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Could Your Company Survive a Disaster?
By Amy Maloney

In the wake of most catastrophes, the media often concentrates on tragic personal stories: lost life, lost homes, lost belongings, lost pets. But what about lost businesses? Medical facilities, law offices, corporate and government organizationsnone are immune to the costly effects of flood, fires or hurricanes. Patient histories, client, vendor and employee files, financial records, contracts Businesses depend on the reliability and accuracy of these accumulated records. How could any organization hope to rebound if so much information is destroyed? The long-term security of business documentation is imperative to the success of any organization, large or small.

A 2006 report by the Ponemon Institute, a privacy and information research firm, found that each individual compromised or lost record averages a cost of $182 to companies. According to the study, company costs for each of 31 separate incidents analyzed ranged from less than $1 million to upwards of $22 million. These are comprehensive costs, including legal, investigative, and administrative expenses, stock performance, customer defections, opportunity loss, and reputation management.

Managers and leaders still operating under the motto “it won’t happen to me,” take heed “it” can happen to you. However, the damage done can be seriously minimized by taking proper precautions and establishing disaster recovery systems. Your records’ integrity is vital to your organization’s success, and addressing system vulnerabilities is imperative to data preservation. Duplicating records on-site is no guarantee of their safety, and businesses ignoring new disaster recovery solutions seriously compromise their future operability.

Remote mirroring, a new trend in the realm of disaster recovery, provides real-time, off-site data storage. Updates made on the server are simultaneously saved to the mirror box, which can be hundreds of miles from the primary location. Even if the main computer is submerged or fried, a high-quality mirroring box will preserve 100% of the information put into the computer until the moment of the disaster. Data mirroring can save solutions on a range of storage devices, and is designed to be scalable to your needs as they grow and change.

Looking to the future is key, and education is the first step toward effective disaster recovery planning. Speaking to experts, discovering your vulnerabilities and researching the solutions to address them are necessities. Attending information and training sessions taught by industry specialists is a great way to learn without throwing money away. For example, Acolyst, a solutions provider in Fredericksburg, VA holds free seminars jointly with technical experts from other industry leaders, including MiraLink and CAmajor players in the realm of disaster recovery. Attendees at such events get exposure to cutting-edge technologies and personal consultations in a no-pressure-to-purchase environment.

While every business venture is a risk, ignoring the possibility of catastrophe is a gamble that no responsible leader will take. Avoiding disaster recovery decision-making will damage your organizations’ prospects. Why threaten the success of your organization, and the security of people who rely on you? Take the initiative and learn about disaster recovery options near you.

Amy Maloney is a student at the University of Mary Washington and a public relations intern.

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