IT managers should prepare a business case and communication with their executive team to obtain resources for Disaster Recovery Plan development and execution. IT managers should also work with executive leadership to maintain an ongoing commitment to testing and change management.
Make it Happen
Thirty-three percent of respondents in Applied Research’s survey stated that the primary reason they did not have a plan in place was because of a lack of resources. Additionally, cost was the most frequently cited challenge for creating a Disaster Recovery Plan.
It is important to note that the cost of developing a Disaster Recovery Plan can be quite low relative to the impact on recovery. Simply placing critical information such as employee and vendor contact lists, IT equipment lists, existing network diagrams and application manuals is a step in the right direction. You would be surprised how many businesses have not done this. Spending a half hour during a regular staff meeting to discuss who would be in charge at time of disaster and who would take responsibility for what, is another simple step. Asking management to approve of automatic higher spending limits for IT managers in the event of a disaster is another step. Disaster Recovery planning is all about taking another step. It is never perfected but can always be improved, regardless of the level of available resources or funding.
Respondents in the Applied Research study consistently cited several motives for creating a Disaster Recovery Plan (respondents could choose more than one): 61 percent cited data corruption, 59 percent cited component/application failure, 54 percent cited site outage, and 54 percent cited downtime required for maintenance.