DO YOU HAVE A DISASTER RECOVERY PLAN?

It was a disastrous day for America on the 11th of September. World Trade Center in New York City, symbol of Uncle Sam's financial supremacy, collapsed under terrorist attack. The 220 floors, of the twin towers that housed the who's who of the financial world in the US, were razed to ground.

Apart from the human tragedy that the attack on WTC brought in its wake, several of the companies also lost their data and equipment. For all these companies it was business as usual on Monday but Tuesday saw them in the midst of a disaster.

For some of them it may take months to get back on rails. Companies would now be planning to get new computers, a new place to function from and all other infrastructure requirements that go with setting up a new workplace.

However some companies like the financial giant Morgan Stanley got back to business the very next day. How was this made possible? One only needs to have a disaster recovery plan for his/her organization in place.

Today it is even more important as the business of companies like Morgan Stanley is based on enormous amount of data they generate each day. Prudent managements besides having the usual internal data backups have a second backup at a site that is located miles away.

A disaster recovery plan is a plan that needs to be carefully developed with a hope that it will never have to be used. However, many companies shy away from spending money on something most of us hope we will never need.

It plans for the unknown and helps the organization to make sense out of a chaotic situation. Most people construe disasters as events that involve only emergency services such as fire, police and medical services.

A well planned and structured disaster recovery plan not only reduces uncertainty but also softens the impact of unusual circumstances produced by the disaster. A disaster recovery plan promotes a systematic, orderly and effective approach to the consequences of a disaster.

Above all it reduces thinking time during a disaster which is no time to plan for the response to the calamity. It should be flexible enough to take care of any eventuality, however unlikely it may be.

In the absence of such a plan the aftermath of a disaster could result in arbitrary, chaotic and ineffective response. Disaster recovery plan ensures preservation of life and assets to the extent possible.

It is not sufficient to have a disaster recovery plan in place. Equally important is the fact that people should be made aware of it. For a disaster recovery plan to be effective all concerned should be trained to put it into operation when required.

The WTC disaster has proved that no plan can be perfect and no plan can foresee every possible disaster but all disaster recovery plans must be based on worst case scenarios. All plans must be dynamic enough so that they can be improved upon as and when any shortcomings are brought forth.

And remember that though proximity to the site of disaster matters, people far removed from the scene also can be and are equally affected by the disaster. India is "across the seven seas" from US, but the after effects of the Black Tuesday are being felt here also.

Its rightly said "A stitch in time saves Nine". Develop your own disaster recovery plan today.