1. Natural Disasters Mother Nature can be cruel. Storms, fires, and floods can all do irreparable damage to your business. Without a disaster recovery plan in place, you may find it extremely difficult to resume operations, putting the future of your company in jeopardy. 80% of companies that close for more than 5 days never reopen, so getting back on your feet is crucial in the event of a natural disaster. 2. Hardware Failure Whether from a power surge or other cause, if your hardware fails it can take all your data with it. While you can take steps to protect your hardware with cooling systems, power surge protectors, and other technology, it is essential to regularly back-up your data. Using a cloud-based or off-site storage can add additional protections, as it is unlikely both locations will be struck at the same time. Your disaster recovery plan should include these steps, to ward off the potential data loss that could occur. 3. Human Errors No one is perfect, and that includes you and your employees. Forgetting to save changes, accidentally deleting an important document, or flipping the wrong switch could lead to a significant loss for your company. Training programs can help reduce errors, but the only way to keep your business truly safe from a data loss due to human error is to back-up data regularly. See also:Data Backup vs Business Continuity - What's the difference? 4. Cyber Crimes Unfortunately, cyber crimes are on the rise and most businesses are affected at some point. A virus or ransomware attack could hold your data hostage, grinding your business to a halt and causing massive profit losses. Your disaster recovery plan should include steps to recover from a hacking attempt, keeping your data safe and accessible. 5. Customer Service Ultimately, you need a disaster recover y plan to provide your customers the service they have come to expect from you. If your business must shut down, or has a prolonged service interruption, you could lose valuable customers to a competitor. The faster you can get back on your feet, the happier your clients will be. The following are the suggested steps as found in theDRtemplate. Once you have prepared the information, it is recommended that you store the document in a safe, accessible location off site. Step 1: Major goalsThe first step is to broadly outline the major goals of a disaster recovery plan. Step 2: PersonnelRecord your data processing personnel. Include a copy of the organization chart with your plan. Step 3: Application profileList applications and whether they are critical and if they are a fixed asset. Step 4: Inventory profileList the manufacturer, model, serial number, cost and whether each item is owned or leased. Step 5: Information services backup proceduresInclude information such as: "Journal receivers are changed at ________ and at ________." And: "Changed objects in the following libraries and directories are saved at ____." Step 6: Disaster recovery proceduresFor any DR plan, these three elements should be addressed: Emergency response procedures to document the appropriate emergency response to a fire, natural disaster, or any other activities in order to protect lives and limit damages. Backup operations procedures to ensure that essential data processing operational tasks can be conducted after the disruption. Recovery actions procedures to facilitate the rapid restoration of a data processing system following a disaster. Step 7: DR plan for mobile siteThe plan should include a mobile site setup plan, a communication disaster plan (including the wiring diagrams) and an electrical service diagram. Step 8: DR plan for hot siteAn alternate hot site plan should provide for an alternative (backup) site. The alternate site has a backup system for temporary use while the home site is being reestablished. Step 9: Restoring the entire systemTo get your system back to the way it was before the disaster, use the procedures on recovering after a complete system loss inSystems management: Backup and recovery. Step 10: Rebuilding processThe management team must assess the damage and begin the reconstruction of a new data center. Step 11: Testing the disaster recovery and cyber recovery planIn successful contingency planning, it is important to test and evaluate the DR plan regularly. Data processing operations are volatile in nature, resulting in frequent changes to equipment, programs and documentation. These actions make it critical to consider the plan as a changing document. Step 12: Disaster site rebuildingThis step should include a floor plan of the data center, the current hardware needs and possible alternatives - as well as the data center square footage, power requirements and security requirements. Step 13: Record of plan changesKeep your DR plan current. Keep records of changes to your configuration, your applications and your backup schedules and