Getting Started

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How to Use This Kit

We used several Internet resources and past experiences for our research in developing this planning kit. We have been privileged to work with several DR professionals from various companies who had created excellent DR plans, and we have used their expertise to aid in putting this small planning kit together. It is not an exhaustive planning kit, but we believe it does touch on most of the high points of DR.

The purpose of this document is to assist in the planning and creation of a DR plan for your organization. While we have not included absolutely everything an administrator would want to cover in his or her DR plan, this is rather extensive and should provide you a good base on which to build your plan. One of the primary reasons for having a DR plan is to limit the decisions that must be made following a disaster. When disaster strikes, the decision-making process is tainted because of the events surrounding the disaster, as well as the physical demands a disaster has on the team without the aid of a plan such as this. It also removes any dependencies the company may have upon certain people or groups that would be required for the recovery process, such as consulting partners, hardware or software vendors, and so on.

Note: NOTE

When responding to a disaster, it is imperative that you follow your company's policies with regard to media communication, especially if your organization is a well-known target for media coverage.

You should decide what steps to take during the development of your DR plan. Many companies have been very successful using the model illustrated in Figure D.1, but it may be modified to suit your needs. It is a seven-layer model that covers most bases.

Figure D.1: Disaster recovery plan model.

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