Business Continuity

The fact that there are significant ramifications for businesses without a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) is an understatement.

Businesses suffering an incapacitating disaster without a DRP:

Only 43% resume operations

Of the 43%, only 29% in business 2 years later

Total of 87% will be out of business in 2 years
[Contingency Planning Research]


Although Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Planning traditionally focus on information that exists in electronic form, paper-based data is equally important. As of 2002, it is estimated that 90% of information is still retained on paper. The number of pages consumed in US offices is going up by 20% annually and the average document is copied 19 times in its lifetime.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed (August, 2002) Business Continuity rules that include: "Each plan, however, must at a minimum, address: ...(1) Data back-up and recovery (hard copy and electronic)"

A major fire at the Duchess Anna Amalia Library in Weimar, Germany on September 3, 2004 destroyed 25,000 books and damaged an additional 40,000 volumes. Although a portion of the information was no doubt duplicated elsewhere, this tragedy highlights the importance of backup for valuable documents.