Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery - Selecting A Business Continuity Strategy

The risk analysis and business impact analysis have identified risks to key business functions. Also, the potential impacts and probabilities of these risks as well as the costs to prevent or mitigate damages and the time to recover will have been established. Evaluating and selecting strategies is based on using this knowledge. Strategy selection involves focusing on key risk areas and selecting a strategy for each one. The primary goals are to maintain business continuity in the face of a disruption or disaster, to recover key business functions quickly and to mitigate damages.

Many companies associate disaster recovery and business continuity only with IT and communications functions and miss other critical areas that can seriously impact their business. Other common areas for strategy development and selection are employees, facilities, power, customer service, billing, and customer and public relations. All areas require a clear well thought out strategy based on recovery time objectives, cost and profitability impact.

Recovery related to employees is the most overlooked part of strategy selection. Simple steps like the ability to contact employees at home or on their personal cell phone and to ensure all are accounted for at each facility are often overlooked. Communications is critical to keep employees informed and engaged. The most powerful tools for continuity and recovery are the knowledge, capabilities and motivation of employees.

Developing strategies with implementation steps means no time is wasted in a recovery scenario. The focus is to implement the plan quickly and successfully. The right strategies implemented effectively minimize the disruption and mitigate damages.

In some cases, a strategy decision may be no strategy at all. In this scenario and others where there is significant risk to the financial viability of the organization, business interruption or business income insurance may be a viable strategy. Generally, this provides the company with the income it is losing due to damage to its property. It therefore increases the company's chances of survival and the ability to keep its customers and recover.

About The Author

Robert Mahood has significant technology and management experience in data communications, internet, storage, disaster recovery and data recovery. He is currently the president of Midwest Data Recovery. www.midwestdatarecovery.com

bmahood@midwestdatarecovery.com, 866 786 2595, 312 907 2100

---

Read This Now: Its Not If You Will Lose Your Data, Its When Will You Lose Your Data

With Adware, SpyWare, E-Mail Viruses, Java Script Viruses and Hardware... Read More

Data Recovery Processes

Six months ago my computer crashed. When I turned my... Read More

Do You Have The One Key Ingredient Necessary For Disaster Recovery?

It is not rocket science, we all know that we... Read More

Data Recovery

Every person who uses a personal computer will eventually face... Read More

How To Limit Hard Drive Data Recovery Costs

With the value on information rising day by day, one... Read More

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery - Risk Analysis and Control

In the risk evaluation phase, there are a number of... Read More

Sea-Front or Action-gate

June 25, 2005Seagate Technologies' web site now indicates the company... Read More

5 Simple Tips to Prevent MS Access Database Corruption

It's important to understand that any time an Access client... Read More

The Best Data Recovery Choice For You

The best defense against a loss of data is a... Read More

Offsite Data Backup Not Just for Fortune 500 Companies Anymore

In today's high paced digital world there is a very... Read More

Backup 101 - How To Pick The Right Backup Software

Vision Backup http://www.deprice.com/visionbackupenterprise.htmVision Backup 10 Enterprise is an advanced and... Read More

Its All In The Planning - Surviving Disaster

ITS ALL IN THE PLANNING - PREPARING FOR THE UNTHINKABLE*... Read More

Data Backups ? One Key to Business Survival

Your customer data is a precious resource that can literally... Read More

Comparing Data Recovery Software

Software programmers recognize the importance of data files, and thankfully,... Read More

I Lost It! Simple Guide To Recovering Corrupted Images And Files

WinUndelete http://www.deprice.com/winundelete.htmWinUndelete? is an easy to use undelete software utility... Read More

How to Effectively Back Up Your Data

What to backup, and what to loseThe oldest "computer expression"... Read More

Disaster Recovery Made Easy With Online Backups

Whenever disaster strikes the most critical asset that every company... Read More

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery - A Business Not a Technology Issue

Hackers, hurricanes, fires, flooding, power outages, denial of service attacks,... Read More

Data Backup Solution: Why You Need a Backup Plan in Place ? Part 1

Is a data backup solution part of your computer plans?... Read More

Data Backup Solution: Why You Need a Backup Plan in Place ? Part 2

In the first part of this article series, I talked... Read More

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery - Business Impact Analysis

Business impact analysis is a critical part of the business... Read More

The Importance Of Email Backup

Viruses, software failures, power failures, human errors, hard drive failures... Read More

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery - The Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plan

Essentially, the plan addresses the who, what, where, why and... Read More

Avoiding Hard Disk Data Recovery Services

As a home computer owner, one of the greatest threats... Read More

Protect Yourself Before Your Hard Drive Crashes

Almost everyone who has used a computer has experienced a... Read More