Do You Test Your Disaster Recovery Plan?

You Must Ensure the Recoverability of Your Critical IT Infrastructure!

If it were possible I would ask for a show of hands, but it’s not, so let’s pretend.  How many of you have a disaster recovery plan?  By a disaster recovery plan I mean a formal documented plan that would allow you to recover your critical technology assets. I mean a specific plan to recover the systems, the applications and the data?  Oh yeah, don’t forget ALL the platforms, the desktops and the telecommunications environment – voice and data.  How many of you test the DR plan?  Do you bring the entire critical Information Technology environment up to ensure it would work if need be – from the ground up?  How many of you test more than once a year or when technology changes?

If you raised your hand to all of the above, congratulations – you are definitely in the minority.  Depending on what survey you read, very few organizations that have a plan test their plan – especially the small / medium businesses.  Fewer yet, regardless of size, actually identify measurable test goals and objectives and/or track the results.

When you factor in Symantec’s 2009 disaster recovery statistics – 25% of all disaster recovery tests fail, and only 15% of those surveyed indicated they have never had a test fail.  If you have never tested – your odds of full recovery are not good, especially in a timely fashion.

When you consider an event that requires the actual restoration of businesses information technology that supports the critical business functions; not having tested the restoration process is a scary thought.  Are you the one who would have to explain to senior management that you were unable to restore the technology environment to the level the business units and clients were expecting?

Testing is the ONLY way to ensure the recoverability of your critical infrastructure!  IT-Lifeline clients that test prove that every day.  They are ensuring the recoverability of the technology it would require to support their organization and thus their customers, should they experience a business disruption that affects their technology assets.  Can you say the same?

Packing Your Parachute & Business Continuity Planning

Yesterday in a presentation to a new client one of the participants announced that he “finally got it”. He stated to his counterparts that “developing a business continuity plan was like packing a parachute.” Think about it – I’ve even made the same statement myself, in a different fashion but the translations are still the same. “There is a right way and a wrong way to develop your plan, what matters is the fact that the thing needs to work when the time comes.”

The “Professional Practices” that have been developed, that define just how a business continuity plan should be put together, is the “right way”. Any other way is the “wrong way”. As I’ve said in the past – Can you afford to do it the wrong way? When that business disruption occurs that we all hope never happens, you want to hit the ground running, not hit the ground.

Think about it … you need to familiarize yourselves with those “Professional Practices”. If you are just starting to develop your plan, build your plan accordingly. If you have what you consider a viable plan, visit those “Professional Practices” and make sure you have “packed your chute” correctly.

Remember your business continuity plan – given the right event – might be the only remaining element of your business. Technology.inc.com agrees that, “Having a business continuity plan to help ensure the survivability of your business is essential these days.” It has to work or you are out of business. That statistic is well proven!

Allow Me To Introduce Myself….

Hey everyone! This is my first blog and I am very keyed up about it. For years I have been looking for an avenue to communicate to those interested in disaster recovery, or whatever the concept was called at the time. There is such a lack of realistic content available about disaster recovery, and more specifically Business Continuity Planning. With my extensive background and practical, hands-on experience, I hope to enlighten readers out there with information that will surprise them, mostly because they never knew they needed to address, let alone comprehend, this business continuity “stuff”. Businesses are complex and the plans that allow an organization to meet an event head-on and overcome it are even more complex. There is no substitution for being proactive to disaster since the question isn’t, “What happens IF there is a disaster,” it’s “What happens WHEN there is a disaster.” Being reactive is simply unacceptable to many industry experts, including myself, so let me try and break down the pieces into digestible form in order to shed some light on this, often overlooked, aspect of running a business successfully.