The 11^th of September 2001 will remain etched in memory for a long time to come. On this day the world was faced with one of the greatest man-made disasters of the century.  On this fateful day that the World Trade Centre was blown up. Along with the twin towers that came crashing down, the hopes, aspirations, dreams of several thousand people and organizations were blown to bits.

Disasters like this one, though man made, should serve as eye-openers for those of us who are not pro-active. Disasters can take myriad forms - it can be natural disasters like an earthquake, a fire, a flood or man-made (like the attack of 11/9) or in this era of information technology, it could be as simple as a computer virus that eats into the innards of the file system and destroys your data.   

Assume, that you are the head of a financial institution and one morning, you are greeted with the dreaded news that your computer has crashed or that a short circuit has destroyed the delicate chips in your computer irrecoverably. Your would be devastated if the entire data constituting the list of loans disbursed, interest received, taxes paid, details of investments etc are lying in the system! The situation would be worse if you do not have a backup!

By the way, back up is the process by which you take a copy of the data available in your computer periodically on a media such as a magnetic tape or a recordable CD.  This backup is usually stored at a different location so that in case of a disaster, the computer can be restored to its original state by making use of the backed up data.

It is in critical situations such as these that a Disaster Recovery Plan comes to the rescue. A Disaster Recovery Plan encompasses the whole gamut of processes involved in putting your organization back in business, albeit with minimal damage, when disaster strikes. It is an exercise aimed at damage control or at least being in a state of preparedness, so that in the event of a disaster, the recovery is comparatively faster.

A Disaster Recovery Plan usually should have the following key components:

• A detailed documentation of the Disaster Recovery Plan with adequate copies to key personnel.
• An inventory of all the resources of the organization with their exact locations.
• A Disaster Recovery Team to oversee the smooth recovery of resources and also to train the employees on the do and don'ts in case of a disaster.
• A back up of all critical data, preferably at a remote but easily accessible location.
• A test drive or drill to make sure that everything goes on as planned, in the event of a disaster.
• Periodical Review of the plan keeping in tune with the change in times.

In the unfortunate event of a disaster striking, do not panic. Mobilise the recovery team into action. Retrieve the backups. Reinstall the soft wares and data and..... get going. After all, with a disaster recovery plan to fall back, your world cannot end so soon.