9
I L T A N E T . O R G
D
isasters (aka business disruptions) are like
water held back from a dam, ready to break
through and wreak havoc on our lives often
when we least expect. After working for
five extraordinary law firms over the last
quarter century, I've come to one certainty—disasters come to
us all, and we best prepare for when the dam breaks.
A little over a dozen years ago, I wrote a similar article
with some lessons learned about recovering from system
disasters. Some of the technology has changed: systems are
significantly more complex, and expectations on recovery
times are extraordinarily higher. Therefore, I felt an update
on Business Continuity (BC) and Disaster Recovery (DR)
basics was in order. At a high level, we'll cover references,
table stakes on prevention steps and recovery actions, and
end with some new lessons learned from real disasters.
BC/DR References/Resources
There are more resources about BC/DR than ever before.
Finding resources that fit your organization's needs can be
overwhelming. Here are a few I've used and have found value.
• ABA – Disaster Planning and Recovery for Law
Firms: Great general information that has some
specifics for the legal industry.
• Ready.gov: An incredible amount of material is
available for review.
• NIST 800-34: This is a wonderful place to start
reading about BC/DR planning.
• ISO 22301: ISO certifications are expensive to obtain
and maintain, but you can use the ISO documents to
help improve your organization's business continuity
posture!
• ILTA: Need I say more? Get involved!
• Disaster Recovery Institute: "Train. Prepare.
Recover." Another great organization to plug in
to learn more and help each other be as resilient as
possible.
• Business Continuity Institute: Another organization
that promotes building resilience.
• International Association of Emergency Managers:
Are you designated as the BC/DR manager/leader?
You might like this group of professionals doing more
to help each other.
• ChatGPT: This new tool is great for asking questions
about resources, protocols, best practices, etc. Ok, so
this one isn't a typical resource, but it's pretty cool
to ask it questions about how to better prepare for
disasters.
In all those resources, the big core themes are
generally the same and are the basis for helping ride the
waves when the flood comes.
U N D E R S TA N D I N G L I F E C Y C L E O F D I S A S T E R
Restoration Point
(backup)
Event/
Disaster
Expected
Recovery
Required
Recovery
DATA LOS S
D O W N T I M E
Recovery Point Objective
(RPO)
Recovery Time Objective
(RTO)
Maximum Tolerable Downtime
(MTD)
