Disaster recovery planning

Protect your organisation from severe financial loss and threats to its survival in the event of a disaster.

If your business premises were damaged or destroyed by fire, flood, or other catastrophe – natural or man-made – would you be able to continue operating? Most businesses today depend heavily on technology and automated systems, whose disruption for even a few days could cause irreparable harm. Insurance alone is not enough: it may not compensate for the incalculable loss of business during the interruption, or the business that never returns.

Fortunately, there is a solution – but it involves more than just off-site storage or backup processing. You need to draw up, document and test a disaster recovery plan: a comprehensive statement of consistent actions to be taken before, during and after a disaster to ensure the continuity of operations and availability of critical resources.

Benefits of a disaster recovery plan

A good disaster recovery plan will protect your organisation if all or part of its operations and/or computer services are rendered unusable. It will:

  • minimise the disruption of operations
  • ensure some level of organisational stability
  • enable an orderly recovery
  • provide a sense of security
  • minimise the risk of delays
  • guarantee the reliability of standby systems
  • provide a standard for testing the plan
  • minimise decision making during a disaster.

The disaster recovery planning process

TCii has helped many clients to safeguard their businesses by formulating an effective disaster recovery plan – a process that includes:

  • obtaining the commitment and support of top management
  • establishing a planning committee to oversee the development and implementation of the plan and define the scope of the plan
  • performing a risk analysis and business impact analysis that includes a range of possible disasters
  • evaluating the critical needs of each department in areas such as:
    • functional operations
    • key personnel
    • information
    • processing systems
    • service
    • documentation
    • vital records
    • policies and procedures
  • researching and evaluating practical alternatives for all aspects of the organisation, including:
    • facilities
    • hardware
    • software
    • communications
    • data files
    • customer services
    • user operations
    • management information systems (MIS)
    • end-user systems
  • preparing written agreements for the chosen recovery alternatives
  • compiling materials and documentation for data gathering
  • outlining the contents of the proposed disaster recovery plan for review and approval by top management
  • writing the plan, using the approved outline as an index
  • developing criteria and procedures for testing the plan regularly
  • conducting a structured walk-through test and updating the plan to correct any problems that the test reveals
  • getting final approval for the written plan from top management.

Next steps to a reliable disaster recovery plan

To learn more about protecting your business from financial ruin if disaster strikes, please email us or call us on 020 7099 2621.