There are many disasters that can strike a business. These disasters include fire damage, water damage, electrical damage, storms and natural events, human error, equipment failure, and targeted attacks. In many cases, one type of disaster like a power surge can lead to others, such as complete hard drive failure. Losing your data is not an option if you want to succeed in today's data-driven world.
Data encompasses more than your human resource records. It includes your VOIP systems and application settings. It includes your financial transaction history and accounting. It also includes your future marketing data, such as your customers' buying trends and product preferences. Data that will contribute to your long-term business success over the next decade. Losing some or all of it due to poor preparedness is like leaving the door unlocked in a busy neighborhood. You can do it, but why should you?
What is an IT Disaster Recovery Plan?
Missing just one component of a DR plan can have huge consequences on your ability to recover within your target service level objective. What if the database admin tasked with updating the documentation left, and all of the recovery knowledge was in his or her head? What if your IT team failed to follow through with regular backup and recovery, leaving you with a corrupted database? What if there is no budget to buy a spare hard drive? What if your server backup fails? What if nothing is documented? What if no one knows how to backup? What if your support plan with your vendor lapsed? There are many moving pieces in a disaster and missing even one step can considerably delay your recovery.
So when you're thinking about what to document next in your business, consider a disaster recovery plan. You may never need it, but if you do it could literally save your business time and money it cannot afford to lose.
