My BDR is fine – why bother testing it!

It is no secret that putting together a concise and encompassing BDR plan takes a lot of time and effort. Depending on the amount of information, the BDR tools and your network infrastructure this can be as much fun as stepping on a nail in your bare feet.

 But inevitably, we research, talk with vendors, configure, reconfigure, trial, demo, test, buy and implement. Done! Phew….

 Okay – so – the elephant in the room is – when did you last test it?

 What? Are you talking to me? Test my BDR – like – do a recovery?

 Why????? We just spent a small fortune in time and effort – what do we need to test for?

 I mean…seriously – we wouldn’t want to do that right now because …..

1)   It will take a lot of time 2)  Doing so can disrupt our production systems and maintenance schedules 3)  That is going to cost some money and our budget is tight as it is 4)  Er…. I have to look for the recovery documentation.

 The net-net here is that we should be testing our recovery processes at least once a year.

 It should be planned, it should include line-of-business team members who can help select what to recover and the entire process should be documented from start to finish.

 Yes – it will take time – it will be disruptive and there will be some costs. But NONE of that comes close to the amount of pain and suffering should you NEED the BDR and it doesn’t work. (Like if a main power cable gets exposed, and shorts and fries your electrical system)...

 Ever have that happen to you? No, then why would you want to risk it?

 On October 16th I am hosting a Business Protection Planning Workshop at our office with our partner, Unitrends. We have a small conference room, we are inviting folks to come. If you have any interest, well…let me know!

 JohnS John Spiridigliozzi, Chief Operating Officer, Infinit Technology Solutions [email protected]