Philadelphia, PA, 17 Jul 2013
As recent cyber attacks and natural disaster events have shown, the need for IT disaster recovery preparedness has never been greater. However, research indicates that less than half of all companies have a disaster recovery plan in place, and even fewer have actually tested their plans to see if they will work as expected.
This need to uncover the value of disaster recovery planning and testing, as well as gain a better understanding of DR best practices to make preparedness more cost-effective and efficient, was the driving force behind a recently created Disaster Recovery Preparedness (DRP) Council. Formed by IT business, government and academic leaders to address these issues, its mission is to increase DR preparedness awareness, and improve DR practices.
The DRP Council has developed an online Disaster Recovery Preparedness Benchmark (DRPB) Survey. The survey is designed to give business continuity, disaster recovery, compliance audit and risk management professionals a measure of their own preparedness in recovering critical IT systems running in virtual environments.
Tweet this: @DR Preparedness Complimentary Online Survey Now Available http://bit.ly/ZiAxyl.
Founding members of the DRP Council include:
* Steve Kahan, Council Chairman, PHD Virtual
* Dave Simpson, Sr Analyst, 451 Group
* Bilal Hashmi, Sr Systems Engineer, Verizon
* Michael Sink, Director Data Center Technologies, University of South Florida
* Steve Lambropoulos, University of South Florida
* Darren Hirons, Principal Systems Engineer, UK Health & Social Information Centre
* Tyrstan Trenberth, CEO and Managing Director, Trenberth LTD
* Riaan Hamman, CTO, Puleng Technologies
* Carlos Escapa, Council Research Director , PHD Virtual
* Anita DuBose, Council Research Director, PHD Virtual
"Users can now benchmark their own disaster recovery preparedness and find out real answers on how they would be able to get their IT systems up and running within a realistic timeframe to meet stringent business requirements," said Steve Kahan, Chairman of the DRP Council. "Just 10 minutes of their time will provide them with some immediate feedback and a benchmark score that rates your DR preparedness with other companies that have participated."
"I am unsure if our current best practices are the best or most efficient ways to deliver our SLA," said Darren Hirons, Principal Systems Engineer, UK Health & Social Information Centre. "Learning about best practices through the Disaster Recovery Preparedness Benchmark could help us learn new ways to shorten the SLAs and deliver better service to our businesses."
The DRPB survey provides a benchmarking score from 0-100 that measures the implementation of IT disaster recovery best practices. DRPB benchmarking scores parallel the grading system familiar to most students in North America whereby a score of 90-100 is an "A" or superior grade; 80-99 is a "B" or above average grade; 70-79 is a "C" or average grade and 60-69 is a "D" or unsatisfactory grade. Below 60 rates as an "F", or failing grade.
Supporting resources
Disaster Recovery Preparedness Council: http://drbenchmark.org/about-us/our-council/
Disaster Recovery Benchmark Test: http://drbenchmark.org/benchmark-survey/survey-overview/
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