ready for anything should disaster strike. Ready foR anything. An executive
survival guide for calculating potential losses—and the cost of recovery after a ...
Ready for Anything An executive survival guide for calculating potential losses—and the cost of recovery after a disaster.
E
very executive knows that data loss can jeop-
Calculating potential losses requires that you think
ardize business revenue and damage share-
outside the walls of the data center to project
holder confidence. Disaster recovery solutions
possible consequences across the enterprise. For
are a must—but overspending on protective measures
example, if your offices are damaged in a hurricane,
can dent the bottom line just as much as data loss.
your organization may need an alternative work site
How much protection is enough? And how much is
within a reasonable distance to continue operations.
too much?
These contingencies can be just as critical to disaster
To rightsize your disaster recovery solution, start
planning as data backups and failover clustering.
by calculating potential losses in a variety of sce-
Once you have quantified the potential impact,
narios. Some losses are easily quantified: How much
craft a response plan that incorporates a wide variety of technologies and business processes— and then make sure it actually works. Companies
“Once you have quantified the
often skip this step because so many variables can
potential impact, craft a response plan that incorporates a wide variety of technologies and business processes—and then make sure it actually works.”
affect each scenario. However, you only get one shot at recovery when a disaster actually occurs, and taking steps to ensure cooperation and familiarity with recovery procedures that cross departmental boundaries can play as big a role in business continuance as having the right technologies in place. Simulated disaster response exercises can be an indispensable tool for increasing your chances of success.
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revenue do you stand to lose if your systems are
In addition, simulation exercises can help you right-
down for a day, or a week? Other costs—like the value
size your disaster recovery infrastructure. Running
of a lost hour of employee productivity—can be more
tests on your production environment can be costly
difficult to measure. Still, taking the time to accurately
and disruptive, but replicating your data center setup
quantify the possible impact to your business is
in a virtualized environment allows you to test and
important because it gives you an upper limit for
refine your recovery procedures as many times as
disaster recovery expenditures. It can also illustrate
necessary—helping your IT organization avoid ineffi-
the importance of proper disaster planning to other
