It is perhaps inevitable that for an entire generation, the word "disaster" will be inexorably linked to the horrific events that shattered a pleasant morning in New York City and Washington, D.C., on September 11, 2001.

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It is perhaps inevitable that for an entire generation, the word "disaster" will be inexorably linked to the horrific events that shattered a pleasant morning in New York City and Washington, D.C., on September 11, 2001. Perhaps the most important lesson to be learned from 9/11, from a disaster recovery perspective, is one of business dependency on information technology and, by extension, its vulnerability to the unplanned interruption of access to information technology (IT) of infrastructure.

Driven by the incentives of cost-efficiency and competition, business has placed more and more of its critical information assets into automated systems and networks. This, in turn, has made business dependent upon the uninterrupted function of the machine, a dependency rarely perceived by those within the corporation who have no direct contact with the IT infrastructure itself. The consequences of a loss of access to the IT infrastructure to the business may never be considered—until a disaster occurs. By then, it is often too late.

Disaster Planning consists of a set of activities intended to prevent avoidable instances of unplanned interruption, regardless of cause, and to minimize the impact of interruption events that cannot be avoided. To plan is the act of formulating a program for a definite course of action. The term disaster, in the context of this essay, means the unplanned interruption of normal business processes resulting from the interruption of the information technology (IT) infrastructure components used to support them. This definition includes information systems and networks and their hardware and software components—as well as data itself.

IT infrastructure-related business process interruptions are those resulting from a loss of data itself, which are arguably the most devastating. Whether a loss of data results from accidental or intentional erasure and/or the destruction of the media on which data is recorded or from any of a number of manmade or natural phenomena, data is the most difficult of all infrastructure components to replace. As a result, interruptions of business processes resulting from data loss may be the most difficult to surmount.

In addition to data loss, business process interruptions can also result from a loss of IT infrastructure components used to transport, process, and/or present data for use. A broad range of factors can lead to infrastructure component loss. These may include events that cause the destruction of key system, network or storage hardware or software, such as fires or floods. Component "loss" may also be the by-product of disruptions in regional infrastructure supports such as power or telecommunications outages.

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These infrastructure interruptions have the potential to wreak as much havoc within a company as the loss of the data itself. However, their effects can generally be minimized through the application of recovery or continuity strategies that are the result of advanced planning and preparation.

The above description of disaster may suggest that only a major calamity—a terrorist bombing, an earthquake, or even a war—would qualify as a disaster. The term disaster conjures to mind flames engulfing the offices of Fiscal Services Limited, rather than an accidental hard disk erasure at the small business office down the block. ...

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