Business Continuation & Disaster Recovery Planning

Several of the costliest U.S. disasters have occurred in the last 15 years.

·         Hurricane Katrina, August, 2005

$34.4 billion in projected losses

·         New York terrorist attack, September 11, 2001 

More than 20% or 20 million square feet of office space lost

New anthrax scares have forced the closing of over 50 buildings nationally

·         Seattle earthquake, February 28, 2001

Property damage:  $2 billion  

·         Hurricane Andrew & California’s Northridge Earthquake: 1995

Damage:  Estimated $21 billion 

·         Oklahoma City Bombing:  February 26, 1993

Everything in the building was destroyed, and had never been backed up

900 businesses ill prepared to manage the damage

·         Chicago, Flood, April 13, 1992

Estimated $26 billion in trading was lost in one day

Do you think that these disasters only effected large companies? Well, think again........ Many small and medium sized companies were also effected. Some no longer exist!

Many companies will suffer a business interruption situation this year. Some will have a disaster recovery plan in place to recover their computer systems. A much lower percentage will have a business continuation plan in place, addressing not only the recovery of technology, but the other support aspects of the company’s operations such as equipment, services and space. 

93% of companies that lost their data center for 10 days or more due to a disaster filed for bankruptcy within one year of the disaster. 50% of businesses that found themselves without data management for this same time period filed for bankruptcy immediately. (Source: National Archives & Records Administration in Washington.)