When it comes to property damaging disasters, statistics says that the possibility of getting robbed is greater than the occurrence of earthquakes, fires or floods. With reference to electronic equipment like computers, power failure or technical sabotage is more likely to happen than theft or any of the natural calamity disasters.

Any company that uses computers for its major operations should at all times have a workable business continuity planning disaster recovery setup. In order to understand better what this entails, the following basic definitions should be laid out.

* Backup – The system of creating several copies of company records and documents in order to avoid total loss of important corporate data during occurrence of disaster.

* Disaster Recovery – This covers the overall plan for the protection of your business documents and records which includes creating multiple backup data copies as well as the strategic storage of these backup data in various offsite locations. The data backup needs to be regularly tested and the plan to use them in recovering from disaster must be clearly laid out.

* Business Continuity – This lays out the specific plan on how the company could continue its business operation with negligible interruption caused by the disaster. The strategy for business resumption and continuity encompasses the disaster recovery plan. Other pertinent things like corporate insurance claims and relocation of business functions in case of destruction of the office building are also considered. It also includes a strategy of quick contact with company personnel, suppliers and clients as well as immediate restoration of the telecommunication system.

For the effective drafting of the plan for disaster recovery and business continuity, the following questions need to be answered by the management planning team:

* How much business income is lost per hour if and when your computers would shut down and you would not be able to access your data? The answer to this question includes factors like the cost you lose per employee if they are not working, the company revenue lost during the system down time and other company income related issues as well.

* What is the main objective of your data recovery process? This includes the estimated time required for lost data recreation and the implications if the majority of the lost data are not recovered at all. It entails comparing the amount of data loss with the length of time it takes to recover it.

The truly efficient business continuity planning disaster recovery setup must be able to address all corporate needs and so be proven effective in minimizing loss of company revenue during the recovery process after the disaster.

When it comes to disaster in terms of natural calamities or human caused, it is extremely difficult to predict what would happen in the future. Even earth scientists could really never know exactly when earthquakes, tornados and flash flood would come and no one really knows when war or terrorism could break out. Realizing the possibility of disaster should always make us prepared so that we are not caught off guard when calamity and destruction strikes. This is particularly the case when you are engaged in the type of business that relies heavily on computers for data gathering and documentation.

The least you could do is to set up a backup data storage plan to ensure that your business documents and records are not lost in case of disaster caused by fire, floods, earthquakes or theft. You will never know the threats posed upon your business infrastructure by cyber-sabotage caused by highly malicious computer virus attacks. With the introduction of the technology of cloud computing in the online business world, company data could now be secured and managed in a network that could be accessed online by members of the corporation any time and place. Cloud computing strategy should always be incorporated in your company’s business continuity disaster recovery plan.

Online data storage via cloud computing technique secures your organizations records from whatever disaster may befall your company. Even if your hard disk drive is destroyed by fire or lost to computer virus attack, your all important business documents are intact in your offsite backup data storage on the internet. In cases when your whole office building got destroyed by earthquake for example, business continuity is also ensured because your employees could continue working in their homes. All they have to do is to log on to your company backup data network and they could already access company data online using their laptops and broadband internet connections.

An even wiser and safer move is to set up several data backup in various online locations using well managed disaster recovery software. With the employment of several offsite data centers, immediate replication and storage of company records could be done making backup documents readily available in case of emergency. The more practical aspects of a business continuity disaster recovery plan include outsourcing of needed office staff from a backup company in cases of sudden office closure. These backup personnel are professionally trained to cover office functions so that client services would not be interrupted after a major disaster.

Coming up with a disaster recovery and business continuity plan is extremely important for any corporate organization to thrive successfully amidst unexpected disaster that strikes their business entity. These disasters could come in forms of natural calamities such as storms, floods and earthquakes or internal disasters like fire, power breakdowns or technical sabotage caused by powerful computer viruses that brings about data destruction.

According to one research, four out of ten (40%) small to medium-sized enterprises (SME) who are not able to recover company data destroyed in a disaster ultimate shut down. A similar report states that a similar percentage of corporations (43%) are unable to continue in their businesses after a fire disaster.

For this reason, having a clear, workable and constantly updated business continuity vs disaster recovery plan could better ensure resumption of business operation whatever disastrous circumstances the company might encounter. This written organized plan is even required for companies in their government registrations because their corporate success and failure would somehow affect the economy of the nation.

A real functional plan for disaster recovery and business continuity entails careful planning and consequent field-testing of the plan. The corporate management needs to be doubly sure that the plan works out well every now and then by evaluating its relevance and updating the necessary technology required to make the plan fully operational.

These technologies that the company need to acquire to be used in the disaster recovery and business continuity plan involves managed service and cloud based options as well as disk to disk and virtual tapes solutions. Solutions for internet-based, mobile and telephone communications must also be provided.

For the plan to fully work, the total involvement of the whole company must be ensured especially the high ranking corporate leaders. They must be willing to allot the required budget and personnel to manage, implement, test and evaluate the disaster recovery and business continuity plan.

