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Disaster Planning and Recovery

Details for Personal and Professional Success

Failing to Plan = Planning to Fail

For many years, disaster recovery and business continuity planning were concerns addressed only by larger corporations and well-funded enterprises. Data center preparedness, contingency plans, and hot backup locations for data storage and operations were expensive to activate and to maintain. In the case of larger entities, not a lot has changed in this respect. Alternate locations for larger corporations, however spartan, come with added expenses to lease or purchase and to outfit with the infrastructure and equipment needed to resume business quickly. For small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) and families, however, the current landscape of disaster and contingency planning products, information and services are better than ever and offer virtually any organization or household the ability to ensure that they are not caught unprepared in the face of a major interruption of services or the sudden and sustained unavailability of goods.

Recent events such as the tsunami in southeast Asia, heat waves and flooding in central Europe and the hurricanes that decimated the U.S. Gulf Coast have brought the concepts of survival and temporary self-sufficiency to the top of many corporate and domestic to-do lists. The images of those who had lost everything and were at the mercy of governmental infighting and ineptitude have been burned into our collective consciousness and they should not be forgotten. What, then, is a family or SMB to do? What are the priorities for assuring relative comfort and safety during the most harrowing of times? We have polled dozens of leading industry experts and combined their suggestions with our own knowledge of business continuity and data backup to offer the following overview. This overview is intended to address the highest-need items and greatest value services that disaster victims and industry experts have reported as critical during the days and weeks following a major event.

While the suggestions contained in this document are comprehensive and circumspect in nature, the exact disaster recovery plan will vary according to the specific needs of your business or household. Read on, and consider the importance of advanced planning and action prior to a disaster. The best evacuation or survival plan is worthless if it exists only on paper. A complete plan must assume that the post-disaster situation will be ongoing and that evacuation will be difficult, if not impossible, in the short term. utilities then of course you should (and will!) do so. The checklists and suggestions included here could save your life and those of your coworkers and family members - as well as your business.

Immediate Concerns - Assess and Address

As with any emergency, the first step towards recovery after a disaster is to assess the circumstances and prioritize activities according to the situation. This applies regardless of the environment you are in when the disaster strikes. Is evacuation or relocation immediately necessary? If so, a clearly stated and rehearsed building and area evacuation plan is a critical piece of the larger disaster plan, and can assure that the maximum number of people can be quickly and safely removed from a building in peril.

Infrastructure security is a major concern in the moments immediately following any type of disaster. Examples of securing a building or home might include disconnecting or disabling power and/or fuel lines. This responsibility must be thought through, planned in detail and assigned beforehand, and extreme caution must be exercised to avoid further injury or loss of life. Depending on the nature of the event, downed power lines or active gas leaks may prevent or complicate the deactivation of these services. Minimum preparations include a written (and safely located) description of the location and operation of gas and electric shut-off valves, including those for adjoining or adjacent buildings and structures. Careful communications with neighbors can ensure that all parties are aware of the plan and that multiple, knowledgeable people are authorized to interrupt services on behalf of the group.

After these needs are met, and assuming that the immediate threat has passed, the next concern is communication to the affected parties that there is a plan in place, and that everyone needs to remain calm while the plan is reviewed and implemented. The existence of a plan is the most critical key to success. It should exist in hard copy as well as in the minds of those who are tasked with implementing it. Once your colleagues or family members know that there is a comprehensive plan and that it will be implemented, emotions and activity tend to become focused on pitching in instead of panicking.

Before delving in to the details of a disaster recovery kit and plan, let's review a list of planning and preparation essentials:

Prior to event:

  • Discuss and plan for possible disaster scenarios with staff and family, including escape and evacuation routes.
  • Review insurance coverage for business and home; ask your agent what specific coverage is available; create a photo album of buildings and inventory; contract with an online backup provider to preserve computer data.
  • Create a comprehensive, written and rehearsed disaster recovery plan encompassing activities and materials needed for the survival and comfort of your staff or family.
  • Act on the plan; collect and safely store the plan and all related materials and equipment; formally assign duties and roles; first aid training.
  • Communicate the plan to staff, family members and neighbors - redundantly assign roles and responsibilities.

