Major disasters, such as earthquakes and large-scale power outages, are rare. Smaller disasters, such as server failure, burst pipes and fires, however, happen every day. Companies often prepare for the worst but forget the everyday challenges, which can be just as crippling.
When disaster strikes, having a plan and being able to put it into immediate action can mean the difference between staying open to service the needs of your customers and community or shutting down for a few days.
Following a disaster, statistics show 90% of companies fail within a year unless they can resume operations within 5 days. Having a plan can ensure that you’re back in business quickly and able to provide products and services to your community.
Disaster Testing
Testing is a critical component of business continuity planning. If your systems went down, how long would it take to get them up and running again, and what would be required to achieve that goal? Where are the gaps in your recovery plan and how can you close those gaps before a disaster strikes?
Testing your continuity plan is the best way to ensure that your business will remain in operation no matter what, or that it can be quickly restored under any circumstances. For many companies, testing is necessary for meeting compliance requirements.
Through testing, you will reduce both recovery time and risks, ultimately protecting your business and the employees and customers who rely on you.
What to test
You should test all critical functions, particularly those that would be most vulnerable during an attack or disaster.
This includes:
- servers
- PCs/workstations
- network/Internet
- building security
- phones/communications
- supply chain
- workflow/staff procedures
Some managers phase their testing procedures. For example, they may run a data recovery test one month, and network/Internet recovery another month.
Where to test
Testing can be done in one of three places: at your facility, at your backup center, or at an offsite testing site.
You can choose to do a table-top-meeting-style run through, or a full-scale hands-on test, using canned or live data.
How often to test
We recommend that you do a full-scale test annually for a wide range of critical functions, including electricity, water, gas, facilities/spacing, staffing, technology, telecommunications and more.
A full-scale test will help ensure that your business not only survives but thrives in any unexpected situation.
Who should participate
A testing team should include all the people on your disaster recovery team or who are in charge of critical areas within the company.
These should include, but not be limited to:
- Facilities manager
- IT tech
- HR manager
- senior management
- brand management
- third-party support
- a sampling of critical clients
PDF Resource Guides
- Crisis Communications Checklist
- Critical Business Functions
- Disaster Recovery Kit
- Earthquake Preparedness
- Emergency Communications Plan
- Evacuation
- Federal Continuity Directive
- Flood Preparedness
- Hurricane Preparedness
- Phone Recovery
- Recovery Overview
- Risk Assessment
- Table Top Test
- Tornado Preparedness
- Unique Supplies
- Vendor Assessment
- Wildfire Preparedness
- Winter Weather Preparedness
Matt holds a Bachelor's Degree in business from Drexel University with a concentration in business law. He performs extensive research and analysis to convert state laws into simple instructions anyone can follow to form their LLC - all for free! Read more about Matt Horwitz and LLC University.