Important elements to a real functional disaster recovery plan include a detailed assessment of the would-be impact of the disaster to the company business. This assessment must be done by competent managers who have the expertise and considerable experience in planning and implementing disaster recovery and business continuity.

No such planning and proper implementation could take place without the appropriate allocation of company time, finances and resources. Adequate budget allotment is necessary to acquire the necessary technology and pay the responsible personnel to bring about proficient business continuity and disaster recovery.

With today’s business industry greatly relying on computer technology, it would be truly wise for any success aspiring company to make a good investment on a highly functional and reliable business continuity vs disaster recovery plan.

A lot of people amazingly bite the idea that the year 2012 could very well be the end of the world. This is not just due to the influence of the disaster movie entitled “2012” but also because of a number of clairvoyant predictions and supposedly scientific studies published about the alleged eventful world-ender year.

Regardless of the allegation that the world will end next year or whenever, disaster occurrences are a fact of life. Inasmuch as major disasters usually come unexpected, then it would be really wise for thriving business companies to be adequately prepared at all times.

This is where the creation of a business continuity and disaster recovery policy plays an extremely important role. The drafting of this policy is a concrete expression of the company’s commitment to continue its business operation even after major and minor disasters that would hamper if not heavily debilitate the organization’s corporate capacity.

The business continuity management policy contains the documentation of clearly defined procedures that need to be properly executed and sustained to facilitate the quickest possible recovery of the company from disaster and so continue in its doing business. The corporate damage may be caused by natural calamities like fires or earthquakes or internal system incapacitation brought by computer virus attacks.

The objectives of the policy for disaster recovery and business continuity include the sufficient protection of the business process systems so as to prevent any controllable occurrence of disorder or destructive interference to the primary services and corporate functions. This includes storing of backup company data in offsite internet document warehouses.

A vital part of this protection and recovery process also include the provision for an alternative venue for doing business and the facilitation of quick transfer in cases of physical damage to the existing company headquarters.

In order to maximize the existence of the business recovery and continuity policy, there is a need to create a management team to plan, update and oversee its continuing program implementation. The team should comprise of representative managers from various departments of the company who will be given proper training and orientation about the ins and outs of managing business continuity.

This management team will conduct a thorough analysis of various company departments in order to define and regulate the procedures for disaster recovery and business continuity required for each business unit. This will entail identification of possible threats to the business processes of each department and a basic plan of preventing these threats from occurring and creating unnecessary damage.

The saying “prevention is better than cure” is the primary guiding principle that governs the creation of a business continuity and disaster recovery policy.

Statistics reveal that the misfortune of becoming a victim of a hold-up or theft is more likely to occur that the bigger catastrophes of earthquakes, floods or fires. Any one of these minor or major disasters could very well damage, if not severely incapacitate, the proficient running of your business.

Since today’s corporate businesses are managed a lot by computers, company business functions are even more prone to the not-so-minor threat of systemic disasters. This includes a simple unexpected power failure or a more complicated computer virus assault.

Because business ruining tragedies usually come suddenly and unexpected, any well-meaning and good-managing company could better come up with a business continuity plan and disaster recovery plan.

A well-prepared plan for disaster recovery includes the adequate and full protection of your company documents and business files by storing backup data in offsite internet warehouses. Once stored, these online backup files need to be properly tested if they are easily accessible and working as well as the original documents stored in the company computer hardware.

A competent business continuity plan, on the other hand, outlines the process for resuming business operations in the quickest way possible after its temporary shut down due to the disaster occurrence. It includes a concrete plan for an alternate company office and headquarters and the process of fast and efficient transfer in case such move is necessary to continue company operation.

A well-thought and clearly drafted business continuity plan and disaster recovery plan will serve as a strong lifeline that could save the company and sustain its continuing business operation in the event of external or internal corporate damage.

We all agree that no one, not even the best fortune teller or talented clairvoyant, fully knows everything that will happen in the future. Because of this it becomes extremely important for a growing company to have a well written out plan for disaster recovery vs business continuity.

Having an organized disaster recovery vs business continuity plan grants better security for the successful continuation of a business enterprise during events of disaster and occurrence of natural calamities. Disaster recovery vs business continuity dynamics include the various disaster factors and the consequent action steps necessary to recover from the damages incurred and so continue the company’s business.

For example, disaster incidents caused by people include electrical brownouts, vehicular accidents, bio-chemical infectivity and even nuclear explosions. Such human created havocs could also be attempts to sabotage company with dissatisfied employees stealing valuable company documents and selling them to their business competitors. These eventualities should be matched by specific disaster recovery vs business continuity plans of action to secure the business company’s overall interests.

When the business is situated in politically unstable countries, disasters could come in the form of armed violence, kidnapping of company managers and even suicide bombings by terrorists, natural calamities, on the other hand, include typhoons, flash floods, high intensity earthquakes and worse, the occurrence of tsunamis. While harder to deal with, it would still be best for any company to be prepared with specific plans of action for effective  disaster recovery vs business continuity course of action.