Immediately after event:

  • Assess the circumstances; perform life-saving activities; prioritize and treat injuries; evacuate if appropriate.
  • Ensure infrastructure security - shut off gas, electric and water feeds if appropriate, as well as those for adjacent buildings.
  • Communicate disaster recovery plans to your group; request periodic status reports from all affected parties.

What Does a Disaster Recovery Kit Contain?

First responder equipment:

  • Light sources - flashlights, LED or halogen headlamps, candles, backup batteries.
  • First aid kit - comprehensive, including splints, bandages, sutures, scissors, antiseptic, antibiotics, etc.
  • Medication - prescriptions or emergency medications for special members of the group which are not included in the general first aid kit.

Basic necessities checklist:

  • Bottled water - equivalent to one gallon per adult per day, three days minimum; store at or below room temperature and rotate every six months.
  • Food - nonperishable, high-calorie foods stored in an air-tight container. Utensils, food for babies, pets or special diets.
  • Communications equipment - radios, phones, walkie talkies, email/Internet/text message devices, backup batteries.
  • Power and fuel - generators, gasoline, propane, backup batteries, solid fuel, solar cells.

Shelter and comfort checklist:

  • Shelter - tarps, tents, portable shelters, insect protection, cots, pads, extra blankets, plastic sheeting, duct tape.
  • Comfort - toilet paper, paper towels, soap, antiseptic wipes, insect repellent.
  • Cash - for resupplying on cash-only basis, miscellaneous.

Just as your disaster kit is a backup of the items and materials you would need during a normal day, you should consider a backup for the disaster kit. If the primary kit of emergency supplies is destroyed in the disaster, you'll be relieved to know that there is another, perhaps identical, kit stored elsewhere. Likewise, offsite backups of personal and business computer data, copies of important documents like passports, identification, bank records, insurance policies and credit cards can be invaluable in a time of crisis.

Let's Get Down to Business!

For businesses, recovering from a major disaster is a two-fold consideration. It can be helpful to think of your business as another living entity, such as a family, that will need special consideration and accommodations to be comfortable. This family will need to approach disaster recovery preparation in many of the same ways as laid out in the immediate concerns section of this document, with special consideration given to certain areas.

One area of particular concern to any business is safeguarding important and often irreplaceable information stores. Contracting with an online backup service provider or deploying remote backup software prior to a disaster can ensure that your business can resume operations with your data intact, even if you have to relocate to another city in order to set up an office. Besides your employees and coworkers, it is computer data, not hardware or infrastructure, which is the single most valuable and irreplaceable asset of most businesses. With an online backup service provider, your mission-critical records are safely backed up to offsite servers on a regular basis, instead of being destroyed with the rest of your equipment. Computer data-related disasters are frequently not directly related to a natural disaster such as a hurricane or tornado. A minor fire or broken water pipe can often wreak havoc with computer systems and data stores, resulting in data losses on par with that found after a larger-scale disaster.

Contingency planning should also extend to payroll, financial decision-making, electronic correspondence and accounting procedures. Roles, workflow plans, availability and storage of backup materials, and responsibilities should be designated and assigned well in advance, and incorporated into a comprehensive written plan that is stored in multiple locations. Backup personnel should be designated for each employee, in the event that one or more of your staff is unable to report to work.

Disaster Partnership Planning - DPP for the SMB

Establishing an alternate business location in advance of a disaster is a brilliant and cost-effective way to quickly transition to a new base of operations in an emergency. Entering into a disaster partnership plan (DPP) with another business located outside the probable threat zone assures that you can distribute alternate phone, mailing and email contact information to your clients and contractors before a disaster occurs. The disaster partnership plan should spell out exactly what your host partner will provide for you, and will allow you to know ahead of time what materials and staff can accompany you to the alternate office.

