RISK MITIGATION

EC3 Global assists clients to manage and mitigate risk in a changing world through the development of business continuity plans, crisis management strategies, disaster recovery plans and workshops on building resilience with toolkits, and real-world examples to build your team's capacity to respond.

Disaster can strike when you least expect it; as evidenced by such tragedies as the Tsunami in SE Asia, bushfires and floods in Australia, Haiti earthquake, oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Mumbai terrorist attacks, and global SARS epidemic.

With an increase in extreme weather events predicted, businesses - regardless of size - should ensure they have completed a Risk Assessment and have Business Continuity planning in place.

Effective disaster recovery planning requires businesses first consider what potential disasters they may feasibly encounter and how each of these might impact their business continuity.

Executives and board members should consider every possible scenario and take into account all potential risks; from the mundane such as power failure, to perilous events like terrorist attacks. 

The purpose of a Disaster Recovery Plan is to pre-define what actions will be taken in the event that an organization does experience disaster, and who will be tasked with the practical steps that need to be taken to deal with and then overcome the event.

Below is a brief list of some of the disruptive events that could have an affect on your normal operations and that should be taken into consideration when preparing your disaster recovery plan:

• Hard drive meltdowns
• Building fires
• Floods
• Power failures
• Internet failures
• Data line failures
• Earthquakes
• Epidemic illness, which would cause a sudden and significant decrease in staffing
• Transport shut-downs due to weather, strike, or more serious events (again could cause serious staffing problems)
• Terrorist attacks
• Acts of war

DISASTER RECOVERY 

Disasters, unpredictable by nature, can strike anywhere at anytime with little or no warning. Recovering from one can be stressful, expensive and time consuming, particularly for those who have not taken the time to think ahead and prepare for such possibilities. However, when disaster strikes, those who have prepared and made recovery plans survive with comparatively minimal loss and/or disruption of productivity.

Disasters can take several different forms. Some primarily impact individuals - e.g. hard drive meltdowns - while others have a larger, collective impact. Disasters can occur such as power outages, floods, fires, storms, equipment failure, sabotage, terrorism, or even epidemic illness. Each of these can at the very least cause short-term disruptions in normal business operation. But recovering from the impact of many of the aforementioned disasters can take much longer, especially if organizations have not made preparations in advance.

Unfortunately the randomness of some of these disasters lulls some organizations into a sense of false security. However, if proper preparations have been made, the disaster recovery process does not have to be exceedingly stressful.

Organizations that take the time to implement disaster recovery plans ahead of time often ride out catastrophes with minimal or no loss of data, hardware, or business revenue. This in turn allows them to maintain the faith and confidence of their customers and investors.

Detailed disaster recovery plans can prevent many of the heartaches and headaches experienced by an organization in times of disaster. By having practiced plans, not only for equipment and network recovery, but also plans that precisely outline what steps each person involved in recovery efforts should undertake, an organization can improve their recovery time and minimize the time that their normal business functions are disrupted.

Thus it is vitally important that disaster recovery plans be carefully laid out and regularly updated. Organizations need to put systems in place to regularly train their network engineers and mangers. Special attention should also be paid to training any new employees who will have a critical role in the disaster recovery process.

One of the most common practices used by responsible organizations is a disaster recovery plan template. While templates might not cover every need specific to every organization, they are a great place from which to start one's preparation. Templates help make the preparation process simpler and more straightforward. They provide guidance and can even reveal aspects of disaster recovery that might otherwise be forgotten.

Regular reviews and updates of recovery plans should be scheduled. Some organizations find it helpful to do this on a monthly basis so that the plan stays current and reflects the needs an organization has today, and not just the data, software, etc. it had six months ago. (Source: www.disasterrecovery.org)

Contact us for Risk Management and Disaster Recovery Planning