate with slim workforces, and equipment that is allocated to nearly 100 percent capacity, nearly 100 percent of the time in order to remain competitive
- Tighter IT budgets resulting from the tug-of-war between business operations and data-processing support have resulted in less money being available for IT operations
- Natural and human disasters have more than doubled in the past three decades
- Explosive data growth has been fueled in part by the rapid move to digital media throughout all industries
- New regulatory requirements have driven organizations to both retain corporate data for longer periods of time and implement more advanced data-protection schemes
Research has shown that about 25 percent of corporations have insufficient or no damage response plans in place. This has resulted in DR and BCP standards and certifications.
Disaster planning includes all aspects of the business, its operations, and supporting systems. Successful planning includes:
- Human resources that are vital to a company's operations
- Physical facilities, utilities, backup power and cooling, and Internet service providers
- Supply chain/distribution channel planning with suppliers and alternatives
- Customer communication and support
- Data, applications, servers, desktops, network infrastructure, communications, and their configurations critical to business operations.
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