The continuation of business operations and a quick recovery form disaster thus become intertwined and make specific steps for its achievement an imperative. This is a good time to look at the existing disaster recovery strategies that constitute our preparedness in case of emergencies.

1. Why does an organization need a Disaster Recovery Plan?<br />Catastrophies have been a part of human endeavor as much as the need to accumulate knowledge that drives the endeavor. In fact, if only natural occurrences are considered, it can be argued that the phenomena that constitute calamities have been present for far longer than the humans pervading the planet now. For this reason, we are expected to take stock of natural phenomenon in all our undertakings. Even the multitude of disasters we have experienced doesn’t prepare us with the right contingency plans. Take for instance that recent Tsunami waves in Indonesia, the volcanic eruption on Iceland and the earthquake in Haiti. These are rare occurrence and we cannot be blamed entirely for not being prepared in spite of our advancing technology. Now consider the most common of natural calamity – floods. The number of lives lost to flood waters every year is much more than multiple Tsunamis and earthquakes put together. <br />The risk of becoming exposed to calamities has been on a decline as our technology advanced over the years. But the reduction in risk has been responsible only in lowering the loss of human life. The ‘endeavors’ of human commerce have been increasing in volume and intensity and we still haven’t been able to figure out a way to secure our data - the information that constitutes the actual currency of this commerce. Sample this – 93% of the companies that lose data due to disaster file for bankruptcy within a year, 60% of the companies losing data shut down in 6 months, 30% of all businesses that have a major fire go out of business within a year and 70% fail within a year. <br />With automation of all businesses becoming the norm of modern business it would raise an alarm over the increased vulnerability of data in the absence of effective contingency plans. Tools like Risk Assessment Forms have given us a better hold over the various variables involved in constituting trepidation to the organization. Business continuity even when faced with calamity is a major characteristic separating the world class organizations from the others. <br />The losses associated with a simple system downtime are much varied than the loss of business. We need to consider heads of ‘cost of productivity’, ‘revenue loss’, ‘restoring data cost’, ‘liabilities’ as tangible company losses. The intangible losses inflict as ‘loss of opportunity’, ‘damaged reputation’ and ‘lower employee morale’. The continuation of business operations and a quick recovery form disaster thus become intertwined and make specific steps for its achievement an imperative. This is a good time to look at the existing disaster recovery strategies that constitute our preparedness in case of emergencies. <br />Daily back-ups made to tape and stored to an off-site location or back-ups generated off-site for direct storage are the simplest stratagems to face a disaster. The extreme cost associated with it is apparent, but due the simplicity in running and maintaining the operation it still is the most favored procedure. The idea of SAN (storage area network) is an improvement, adding flexibility to the use of servers involved. It is a newer idea and has been included only in the latest data centers. <br />In the event of a disaster, will your business have the ability to pick up the pieces and get back to work, or will things grind to a halt? While it isn't possible to plan for every event, a solid disaster recovery plan can make all the difference. A disaster recovery plan is one of those difficult but necessary aspects of a successful business. With luck, you may never need to rely on your disaster recovery plan, but if you ever do, you'll be glad that you planned ahead.<br />About CtrlS <br />With over 20,000 racks planned across India, CtrlS is the country’s first and only certified Tier 4 datacenter and is offering cutting-edge DR solutions to over a 100 large enterprises across verticals. CtrlS has invested a lot of time and effort in creating a fault tolerant datacenter which can guarantee an uptime of 99.995%, the highest in datacenter industry. To know more about DR on Demand and about CtrlS send us an email to drondemand@ctrls.in or visit www.ctrls.in<br />Join us on Facebook and Twitter to stay updated on Datacenter related topics, news, trends, articles and blogs.<br />http://www.facebook.com/CtrlSDatacenters<br />http://twitter.com/#!/CtrlSDatacenter <br />