When disaster strikes
Although many top executives still think it will never happen to them, a disaster can strike any company at any time, says Simon Perrin, MD of Network Centric Support. Unexpected events can have a devastating effect on a business, whether that means a dramatic incident like a fire or a flood, or a less extraordinary (but still devastating) IT failure. In some cases, even just an everyday computer 'crash' may be enough to damage important data, and therefore cause problems for the business as a result.
Any of these incidents could make it difficult – if not impossible – for a business to carry out its normal day-to-day activities. At best, this could cause unwanted disruption and a damaging loss of productivity, but in more serious cases, companies may experience significant downtime and suffer irreparable damage to their business as a result. As such, companies of all sizes need to have a disaster recovery plan in place, in order to make sure that their business-critical data and systems are adequately protected.
What is disaster recovery?
Disaster recovery (DR) is the process by which a company resumes business after any kind of 'disruptive' event. The purpose of a sound DR strategy is to make sure that steps can be taken to minimise the potential impact of unexpected incidents like these, or better still, actually prevent them from happening in the first place.
Many businesses often don't realise it until it's too late, but the business data stored on a company's main database is absolutely mission critical, not just in the long term, but on a day-to-day, hour-to-hour, and even minute-to-minute basis. If applied correctly, however, a sound DR strategy should be able to help a company to pick up instantly, exactly where they left off, in the event of a disaster, without having any of its important business data lost or damaged.
Backing up key data
Backup and recovery is one of the most important aspects of a sound DR strategy, and indeed an essential part of a database administrator's (DBA's) job. Computers and office furniture can be re-purchased in the event of a fire or a flood, but company data – whether it be financial, customer-related, regulatory or any other type – is usually irreplaceable.
To be truly effective, a DR plan needs to ensure that data is being replicated to a mirror-copy of the company's main database constantly, from the moment it is created, so that the DR system is always 100 per cent up to date.
What next?
Like many security issues, DR planning ultimately comes down to basic risk management: how much risk can your company tolerate, and how much is it willing to spend to mitigate various risks? In planning for the unexpected, companies have to weigh the risk versus the cost of creating a robust contingency plan. Regardless of how big or small your next 'disaster' happens to be, it is a good idea to start preparing for it now.
If you are still unsure about whether you need a DR strategy at all, then consider the potential financial losses of not having one, should disaster strike. You should start by calculating the total losses per day that your company would face if you weren't able to recover all of your key data quickly – and then weigh that figure against the cost of taking a proactive approach to DR right now. Of all the arguments that support the need for a solid DR strategy, this one is probably the most convincing.
