Disaster Recovery is no joke but for many firms it’s not taken seriously.  Organizations without a plan and calculated investment can suffer dire consequences.  Businesses risk serious financial and regulatory costs as well as the potential for insolvency.   Still skeptical?    Here are a few examples:

• Of companies that had a major loss of computerized records, 43% never reopen, 51% close within two years, and only 6% will survive long-term. (Cummings, Haag & McCubbrey 2005.)
• In the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, 150 businesses out of 350 affected failed to survive the event. Conversely, the firms affected by the Sept 11 attacks with well-developed and tested BCP manuals were back in business within days. (Howe School of Technology Management 2004.)
• In the case of fires, 44% of businesses fail to reopen and 33% of these failed to survive beyond 3 years. (IWS 2004.)

In the small business space it seems there are all to many I encounter which have NO plan. More painful still is that many don’t even backup critical business data. Why? Many are unaware of the true risk, are unaware of the potential costs or think it’s to expensive to implement a real DR (Disaster Recovery) effort.

One thing is clear from my 15 years in IT, DR is vital to the very survival of any businesses. A proper DR effort will bear fruits in many other places such as legal/regulatory compliance, cost reduction, increased security.

DR is not a destination or a static plan but a continual process. In my practice I endeavor to ameliorate this situation one client at at time.