Is Your Business Data Safe?
by Robie Pace
Originally Published January/February 2005 issue Business Reform Magazine go there >>

Nobody likes to think about disaster striking our lives or our businesses. We often assume that bad things only happen to other people. Consequently, we miss opportunities to prepare in advance before the unthinkable can occur. The following is a real life example of how taking action in advance saved a company millions of dollars in lost production and sales.

Last year I was contacted by the Information Technology Manager of a large corporate manufacturing customer. Dave explained over the phone that their auditors were requiring a formal Disaster, Backup and Recovery plan for their main computer system. This system is the backbone of all operations for the plant. Hundreds of workers and millions of dollars of business depended upon this computer to be running around the clock. The auditors wanted a detailed plan of action to be taken in the event the unthinkable happened. They also wanted the plan tested before they would signoff this portion of their audit.

A few days later, I met with Dave at his office to begin the fact gathering and planning phase of the disaster recovery plan. We had a short window of time to get everything in place prior to the testing phase. So I immediately began working through a series of questions to help guide us through the gathering process. For example, what information do you need to save daily, weekly, monthly, yearly? Where does this information reside on your computer? What type of equipment do you have on your system that allows us to backup the information? If the data is eventually needed, how do we get it back from the backup? Who is responsible for each phase of executing the plan?

Over the next few days, we were able to gather enough information that allowed us to start creating a binder notebook containing their formal plan. During this time, we were also able to secure another location that would allow us to test restoring the business data. This location would be critical in the event that a disaster destroyed their current facility and their parent company needed access to the business information.

Finally after much planning and testing, both Dave and I felt confident the plan was in place. We finalized the planning notebook and made a copy on CD. Later, Dave presented the plan to the corporate auditors who quickly approved it for signoff.

Months past before Dave called me again. When I received his call this time I could sense distress in his voice. He then proceeded to tell me that the main computer system that we had planned for had just crashed. Not only had one of its hard drives crashed, but two of its hard drives had crashed at the same time! This meant that there was no way to use any of the data on the system even though it had several hard drives that still worked. I knew from our previous planning sessions that every hour the computer was down represented large dollar losses to the company. Dave told me that he had started working through the steps we had outlined in the disaster recovery guide. A technician was dispatched to repair the hardware while I headed toward his facility to start helping to restore the business data.

Fortunately this story has a favorable ending. As a result of the planning and testing done in advance, we were able to repair the hardware and restore the business data very quickly. Within a few hours, the computer was back on line and the plant was able to resume full production. Had it not been for the Disaster Recovery Planning, I am afraid that the business information would have been completely lost. And I hate to think what would have happened to the health of this company.

As illustrated, Disaster Backup and Recovery planning is vital to protecting business information. Unfortunately, many companies do not have this covered in their daily business activity. After working with business owners and managers over the years I have found several reasons for this. One, they did not even know that this was an issue. Two, they felt that the subject was too complicated to understand what to do. Third, they assume that it was already being taken care of by someone else in their organization.
Finally, the biggest reason I see for companies that do not back up their data regularly is due to laziness. Eccles. 10:18 warns us that, “Because of laziness the building decays, And through idleness of hands the house leaks”. Proverbs 19:15 also states, “Laziness casts one into a deep sleep, And an idle person will suffer hunger”. Trust me, if you have a hard drive crash and you don’t have a backup, you will suffer! A seasoned computer veteran told me years ago that, “The most important backup you will ever need is the one that you don’t have”!

Take a moment now to consider these final questions and thoughts. How long can your business be down if a computer hard drive crashes or something is accidentally deleted? What does it cost your company every hour that work is not being performed? How many orders are lost while you are down? How many customers are lost when they don’t get those orders? Did you lose records of money owed to the company? And even if you have everything duplicated on paper, how many man hours will it take to retype information once the computer does get repaired? You can quickly see that regardless the cost of proper planning in advance, the first time you need information that has been properly saved, you will have a significant return on your investment.

I encourage you to take action today to protect your important business information. If you are uncertain how proceed, you may want to consider hiring an expert to come to your facility and help with the planning and testing process. They will guide you through all of the necessary steps to create a strategy. And whether you decide to tackle the planning yourself or to seek professional assistance, I pray that the Holy Spirit guides you to take the necessary steps to make Disaster Recover planning a vital part of your overall technology strategy.