Disaster recovery

What is Disaster Recovery?

Disaster Recovery (DR) is a coordinated activity to enable the recovery of IT/business systems due to a disruption. DR can be achieved by restoring IT/business operations at an alternate location, recovering IT/business operations using alternate equipment, and/or performing some or all of the affected business processes using manual methods.

Why do I need Disaster Recovery?

Disaster recovery is not just for large organisations. Leading analysts have hard facts that point to two out of five businesses, of all sizes, that experience a disaster go out of business within five years of the event.

Many companies believe a 'disaster' is a once in a lifetime incident. In fact, these incidents are very common with growing numbers of viruses, security breaches, software issues, hardware failures and data corruption. Thankfully, more catastrophic events such as weather-related causes, fires, power interruptions and sabotage are exceptional, but the most successful companies, small or large, prepare themselves for all potential eventualities.

Consequences of a Disaster:

• Loss of Business/customers
• Loss of Credibility/goodwill
• Cash flow problems
• Loss of production
• Loss of operational data
• Financial loss

90% of businesses that lose data from a disaster are forced to shut down within 2 years of the disaster. 50% of businesses experiencing a computer outage will be forced to shut within 5 years.
Source: London Chamber of Commerce