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Creating your disaster recovery plan is only the first step in implementing a business continuity or disaster recovery program. You CANNOT use the Ronco "set-it-and-forget-it" method because you need to ensure that the plan works - or it can fail you when you need it most. There are many ways to test your plan, and the articles below talk about several of these in detail. Just remember that regular testing and updating are the keys to a successful plan.

You may have a disaster plan in place, but you won't know how effective it is - or if it works at all - until you put it into practice. (Item #1) Four methods of testing your plan are revealed here. (Item #2) There are four major components in an IT disaster recovery plan test. (Item #3)

It's one thing to have it, but it's critical to test it. (Item #4) This article talks about what needs to be done and when. (Item #5) Bottom line: Use your tests to make sure you can recover, not just to get a nice check mark from your auditors. (Item #6)

As always, we look forward to hearing about your concerns with regards to business continuity. If you have a topic you'd like to see covered, please email me at [email protected]

Best Regards,

Bob Mellinger
President
Attainium Corp

Quote of the Week

"Each test should be a learning process indicating where the plan falls short,
so the updated plan thus needs to rectify what went wrong during the test."
- Adam Waxman, ROBObak -

Articles

1. Put Your Disaster Plan to the Test
Once your plan is in place, you've got to put it to the test. And, the best way to do that is to conduct regular disaster-simulation exercises. Simulation exercises can be carried out in many ways, depending on what you hope to gain from the experience.
http://www.buildings.com/articles/detail.aspx?contentID=5738

2. Proving Your Disaster Recovery Plan Works
Ever since 9/11, top management and government regulators increasingly ask disaster planners to demonstrate that their plans will actually work. For an organization with even a limited amount of complexity, this "show me" requirement can seem overwhelming -- in terms of cost, disruption, and time expended. It is possible, however, to meet that requirement while minimizing disruption.
http://www.enterpriseitplanet.com/security/features/article.php/3591336

3. Testing your IT disaster recovery plan: Learn from your mistakes
Too often we think that when performing an IT disaster recovery plan test, we must plan the test and control the input data in order to have confidence in the output. I have found that the best disaster recovery procedures are found in our daily mistakes.
http://searchwinit.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid1_gci1257346,00.html

4. Testing Your Disaster Recovery Plan
Most small to midsized enterprises should have some type of DR (disaster recovery) plan in place. However, few actually ever test the plan, let alone test it on a regular basis. So what goes into a DR plan test? Is it important to test every portion of the plan? If so, how is this done?
http://www.processor.com/editorial/article.asp?article=articles%2Fp2916%2F21p16%2F21p16.asp

5. Disaster Recovery Testing In Your SME
Enterprises that are grossly negligent and have no disaster recovery plan in place are increasingly rare. But for those with a disaster recovery plan in place, it's a safe bet that most fail to regularly test the plan as much as they should to make sure it would work in time of disaster. The issue is simple: Even the most stellar plan is not worth much if it is not regularly tested.
http://www.processor.com/editorial/article.asp?article=articles/P3029/32p29/32p29.asp&guid=

6. The Problem with How Most People Test Their Recovery Capability
Now we all know that most disasters, whether affecting IT facilities or business units, come with little warning. Certainly hurricanes are a slight exception, since technology today at least gives us some warning, but you should agree that most disasters come with little preparation time. So let's think about how most people test.
http://www.continuityinsights.com/Magazine/Issue_Archives/2007/05-06/trends.html