| Disasters are common in the world today, from nature | | | | plan and hold regular meetings to make sure that |
| to car wrecks. In the computer industry, disasters | | | | everything is accurate. Then, if disaster should strike, |
| aren't any different. They can come in the form of an | | | | your team should be well enough prepared to take |
| office fire, computer crashes, hard drive failure, missing | | | | care of anything that comes your way. |
| IT documents, stolen hardware, and many other forms. | | | | On a frequent basis, you should create backups of |
| Disasters can be very traumatic and stressful, although | | | | your IT systems and test the backups that you have |
| there are actions that you can take. | | | | created. Always make sure that the backups you |
| Even though disasters can occur at any time, | | | | made are in a safe place, and out of the way of harm. |
| recovery planning doesn't cross the mind of business | | | | You should also check with your disaster recovery |
| owners or individuals. Most just carry out their normal | | | | team as well, and make sure that they have the |
| day to day routines, never aware of what could result | | | | location of your backups noted in their recovery plans. |
| from a disaster. Then, when disaster does strike, most | | | | One of the most important aspects of recovery and |
| tend to freak out and wonder just what they can do | | | | disaster planning is to keep an up to date inventory on |
| to fix the situation at hand. | | | | all of your equipment and material. You should always |
| If you are prepared for a disaster or hard drive failure, | | | | stay on top of this, to make sure that you can easily |
| then your business will be able to deal with anything | | | | identify what you have and how to go about replacing |
| that happens. The first step in planning and preparing | | | | equipment whenever something happens. If you keep |
| for disaster is to analyze your business or operations. | | | | a record of your suppliers and their phone numbers, |
| You should determine how often your systems go | | | | you can have them with you for easy access in the |
| down, and how you can manage operations without | | | | event of an emergency. |
| the equipment. You should also find out how long it | | | | Even though it may be easier to document all of your |
| would take you to fix the equipment, and what your | | | | recover plans on your computer, you should also |
| business can do to make ends meet when the | | | | record them on paper as well. Disasters can render |
| equipment is unavailable. | | | | your computers useless, which would it very hard to |
| Something else you'll need to do is identify the risks of | | | | access plans that are stored on your IT systems. If |
| possible disaster. This can include computer failure, loss | | | | you have them noted on paper as well, you can |
| of power, hardware problems, etc. You should always | | | | access them without any problems. |
| include the causes as well as the solution in your plans. | | | | Above everything else, you should always think about |
| If your office suffers from disaster and cannot be | | | | the possible disasters that can occur at any time and |
| used for a period of time, you should always have | | | | how to be prepared for them. If you think about things |
| another location that you can go to continue your | | | | and plan things out before hand, you'll find that you can |
| business. | | | | handle any type of disaster. This way - a disaster |
| In the event of disaster, you should always have a | | | | doesn't have to stop you from carrying out your |
| dedicated team that will work on fixing any problems. | | | | normal day to day operations.lost data. |
| This team should be responsible for your recovery | | | | |