disaster planning
(foldoc) | disaster recovery
disaster planning
(DR) Planning and implementation of procedures and
facilities for use when essential systems are not available
for a period long enough to have a significant impact on the
business, e.g. when the head office is blown up.
Disasters include natural: fire, flood, lightning, hurricane;
hardware: power failure, component failure, head crash;
software failure: bugs, resources; vandalism: arson,
bombing, cracking, theft; data corruption or loss: human
error, media failure; communications: computer network
equipment, network storm, telephones; security: passwords
compromised, computer virus; legal: change in legislation;
personnel: unavailability of essential staff, industrial
action.
Companies need to plan for disaster: before: risk analysis,
preventive measures, training; during: how should staff and
systems respond; after: recovery measures, post mortem
analysis.
Hardware can usually be replaced and is usually insured.
Software and data needs to be backed up off site. Alternative
communication systems should be arranged in case of network
failure or inaccessible premises, e.g. emergency telephone
number, home working, alternative data center.
(2007-06-20)
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