Disaster Recovery Planning
Be prepare to restore your business from scratch or do nothing and die
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Disaster Recovery Planning: Be prepare to restore your business from scratch or do nothing and die
By Andrei Kossyrine
© Xpress Software Inc. - All Rights reserved
http://www.xssoftware.com
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Making manufacturing more profitable is not a "one size fits all" solution. This change in thinking and operations is also not accomplished in a single step or procedure change. The following is one of a series of topics designed to enhance the profitability of manufacturing in general.
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No one likes to plan for a disaster, especially when so many other priorities compete for IT resources. But with a number of core business functions, from customer relations to supply chain management, driven by software and networks, smart organizations must have data recovery and system back-up plans in place for when, not if, disaster strikes. In an era of global competition and falling profit margins, you must be flexible enough to keep moving products out the door no matter what the emergency.
Several key steps can help you develop an affordable business continuation plan. The first and most important step is to identify several likely disaster scenarios and analyze the impact they would have on key operations and business-critical systems, such as communications with suppliers and customers. How much of your organization's resources would be lost? What would be the tangible costs in terms of lost orders, and the potentially immeasurable costs in lost customer confidence? This information will convince senior management of the need to invest in a recovery plan, and will help you to perform a cost-benefit analysis of a plan that is right for you.
Candidates for disasters include fires, blackouts, storms and terrorist attacks, but don't discount good old-fashioned human error. According to one estimate, 13 percent of network interruptions are due to database corruption, component failure and human error. (Case in point: In 1999, Hershey's, as part of a Y2K project, replaced legacy mainframe systems with a new enterprise/client server software. When the project fell behind, the confectioner decided to turn on all the new software at once, rather than phasing it in as had been planned. The old system was wiped out and vital inventory data had not been entered into the new system; as a result, Hershey's failed to meet orders and lost $150 million in sales.)
And don't forget routine maintenance and data back-up-your customers won't care if your system interruption is planned or unplanned; if they can't place an order, they'll take their business elsewhere. In addition to disaster recovery, your business continuation plan should address back-up integrity-ensuring you can perform regular back-ups with minimal disruption to the production process.
Once you've analyzed the risks to your business, you should determine the level of importance of each of your business systems:
Mission critical-Those systems whose loss would cause a major disruption to your business, cause major legal or financial ramifications, or threaten the health and safety of individuals. As a manufacturer, you must consider what systems are most important for moving products out the door-in other words, what systems impact plant floor operations?
Important-Loss of these systems would cause a moderate disruption, minor legal or financial implications, or provide problems with access to other systems.
Minor-Loss of these systems would cause a minor disruption, and would be easily restored.
In assessing which systems are mission critical, don't make the mistake of protecting only those that are linked to customers and suppliers, and overlook internal systems such as company email. Email, for example, is becoming many organizations' chief form of internal communications, and may be vital in an emergency.
Having assessed risks and prioritized your systems, you need to evaluate your network resiliency and backup services. Resiliency-the ability to recover from any network failure, regardless of the cause-depends upon your backup services, which should be consistent throughout your entire organization. For example, Frame Relay services could use ISDN as a backup. The bottom line is that a backup service should offer 60 percent of the bandwidth of your primary service.
Another thing to consider is location, location, location: Do you have a plan in place that will allow you to continue business operations from a remote location, in the event that you are unable to access your company's offices? You should have a backup location with adequate computer and telecom equipment to enable you to continue daily operations. That also means that it is vital to backup all data at the end of every business day-and transfer it to a remote location. This isn't just a good element of a disaster recovery plan-it's also good disaster avoidance. Having a remote processing location or a third-party internet backup service can ensure that your operations are unaffected by a disaster.
Don't forget to include your vendors in preparing your plan. You need to make sure that support contracts are in place with your vendors in the event of an emergency, and find out whom to contact when something goes wrong.
The last step: Test your plan. And don't let it sit on a shelf. Review it and test it at least once a year. The time and money you devote to creating, testing and reviewing a solid business continuation plan pales next to the cost of doing nothing.
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Since 1996 Xpress Software Inc. has provided
technical assistance in lean manufacturing methods,
computer systems and business process automation
to maximize manufacturing profits.
Visit its website www.xssoftware.com or contact
Andrei Kossyrine at andrei@xssoftware.com.
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