One way to understand the necessity of disaster recovery is to learn about real storms that almost put companies out of business. It’s been a few years now, but Hurricane Sandy remains one of the most relevant stories, especially since it wiped out power in Lower Manhattan. Despite many of the tragic stories, we try to take the positives and learn from the situation as much as possible.
Some businesses learned the hard way after the storm that disaster recovery is not something to be ignored. The only way to invest in business continuity is prior to the storm. Trying to restore business operations without a disaster recovery plan is the definition of “too little, too late.”
On the other hand, some businesses were prepared for the storm. These companies learned that with proper planning, even the most violent storm can’t set their business operations too far off track.
A recent Forbes article walks through Starbuck’s role during Hurricane Sandy. According to the article, Starbucks was ready for the storm, but many local businesses weren’t. Thus, they tried waiting the storm out at the nearest Starbucks:
“It appears that investing in business continuity efforts – defined as a set of planning, preparatory, and related activities meant to assure that organizations can keep functioning through a time of “serious incidents or disasters” – might be a better hedge against catastrophe than unbuilt seawalls and the general hope that the corner Starbucks will re-open sometime soon.”
Businesses which lacked disaster recovery plans went straight to their local Starbucks. What they realized is that they should have taken action and invested in business continuity.
We hope that a few decades will pass before we see another storm of that magnitude. But at the same time, we can’t predict the future. We still give businesses the same advice: invest in disaster recovery preparedness now. Don’t wait for the next storm to finally learn the hard way.