Planning for the aftermath of disaster is essential for business continuity . A disaster is defined as a "sudden or great misfortune" or simply "any unfortunate event" whose timing is unexpected and whose consequences are seriously destructive. This definition identifies an event that includes three elements, viz. Suddenness, Unexpectedness, Significant destruction and/or adverse consequences. However, a fourth element, lack of foresight or planning, is sometimes added. Disasters occur with unnerving frequency; their adverse consequences increase for those who do not prepare for predictable contingencies. A disaster prevention and business continuity plan can help protect all Information assets, including people, records, and facilities.

Companies that are the most dependent upon automated systems, such as energy, financial services and telecommunications enterprises, accrue an average of nearly $8 million in losses for every hour of downtime, based on lost revenue and employee idling. IT-dependent manufacturing companies suffer per-hour revenue losses up to $3 million. Health care, media and hospitality/travel companies, less dependent upon IT infrastructure, lose up to $1.5 million of revenue per hour.

A solid recovery plan is the first step toward saving your business in the event of a disaster. Actual downtime can cost a company many millions per hour. The faster you get back online, the less time and money you'll lose.

An enormous amount of research needs to be undertaken to identify and validate the available recovery solutions. The recovery is getting more and more complex with the introduction of new technologies like SAN and NAS. Apart from adapting to these new technologies, companies also have to comply with various acts like HIPAA, SOX etc. with regards to  Data Protection laws.

We aim to address the following issues through our research work

• Available recovery options / solutions  in the market

• Development of recovery plan that works

• Strategies to test the recovery plans

• Development of framework to develop / maintain recovery plans

• Data Protection

• Backup and archiving solutions

• Identify pitfalls in a typical recovery plan

• Other issues pertaining to Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity

Project Director: Kalpesh Doshi, email: kalpesh <at> oissg <dot> org
Discussion List: http://mail.oissg.org/mail/info/dr

If you are interested to join our disaster recovery research team, contact us at dr <at> oissg <dot> org