Leader: Disaster planning isn't just about disasters

Though understandable, as humans are wont to put off changes, it's unfortunate to see disaster recovery consultants experiencing a big upswing in inquiries in the last few weeks, since the attacks on London.

It has been well known for years that most companies hit by a disaster will go out of business pretty quickly unless they have put recovery and business continuity plans in place.

And sadly London has long been a target - so it's too bad some companies are only now scrambling to get their defences in place.

Whatever the reason for their delay in the past, companies hurrying to put a continuity plan in place should be aware that their plans have to be a bit deeper than making sure they've got a few servers tucked away in a room somewhere outside the M25.

It's about making sure that your plans will work - by testing them and ironing out any problems before the disaster hits.

After all, it's no good finding out that your back-ups have been locked in a safe you can't get to - or realising that you've transferred the wrong version of the customer database - when you can't do anything about it.

And in these days of connected enterprises it's also about making sure your supply chain can survive a disaster. It's no good if all your systems smoothly switch over if none of your suppliers is in a fit state to do business.

Consider how you can work with your suppliers to make you all more secure - it's something that bigger companies are already looking at.

As well as saving your bacon in the long run, developing a foolproof disaster recovery strategy can help you trim the fat now. Done well, reviewing your infrastructure as part of business continuity planning can help you cut some of the inefficiencies out of your processes.

So that even if disaster doesn't strike, the strategy can still do you some good.