Disaster Recovery 101: What You Need to Know

Computerworld, 11/16/11 - With various parts of the country still reeling in the wake of tornadoes, earthquakes, too-early snowstorms, hurricanes and wildfires, the past few months have taught us that no geographical area is safe. There's never been a more compelling time to develop or fine-tune a disaster recovery and business continuity plan for your business.

Disaster recovery is, quite simply, being able to continue your mission-critical business operations after an interruption of some kind. Companies must be able to resurrect their applications and processes -- their entire business operations -- at the point they were before the outage occurred, says Robert Amatruda, research director for data protection and recovery at IDC. And this is true whether the outage resulted from a natural disaster, a server or storage system malfunctioning or "someone pulling a plug they shouldn't have," he says.

While business continuity is about being able to keep functions going, disaster recovery means being able to get everything back to whole again, explains Carl Pritchard, senior risk-management consultant at advisory firm Cutter Consortium. "The difference is business continuity is keeping the patient alive. Disaster recovery is getting them back to being healed and walking again," says Pritchard, who is also the author of Risk Management, Concepts and Guidance, 4th Edition.

Fantastic Quote to Remember!

"There is no such thing as can't, only won't. If you're qualified, all it takes is a
burning desire to accomplish, to make a change. Go forward, go backward. 

Whatever it takes! But you can't blame other people or society in general. 

It all comes from your mind. When we do the impossible we realize 

we are special people." --Jan Ashford

CEO Confirmation

Last week I met with a good friend of mine to discuss his business and what I have been doing since I left the corporate world. This person is a CEO of a couple of Internet business all linked to the same type of information. Needless to say he is ultra successful and has capitalized on data streaming over the Internet.

Our discussion went from business strategy, to joint ventures, to new opportunities, and to HR. The discussion on HR really re-enforced what I have been saying since 1978. An HR professional needs to be head deep into the business, know all the ins and outs, products, development, and how to market. This person and I worked together for a couple of years after we bought his company. Since I had an opportunity to meet him early on doing the due diligence and acquisition of his $300+M company, he forged a great working relationship and respect for one another.

His comment to me said it all" you are a business person with great knowledge and understanding on how to run a successful business". This is what a CEO should say about his/her CHRO. Does your CEO say that about you and what have you done to fully understand your business and integrate yourself into the day to day operations? Oh, don't forget talent management, succession, and all the other CHRO duties!!