Disaster recovery planning for SMBs

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Disaster recovery plans: Points to consider

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Disaster recovery (DR) plans and strategies run the gamut from relatively simple and straightforward to complex and all encompassing, depending on need and applicable threats. While applicable threats are generally the same for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and large enterprises, the relative scale of the environment and resulting impact and disruption to your business are what set SMBs apart. Here are some things to consider when creating a DR plan:

• What could happen and what is most likely to happen, and how will it affect your business?
  Example: If email is an essential enabler for your business, then it needs to have a DR focus. Could you revert to manual processes for some period of time, and if so, for how long and at what expense to your business? Identify what needs to be protected along with what is required in order to restart, restore and recover your business applications and data.

   Learn more in "Disaster recovery plans: Points to consider." Also:

• SMB business continuity planning basics (SearchSMB.com)
  Small and midsized companies can't afford to lose business because of an unexpected disaster. Here are basic steps for a business continuity plan at SMBs.
• DR planning: Business impact analysis for IT (SearchSMB.com)
  Before you develop a disaster recovery plan, you must understand, analyze and plan for the business impact -- from an IT perspective.

DR outsourcing: Simple and cheap

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The thought of a disaster wiping out or crippling your small or medium-sized business probably crosses your mind more than you'd care to admit. One way to minimize the effects of a disaster is to outsource your DR to a third party.

Assess your needs: Before you begin researching a third party or service provider, you must determine whether you have sufficient resources in-house to cope with a disaster. Does your staff have enough knowledge? Do you have the proper facilities and hardware?

There are three approaches for ascertaining staff knowledge:

Ask what your staff can do. This is an informal approach. You can find out a lot by simply asking your staff members what they can and can't do.

   Find out what else you can do in "Disaster recovery outsourcing: Simple and cheap." Also:

• Disaster recovery is ad hoc and expensive, say users (SearchStorage.com)
  Users at Gartner's storage show in Orlando admit that their disaster recovery plans are unrehearsed and too expensive.
• IT consultant discusses virtualization for disaster recovery (SearchServerVirtualization.com)
  Virtualization is useful for more than server consolidation, says an IT expert. In this Q&A, we discover the benefits of using virtualization as part of a disaster recovery plan.

DR still not a priority for most CIOs

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DR and business continuity (BC) plans often fall through the cracks as IT staffs and company executives focus more on fixing problems that crop up and keeping up with competitors in an increasingly nimble global economy.

According to Stephanie Balaouras, a senior analyst at Forrester Research Inc. in Cambridge, Mass., a company's organizational chart can play a huge role in whether it has a plan. While business continuity plans often fall under the purview of a senior-level executive, DR plans generally are left to the IT department, which must make a compelling business case to upper management to receive approval to spend staff time and resources on developing a plan.

   Learn more in "Disaster recovery still not a priority for most CIOs." Also:

• Business execs undercut value of disaster recovery planning (SearchCIO.com)
  A new survey suggests that business executives do not consider business continuity planning as crucial to a company's success as IT executives do. Upshot: No buy-in; no budget.

• Data backup and recovery supercast for CIOs (SearchCIO.com)
  Backup and recovery planning can help CIOs ensure the safety of their corporate data. Check out these SearchCIO.com and CIO Decisions articles and podcasts for advice and tips.

Disaster recovery checklist: Networks

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This checklist, which is broken down into four topical areas -- general network considerations, LAN, WAN and network infrastructure applications -- can help you focus your disaster recovery planning effort to make sure your network is adequately protected.

General network considerations

   Learn more in "Disaster recovery checklist: Networks." Also:

• Network disaster recovery tips for business continuity (SearchNetworking.com)
  Network disaster recovery planning tips for business continuity from Verizon Business highlight what needs to be done to weather the storm.

• Disaster recovery options improve with WAN optimization (SearchNetworking.com)
  Disaster recovery plans are now a necessity for enterprises, and WAN optimization can improve the way DR policies work on the network and reduce costs.

More resources

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• Definition: Disaster recovery (SearchSecurity.com, powered by Whatis.com)
• Definition: Business continuance (SearchStorage.com, powered by Whatis.com)
• Resource center: Disaster recovery for SMBs (SearchSMB.com)
• Resource center: Disaster recovery planning and business continuity (SearchCIO.com)
• Executive Guide: Disaster recovery planning for CIOs (SearchCIO.com)