How Does Disaster Recovery Planning Benefit Businesses?

Most companies never experience an event that threatens to put them out of business, but those that do know the value of having a disaster recovery plan in place. Disaster recovery planning involves anticipating what a company needs to survive an event that makes its location uninhabitable, and/or destroys important data that is stored there. In most cases, a plan involves at least four elements:

• Establishing an alternative business location


• Arranging for the delivery and setup of emergency hardware


• Developing an offsite data storage arrangement


• Establishing how the plan would be executed

Although the elements of such a strategy sound simple, selecting the right disaster recovery services provider, gaining support for the initiative, and then passing the initiative can be challenging. With that said, there are several reasons why companies are likely to pass such an initiative, particularly the ones below:

Simplifies decision making when an event occurs

When companies lack an effective recovery plan, they are not prepared to handle the effects that a catastrophic event has on their business. Instead of developing a workable plan on short notice, they are confronted with numerous options that they have not researched. As they decide which options are best, their chances of going out of business quickly increase. According to Bernstein Crisis Management, 80 percent of companies that do not rebound from a major data loss within a month are likely to close permanently.

Prevents data from being destroyed

Data storage is the most valuable aspect of disaster recovery planning. By storing its data on the servers of a disaster recovery services provider, a company ensures the data is safe from events that happen at its location. Because the provider also supplies emergency hardware, using the provider for both data storage and emergency hardware procurement makes the most sense.

Reduces the risk of casualties

When a catastrophic event makes the location of a company uninhabitable, the owners of the company may attempt to salvage storage hardware or paper files before departing from the location. When a fire or an earthquake has damaged a building, reentering the structure can be extremely dangerous. When business data is stored offsite, a company will migrate the information onto new storage hardware and in a new location, and therefore has no reason to return to the site of the catastrophe.

Helps companies stay in business

By developing an effective plan, a company increases its chances of staying business in the wake of a catastrophic event. According to DTI/PricewaterhouseCoopers, forty-three percent of companies that experience a major data loss will go out of business. According to the University of Texas Center for Research on Information Systems, over fifty percent of those that experience a major data loss close their doors within two years. These statistics are a sobering reminder of how a plan helps companies stay in business by protecting their data.

Conclusion

Disaster recovery planning is essential for a company to stay in business following a catastrophic event. To learn more about developing and implementing a recovery plan, contact a provider of disaster recovery services today.