Joined on 08-03-2005
TechSoup Member
I need to develop a disaster recovery plan for our organization. Does anyone have a template or a suggested website that may offer help. I have no idea where to begin.
Hello,
We are actually in the very early stages of a Disaster Recovery Toolkit, where we bring together some resources within TechSoup and the work we did for Katrina. While I am not sure if you are referring to natural disasters, you may find reources here that are useful. Please be aware that it is still in beta and is not complete. The link is at
www.techsoup.org/toolkits/disasterplan
Please feel free to give Amit (whose contact is on the page) or me at kevin@techsoup.org any comments, so we can incorporate the feedback.
best
Kevin
Take stock of both your hardware and your software.
What's it going to take to replace if you need to start from scratch, and how long will you have?
What data are you backing up now? What data are you NOT backing up now that you may unexpectedly miss?
I had some friends who run a very small mfg'ing company. We always took it for granted the acct'ing data needed backing up (and so it was). After losing a two harddrives in two weeks on this small peer-to-peer network, we later discovered the schematics of our products no longer existed electronically. No one thought to back those up, and working with some new suppliers, we've got no draft schematics to give them. They can be replaced, but at the cost of thousands of dollars.
So turn over a few rocks and ask questions. :)
Joined on 10-13-2004
Chicago, IL
This is just my opinion, but you may want to look at outsourcing a project of this type. I know, I know there are budget issues and consultants can be expensive, however, we did our own disaster recovery plan a while back and we used a consultant to update it. We didnt realize how much we had really missed in our plan (over 100 pages). I think its good to have an "outside" point-of-view, especially by people who specialize in this sector. Not only did we re-evaluate scenarios, but we also identified what actions (by hour, minute, second) that should occur per each scenario.
Like I said, just my opinion, but then again your business manager probably doesnt do your audit. Its always good to place a priority on such an item and spend the money to get it done right.
Joined on 08-03-2005
TechSoup Member
Thanks for all the replies to my post. I definitely have more items to think about and consider.
Hello,
As someone who has written 1000's of pages of DR documentation I can say there are a lot of great resources. Remember that DR is not just a document but a living and active process in your organization. Please drop me an email if you still have any questions.
http://www.sans.org/reading_room/whitepapers/recovery/
http://www.drj.com/new2dr/samples.htm
http://labmice.techtarget.com/disaster.htm
http://www.networkworld.com/research/disasterrecov.html
Good luck,
Joseph Guarino
Sr. Consultant
www.evolutionaryit.com
Joined on 01-17-2002
TechSoup Member
The Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York has a free Word (cut and paste as you see fit) document, Disaster Planning, Emergency Preparedness & Business Continuity at http://www.npccny.org/info/disaster_plan.htm
It's not only tech-related, but covers all aspects of an organization's administrative and programmatic areas.
Hope it helps.
Dan Myers
dmyers@npccny.org
Joined on 08-03-2005
TechSoup Member
Thanks for the links. This gives me a good place to start and several references to review. This is one of those plans where you don't want to overlook anything or leave anything out. I'm sure I will probably be asking more questions in the near future.