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1. Do not concentrate your plan on a specific sort of disaster since what might work for floods might not be appropriate for fires, tornadoes, terrorist attacks, power outages, blizzards, etc. Synchronize your files for quicker recovery.
2. Prioritize your applications so you know the most critical ones that need to be operational first (especially for short-term outages).
3. Back up your files regularly with a naming convention that will be easy to recover in an emergency.
4. Have a recovery plan for hardware as well. This might also include warranty information.
5. Update your off-site storage of your critical files on a daily basis, so the most you can lose is 24 hours worth of data.
6. Complete documentation for all systems and applications including job control files should be part of your plan. These also should be stored off-site as well.
7. Some of these may be in hard copy. Another form of back-up is to convert them into PDF (or scan them into a computer). Electronic documents take up much less space than paper documents.
8. Update your plan monthly (or quarterly at the least). Requirements and documentation change frequently. Remember to also update vendor contact information, personnel, and procedures.
9. Remember to include all of your applications and passwords. Even the smallest detail, if forgotten, can impede recovery.
10. Some disasters aren’t just in your building, they could be area-wide (such as Hurricane Katrina), so choose your off-site location wisely for easy access but a safe environment. For critical plans, it may make sense to have another back-up location with a trusted person in another part of the country.
© Copyright 2004 MDF Systems
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