Network Disaster Recovery - It’s Time for a Plan

Network disasters are a real danger, and unfortunately, a reality that many businesses must deal with. There is often talk of network reliability, but the reliability percentage is never 100%, nor is that possible. Network reliability is great, but even the most reliable networks will fail even a fraction of the time, and that fraction is why a preparedness plan needs to be in place just in case the unthinkable happens. Natural disasters or simply human error could be the cause, but in the event that a network goes down for an indefinite period of time, some contingency plans in the form of network disaster recovery must be made so business continuity can endure.

Why is network disaster recovery so vital to the functions of a business? Every business devotes a percentage of its total budget on disaster preparedness, and it’s for a reason. A smooth-running IT infrastructure is vital to the success of a business as much as a poor infrastructure can be a reason for its failure. Companies have become largely dependent on their networks in order to handle simple day-to-day activities, and because of this, losing the network is like a home losing water or electricity; it needs the network running in order to function optimally, or in many cases, even at all.

A significant percentage of companies who suffer a major loss of vital data end up closing within two years, and an even bigger percentage never reopen at all. In order to avoid becoming a statistic, many companies are beginning to value the necessity of preparing for network disaster recovery. The recovery plan usually has three different parts: Detecting a possible disaster before it happens, preventing the disaster from occurring, and restoring the system after a disaster occurs. The recovery plan should be tested regularly on its effectiveness in restoring the system to a functional state.

There are several different strategies that can be used in a network disaster recovery plan. Redundancy is the easiest way to quickly recover after a network disaster, since several power sources must fail in order to achieve total failure. Storing duplicate copies of data off-site in a data center is another possibility. Also, simply making backup copies of data and storing them in a secure facility is another useful strategy to take. Every company needs to come up with an effective disaster recovery plan, so it won’t take too much time to get all the necessary systems back up and running again.