While not necessarily a legally-binding agreement, a DPP can specify the location of your temporary offices (unused or vacant office space at another existing businesses, for example), the number of your personnel that the office can support, inbound phone lines and numbers that might be temporarily dedicated to you and your staff, the advanced creation and testing of appropriate email accounts at the new business, hours of operation, a mutual nondisclosure agreement covering business operations and proprietary information that might be shared during the DPP cohabitation and other items of this nature. A DPP is designed to take the guesswork out of the temporary relocation of your business and is perhaps the most cost-effective and easily implemented aspect of a comprehensive disaster plan. It also gives a business the opportunity to reciprocate if their partner's location is affected by a disaster.

WhereIsEverybody.com?

The ability to know the status of and to communicate with your employees after a disaster is a great bonus, allowing information to be shared and helping to minimize the disruption of temporary operations. Establishing outsourced and redundant means of communication is critical, but it doesn't have to cost a lot of money. Satellite phones for all executives are one option, and free Web-based email accounts (as a temporary alternative to in-house server based email) are another good one. At the very least, establish and distribute a telephone hotline number for all employees to call as soon after the danger passes as is possible, to report where they are, how they are doing and how they can be reached. Stable communications may not be possible for a fairly long period of time, but updating the message that greets your employees when they are able to call the hotline can help you advise them on projected return-to-work dates and other important company information.

Again, the plan is the key to success. Discuss what natural or other types of disasters or emergencies might affect your company, both internally and externally. Plan for all scenarios and how your company would respond to each, in detail. With a well thought-out business continuity plan, your business should be able to resume partial operations in a relatively short time and be functional within 24 to 72 hours. The actual times will vary, of course, according to the scope and severity of the disaster, and the ability of your staff and employees to evacuate the affected area and/or set up temporary offices. Likewise, the actual plan will vary from basic to complex depending on the size, business focus, and location of a particular organization. A good disaster recovery planning worksheet, as well as other detailed information on business continuity planning can be found here: http://remote-backup.com/whitepapers/SampleDRplan.pdf.

Prior to the event:

  • Review insurance coverage, limitations and deductibles. Inquire about business interruption insurance and about specific policies that cover disasters that are possible in your area - understand exactly what coverage you have and don't have.
  • Employ the services of a remote backup service provider; safely store a copy of mission-critical computer files and data offsite; discuss and prepare written plans covering the procedures for normal data restores and disaster recovery procedures.
  • Keep other forms of data backup locally CD, DVD or even paper copies of records are better than no records at all and may prove critical in the short term. Include contact information for contractors (and backup contractors), clients and suppliers, as well as insurance representatives.
  • Prearrange an alternate business location - enter into a disaster partnership plan (DPP) with a business or leasing company outside of the threat zone. Consider your choice carefully and with due consideration given to special infrastructure or communications requirements.
  • Establish check-in procedures; provide all employees with multiple and flexible means of contact and status reporting.

Whether your disaster plan is for a business, school or family, there are many common elements to its creation. Among these are early and advanced planning, scenario discussions, escape and evacuation routes and communications planning, creating a written and well-circulated plan, development and maintenance of a comprehensive disaster recovery kit, redundancy for all supplies, equipment and computer data, a thorough understanding of the roles and responsibilities of all concerned parties and an annual review of the plan.

Taking these steps now will not decrease the odds of your family or business being faced with a disaster. It will, however, ensure that you and your group are well prepared for the worst if it should come.


Tommy Gardner is director of Sales and Marketing for Remote Backup Systems, Inc., based in Collierville, Tennessee. With a background in compliance, workflow and data management process analysis, Gardner has been involved in software design and sales for many years and is a leading proponent of owner-managed IT services organizations. For more information, please visit http://remote-backup.com or contact him directly at tommy@remote-backup.com.

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