Introduction

Powerful Earthquake Triggers Tsunami in Pacific. Hurricane Katrina Makes Landfall in the Gulf Coast. Avalanche Buries Highway in Denver. Tornado Touches Down in Georgia. These headlines not only have caught the attention of people around the world, they have had a significant effect on IT professionals as well. As technology continues to become more integral to corporate operations at every level of the organization, the job of IT has expanded to become almost all-encompassing. These days, it's difficult to find corners of a company that technology does not touch. As a result, the need to plan for potential disruptions to technology services has increased exponentially. Business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR) plans were certainly put to the test by many financial firms after the terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001; but even six years later, there are many firms that still do not have any type of business continuity or disaster recovery plan in place. It seems insane not to have such a plan in place, but statistics show that many companies don't even have solid data backup plans in place. Given the enormous cost of failure, why are many companies behind the curve? The answers are surprisingly simple. Lack of time and resources. Lack of a sense of urgency. Lack of a process for developing and maintaining a plan. This part, the following nine chapters, will help you overcome some of those challenges.

A study released by Harris Interactive, Inc. in September 2006...