Disaster recovery: Earthquake, floods, winter storms: is your business prepared for the unexpected?

• Author: Colby, Kent L.

Natural disasters or ... "You're doing a great job Brownie. As we learned from Katrina that does not make for a good nor gracious recovery in a natural disaster.

Natural disasters get all the attention. In the forefront, utilities, roads, housing and businesses demolished show the big picture. What rarely makes headlines is all the data that may or may not be salvageable after a natural disaster. From the small grocery store and bank headquarters, to the city recorder and federal building, data storage is, most likely, equally compromised in a natural disaster.

Alaska is no stranger to natural disasters and the affects it can have on our infrastructure and our people. Earthquakes, winter storms, wild fire, volcano eruptions and tsunamis are all kin to our state. If Mother Nature has it in her arsenal, Alaska has felt it at sometime or another. Add to this man's debacles, and it's a wonder we ever make it from one day to the next.

But, Alaskans are a tenacious and hardy lot. In the wake of a disaster, the state's recovery rate is exemplary.

Disasters of the Unnatural

A flood turning years of records to pulp or a fire making history ash is always a threat; but today's critical information is increasingly stored electronically or digitally on hard drives or tapes somewhere. Drives can and do crash, tapes corrupt, even optical storage devices have a limited shelf life. Throw in human error and electronic data is as vulnerable as water-based ink in a rain storm or thermo-copies in a greenhouse.

The advantage to electronic data is the ease in which it can be duplicated, backed up and restored. This, however, is only possible if proper planning and practices are in place.

Recovery: No Better Than The Contigency Plan

The old adage of the best laid plans ... now, more than ever, is a truism. In an office of a co-worker is a whiteboard with the heading "Plan your work, work your plan." Not only is that applicable in day-to-day time management, it is ever so true for today's business.

The contingency plan/disaster recovery plan is no better than all its parts. A good contingency plan can be broken down into seven steps.

1. Starting or planning a good policy statement, This may seem like a daunting task; but, it is the first step and must be taken seriously. The development and maintenance of a disaster recovery plan is not something to be left until everyone has time. Make the time and make it a team effort with representation from all areas of the...