Disaster recovery is one of those buzzwords that gets a great deal of lip service in the business world, but not necessarily a great deal of forethought.  The unfortunate reality is that this concept is often taken for granted until it is already too late.  Allow me to illustrate with an example:

Jay Barnes is an executive in his company.  On an ordinary Wednesday afternoon, the distinct burning odor of an electrical fire starts to fill the office.  Previous in the day, workers were seen in the building with heavy machinery doing a construction job for the office below.  Sensing the construction crew is responsible, Jay scrambles to locate the phone number for his building manager to inquire with them.

Within a matter of minutes, the burning odor has become almost unbearable and a faint smoky haze has started to fill the office.  Jay is still clumsily sifting through his phone list for that building contact.  He has rarely had need to call the number so it is not readily available.  Meanwhile, staff members begin to approach Jay asking if they should evacuate.  Suddenly, the phone rings for Jay's 3:00 conference call.  And to top it off, the building's fire alarm suddenly sounds.

In the span of a few minutes, Jay has become overwhelmed.  A business-critical disaster is upon him and he's stuck at step one.  Jay has 10 minutes of decisions that he's trying to fit into a window not quite big enough.  If he had planned ahead, he wouldn't be scrambling around panicked in the midst of a crisis.  Let's see how this story would have differed with some proper planning:

Jay Barnes is an executive in his company.  On an ordinary Wednesday afternoon, the distinct burning odor of an electrical fire starts to fill the office.  Sensing a potential disaster scenario unfolding, Jay goes straight to his emergency contact list and calls building management to inquire if they have knowledge of the situation.

After the call, Jay orders his Operations Manager to gather the staff and leave via a pre-arranged evacuation route.  The company phones are redirected to an auto response message should any customers call in during the crisis.  Jay insures the office is now vacant before joining his staff at the evacuation point.

Disaster scenarios often require precise, calculated decision-making.  Take 10 minutes today to make sure you have a plan in place.  When a crisis comes your way, you'll be 10 minutes ahead of the curve.  And that's an eternity when seconds count.