By Douglas Pitcher, e-Management
The following thread is the first of a new three-part blog series on Disaster Recovery.
Dependence on information vis-à-vis information technology (IT) is greater than ever, and its impact on government even larger, should systems be unavailable. From the largest multinational corporation down to the humblest mom and pop business, organizations everywhere are facing explosive demand for storage.
According to a poll conducted by an IT services group, while IT and business decision makers share the same views on the importance of information availability to business, survey data reveal a split in how to achieve the goal of minimizing downtime when an unplanned IT outage occurs. Both IT and business decision-makers say information availability is important to the success of their business (83 percent of IT, 78 percent of business). Fewer than half of business executives, however, say disaster recovery and business continuity are important to business success compared with a large majority of IT executives (74 percent of IT, 49 percent of business).
Most technical operations now have 24/7/365 expectations due to the growth of Internet-enabled applications, and yet, even after Y2K, 9/11, and Hurricane Katrina, managers of IT still struggle with disaster recovery problems, which range from funding to knowing what is really mission critical. Despite numerous studies that demonstrate the importance of planning for emergencies, many businesses and government agencies still give a low priority to actual spending for an effective disaster recovery plan.
So what does disaster recovery planning actually mean?
First of all, it is imperative to recognize the intent of a disaster recovery plan in that it is to provide a written and tested plan directing the computer recovery process in the event of an interruption in continuous service from an unplanned and unexpected disaster. So, the purpose of a disaster recovery plan is to establish defined responsibilities, actions, and procedures to recover information systems in the event of an unexpected and unscheduled interruption, and structured to attain an established list of objectives acceptable to the user community.
What are the biggest myths about disaster recovery planning?
One of the biggest myths is that only large businesses with huge amounts of capital can adequately plan and prepare for a disaster. That might have been true 15 years ago, but it’s no longer the case. Since the costs of storage and bandwidth have decreased so much in the past 11 years, backup and disaster recovery are options that all businesses can implement. Another tell-tale in disaster recovery is that disaster planning is too complex to be worthwhile if an organization isn’t in a disaster hot spot. The fact of the matter is that disasters can take many different forms and can happen anywhere. While planning ahead might require some effort now, the actual work involved with early preparation is dwarfed by the effort required to recover after a disaster takes out 90% of an agency’s data. Not only can disaster recovery planning save you time after the fact, but the steps involved in creating a plan can often help streamline existing business processes. The concept of what the plan should incorporate forms the nucleus (central point) of a disaster recovery plan.
The next installment will discuss: How do you go about creating a disaster recovery plan? Plus, what are critical issues to watch for when creating a disaster recovery plan?
Remember, this is one of three installments of a new Disaster Recovery blog series. We may address many of your key issues throughout the series; so, please feel free to comment before the next installment.
Here are a few of questions to get you started: Do you think there is a significant disconnect between IT and business executives? Do you have a disaster recovery plan in place at your agency or organization? If so, how prepared are you with it? If you do not have a plan in place, what are you waiting for?