Disaster Recovery Without Tiers?

Power grid failure. Powerful hurricanes. Widespread flooding. Earthquakes. Highway closures. Wildfires out of control. Intentional acts of sabotage and destruction. What do all these disasters have in common? They are all unexpected, catastrophic events that wreak havoc on the ability of organizations to conduct normal business, especially when it comes to accessing their electronic data. In this era of continuous, instantaneous communication between organizations and their customers, being able to recover rapidly and completely from a disaster is not nice to have, but is a necessity.

Whether you're a business, a government agency, a healthcare organization, or an educational institution, you must ensure that you're prepared for when—not if—disaster strikes. A protracted interruption in your organization's ability to access data will disrupt daily operations. This can lead to the loss of customers and revenue, a drop in share price, or possible noncompliance fines or even jail time for failing to protect and/or provide information promptly when required.

In the worst case, studies have shown that if your business is not able to resume operations within ten days, the likelihood that your business will fail is extremely high (SNIA, 2002). Healthcare organizations run an especially high risk: losing access to data can lead to improper patient treatment, which can result in illness or injury—even death.