IS YOUR AUTOMATED SYSTEM \"DISASTER-PROOF\"?

During the summer of 1989 Charleston, South Carolina was devastated by Hurricane Hugo. On October 17, 1989 the San Francisco area was the site of a major earthquake. With both of these occurrences numerous companies had to find out if their automated systems could withstand a disaster. When real disasters occur the impact is reduced only if a system has been proven to be disaster-proof. Disaster-proofing a system has four basic steps: 1) development of a disaster recovery plan; 2) creation and enforcement of procedures for developing and maintaining off-site backups for data, records, software, and documentation; 3) initial performance test of the disaster recovery plan; and 4) ongoing maintenance and testing of the plan. This paper addresses disaster recovery planning and contingency management and offers some insights into how disaster preparedness will ensure that a system can successfully, quickly, and efficiently be recovered if a disaster occurs.