The Disaster Recovery Handbook: A Step-by-Step Plan to Ensure Business Continuity and Protect Vital Operations, Facilities, and Assets [Hardcover]

Michael Wallace (Author), Lawrence Webber (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 2004

Without careful planning, organizations often do not survive major interruptions in the operation of their business. The "Disaster Recovery Handbook" gives readers proven processes and techniques to develop a disaster recovery plan and protect their organization in the face of extraordinary circumstances. Featuring a CD-ROM with templates for a project plan, contact database, risk assessment scoresheets, and more, the book gives detailed instructions for assembling a recovery team, building an interim plan, setting up an emergency operations center and recovering vital records.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Security Management: "This is a thoroughly researched, simply presented, and well-written work that gently guides the reader through the process of developing a plan."

Book Description

"It takes careful planning to ensure that a disaster of any type—whether the result of fire, an electrical outage, a major computer virus, or even terrorism—does not result in a prolonged service interruption that could affect your business for years to come. By creating a proactive disaster recovery program, you can keep your people, inventory, and resources safe and secure.

The Disaster Recovery Handbook is a comprehensive reference to help your business survive any kind of major disruption, giving you the tools you need to protect your organization in the event of extraordinary circumstances.

Filled with practical solutions and ready-to-use tools, the book provides detailed instructions for:

* Assessing risk

* Assembling a disaster recovery team

* Building an interim plan for immediate protection

* Setting up an emergency operations center

* Clearly documenting recovery procedures

* Testing and debugging the plan to make sure it works

* Ensuring the health and physical safety of your people

* Recovering vital records

* Protecting your material resources

Featuring a special CD-ROM with templates for process and skill matrices, contact databases, risk-assessment score sheets, and more, the book helps you consider every factor you need to include in your recovery operations. From facilities operations to telecommunications, computer networks to customer needs, the book gives you the forms and lists you need to ensure that everything is accounted for so that you can properly achieve containment.

The only defense against the unexpected is to be sure that you're properly prepared. The Disaster Recovery Handbook gives you everything you need to keep your organization running as smoothly as possible after any kind of disaster.

In the event of an emergency, does your business have a recovery system in place? What happens if the power goes out? Do your people know how to get out of the building or where to look for information? What procedures have you already instituted to backup your company-wide and personnel data? Do you know what to do to recover from the loss of your material resources?

The Disaster Recovery Handbook answers all these questions for you, giving you all the tools you need to establish a complete disaster recovery plan. You'll learn how to assemble a recovery team, set up an emergency operations center, and put your entire set of procedures in writing, protecting your business before the fact to safeguard against what could otherwise become an unrecoverable situation.

You'll learn how to create a system for backing up all your vital electronic and physical information such as invoices, checks, inventory levels, and receipts, and keep your customers from being left out in the cold as you regroup in the wake of any unexpected circumstance. You'll also find all the information you need to help your Human Resources department get a handle on the ""people"" side of any emergency. The book takes into consideration every possible type of disaster, and gives you the practical solutions you need to protect your people and your resources.

Including a special CD-ROM packed with critical templates, The Disaster Recovery Handbook is a vital resource for keeping your organization in business -- no matter what."

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 17 and up
  
• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: AMACOM (July 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814472400
• ISBN-13: 978-0814472408
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #301,204 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #11 in Books > Computers & Technology > Business & Culture > Careers

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not a HandBook, November 15, 2005

By 

Firosh C. Ummer "Firo." (India) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Disaster Recovery Handbook: A Step-by-Step Plan to Ensure Business Continuity and Protect Vital Operations, Facilities, and Assets (Hardcover)

Don't get carried away by the title descriptions "Hand book" and "step-by-step plan". If anyone is buying this book with an intention of developing a BCP/DR plan, implementing and testing it they will be disappointed. This book only helps to get an overview of BC/DR planning. I couldn't find anything readily usable in the companion CD. It contains a bunch of documents with one page and one table in it. You wouldn't find anything important and useful such as sample BC/DR plan, emergency response procedure and flow diagram.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Handbook. Extremely helpful for developing a DR plan., January 11, 2006

By 

Aaron M. Olney (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Disaster Recovery Handbook: A Step-by-Step Plan to Ensure Business Continuity and Protect Vital Operations, Facilities, and Assets (Hardcover)

I found the book extremely valuable in getting a disaster recovery plan developed. The book was very helpful in not only showing step-by-step HOW to put together our plan, but also did a great job in explaining WHY something should be in the plan. It also focused on the entire business, not just on technology as some other books on the subject do.

14 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Easy to read and very insightfull, January 2, 2005

By 

D. L. Henthorn - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Disaster Recovery Handbook: A Step-by-Step Plan to Ensure Business Continuity and Protect Vital Operations, Facilities, and Assets (Hardcover)

This book reminds me what effects an extended outage can have. I was able to find at least one item in every chapter of this book that I could easily and cheaply implement, that not only saved me money, but allowed me to better ensure my business will continue to function in the event of serious unplanned outage.