Many businesses risk grave losses due to failures and disasters yet continue to depend on un-validated tape backups should they need to recover from a major outage. Implementing a disaster recovery plan can be time consuming and daunting; to the point which many simply put it off.

Through some basic steps, businesses can better protect themselves against catastrophic data loss, these steps include:

• · Why do I need a Disaster Recovery Plan (DR) plan?
• · Defining and planning
• · Implementation
• · Testing

There are numerous disasters that could befall any business at any time in reality, and most of these will be unforeseen, the UK has in recent times suffered from unprecedented floods and in the US ice storms and power failures are the most recent issues, all the more reason for ensuring you have a disaster recovery plan of some description ready to roll out.