By Scott Murphy

They say that in life and business it is survival of the fittest – when it comes to disaster recovery, it is survival of the well planned.

Last year’s hydro “glitch” left most of eastern USA and South Western Ontario in darkness, and businesses with a keen sense of vulnerability. Did your disaster plan limit business interruption? Did you lose any customers? Most customers understood since they were in the same situation. But what if it had been more localized, like a fire, flood, tornado, or power interruption? Would they have been as understanding? What if the event was more damaging or lasted longer?

Disaster planning can’t distract from your core business but it should be high priority – and cross-functional. The blueprint needs to reach in to all areas of the business with a team approach that can both create and maintain the plan. Empower someone from each functional area to be part of the team that will create the plan to ensure that your business survives the next interruption. You can accelerate this process by bringing in a specialist to lead the team through the process.

The first challenge once the team is assembled is to identify the disaster scenarios the company should plan around. It is not likely that you can plan for all potential disasters due to the high cost and time available. Pick one or two of the most likely and serious scenarios (e.g. your building burns down, long power interruption, labour disputes, employee sabotage, viruses or natural disasters). These plans will support other disaster scenarios.

With the disasters selected, you can identify stages or milestones in the aftermath of the disaster that are critical to the survival of the business. The most critical milestone is the actions that need to be taken in the immediate aftermath. Make sure that this stage includes communications with the disaster recovery team (including contractors of disaster recovery services), employees, and specialists. Next, identify your business critical functions, the order and how they will need to be resumed. With your plan starting to take form; keep the people and processes in mind as well as the infrastructure that support them. Work through the key processes and make sure you know the people and infrastructure on which they rely.

Once a first draft is complete, you need to test the plan and any contingency arrangements that have been made. Where you identify issues, make changes and test it again. With testing complete, most companies think the plan is complete… wrong! The team should regularly review the plan to identify how changes in your business will affect the plan and modify and test as appropriate.

Make sure that your planning team keeps the following things in mind when developing your plan.

1. Be proactive in your planning – it is lower cost in the long run.
2. Keep focused on the likely threats.
3. Consider a multi-site environment or a data centre.
4. Make sure the plan fits the business requirements and budget.
5. If your business changes – so should the plan.
6. If the plan changes – test it.
7. Make sure that the various aspects of the plan are coordinated – data, employees, facilities, networks and systems, processes, customers, suppliers, specialists and contractors.
8. Realize where your company fits in a regional disaster recovery – will you be the first priority if the hospital is dealing with the same issue.
9. Communications can make or break the plan – make sure that you communicate well with media, employees, customers and suppliers.

Building a disaster recovery plan has short-term benefits too. Employees understand the “big picture” processes better and how they fit in which allows them to help improve business processes and support business operations. Businesses change over time and understanding the “big picture” helps businesses change for the better.

Scott Murphy is a Consultant at Data Perceptions. Scott helps companies select best available technologies to meet their business requirements.  Scott’s education, IT and business experience allow him to understand clients’ needs and translate them into solutions.