Many organizations believe that if they protect their data processing systems, stock extra supplies, train employees on basic first-aid, and try to minimize their hazards, they have done all they can do to be prepared for a disaster. The rest is up to mother nature. In reality, every organization can do a great deal to… Continue reading How Any Organization Can Survive Through a Disaster

Part 1 Like many major companies, Universal Studios spent over a year defining their vital business functions and making adequate preparations to protect them. This company’s business functions are different from most; they consist of not only movies and television programs, but a theme park and flourishing tourism business. Because of the nature of its… Continue reading Disaster Recovery in the Movie Industry: MCA Inc./Universal Studios Plan

The same disaster can, and does, strike a business office, a museum, an architect’s office from time to time. The lowest level collects the water and suddenly comes the realization that you have 50 or 100 file cabinets loaded with important records and legal papers, all swimming in dirty water; something has to be done… Continue reading Saving the Books

Many readers may be intimately familiar with the aspects of creating plans for data processing in banking and insurance industries. This article will introduce the types of plans which are familiar to contingency planners in electric utilities. It will also describe what utilities expect from outside consultants. Planners are aware of the variety of contingency… Continue reading Disaster Recovery Planning in Electric Utilities: A Message for the Planning Consultant

We all know that a well designed and practiced contingency plan is the best insurance against financial peril for any corporation or institution with a future. As we prepare for natural and man-made disasters we must understand that industrial and manufacturing losses have very diverse cause profiles ranging from hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding, fires and explosions,… Continue reading Planning For Recovery In a Manufacturing Environment

In the aftermath of the April 29, 1986 and September 3, 1986 Los Angeles Public Library fires, many library owners, operators, and librarians were asking themselves what they would do if disaster struck their facilities leaving them with thousands of water-soaked books, documents, and files.  This same question was asked after fires at the Klein… Continue reading Library Disaster Recovery Planning

As computers become increasingly integrated into the day-to-day operations of hospitals, senior managers are asking that contingency plans be in place to ensure that the required computer capacity be continuously available -no matter what happens. The emphasis on computer disaster recovery planning in the health care industry is no accident. It follows the strategic integration… Continue reading Measuring the Pulse of Disaster Recovery at Bethesda Memorial Hospital

At 7:15 p.m. on the evening of November 6, 1990, a security guard on duty in the dispatch office of Universal Studios received a telephone call that would set the stage for a real-life drill of the MCA Corporate Disaster Plan. With hosts of politicians watching election returns just up the hill at the Universal… Continue reading This was no special effect… Disaster Planning Works!

Manufacturing strategy is widely recognized as an integral part of a firm’s overall corporate strategy to gain and retain competitive advantages. Advances in computer- and communications-based technologies have contributed to an explosive growth in automated approaches to the implementation of manufacturing strategies within organizations. The tools of advanced technologies, properly and effectively utilized, have harnessed… Continue reading Automate Your Manufacturing… But Beware of Disasters!

OVERVIEW Information processing activities is not just a recordkeeping aspect of an organization. Resources gathered via the automated information processing system is the most valuable asset a healthcare institution may have. Every data center is subject to certain interruptions of service. They may involve an equipment failure that results in a few hours of downtime,… Continue reading Contingency Planning for the Healthcare Industry