Disaster Recovery - Avoiding disaster( A Network Magazine - IMRB Survey)

Only 32 percent of respondents have invested in Disaster Recovery (DR) solutions. Insufficient attention to DR processes is tantamount to courting catastrophe. On a positive note, investments in DR/Business Continuity (BC) are projected to rise by 10 percent in this fiscal. This is the only technology area where enterprises intend to spend more in 2005-06, as technology investments in all other areas are coming down.

Building DRP teams

Building a Disaster Recovery Planning (DRP) team is the first step in creating a well-defined DR practice. Among those who have invested in DR, half of them have DR planning (DRP) teams in place. It is a positive sign, showing that Indian enterprises are becoming serious about DR.

Impact analysis

An important requirement to help an organisation put DR and BC systems in place is a Business Impact Analysis (BIA). Around 65 percent of companies that invested in DR have carried out a BIA. Companies in the services vertical have been especially diligent in carrying out BIAs (89 percent). It is imperative that more companies adopt a BIA analysis for effective DR/BC. For this the CIO has to adopt a BIA process that will identify the needs of the business for up-to-date data and availability (data recovery point objectives). This involves assessing and determining the financial and consequential aggregate loss exposures for each business unit caused by IT-related service interruptions (infrastructure, voice, data). It is important to establish business-unit IT/infrastructure and services' recovery time objectives. Proper understanding of the underlying IT and business residual risks is required for this. At this point the CIO should concentrate on soliciting LOB (line of business) management's expectations and tolerance. This is essential to achieve IT risk acceptance in the business. The next step is to determine existing IT risks and mitigate them, wherever possible, with cost-effective controls. Determination of DR life cycle costs (both ITO and LOB) and levels of ITO/LOB risk acceptance/tolerance also has to be performed. Funding of appropriate IT controls, DR contingencies, and recovery plans also have to be done. These should be based on the business exposures, IT recovery requirements, and costs versus exposures (financial, legal, regulatory, market).

Infrastructure Strategies 2005 is a Network Magazine(NM) - IMRB survey