What's your DRP?

Our office was broken into a week before Christmas :( As it turned out we didn't have anything stolen ourselves although other tenants did. There was damage to one of the doors though, but the most important thing is it got me seriously thinking about our disaster recovery plan (DRP).

The phone call I got from one of the other tenants was along the lines of "lots of stuff has been taken - laptops and more. They've been right through the office. You'd better get here quickly." This was around 8am on a Saturday morning too.

The drive down to the office was, to say the least, one of major contemplation. I had no idea of what had really been taken or how extensive the damage was. Was my server gone? My Internet router? The main admin machine or sales machine? What about the printers and other peripherals? What was my strategy to recover if the worse had eventuated?

Well the good news is as I mentioned at the top - nothing had been removed from my office. But it certainly got me thinking more about what we really would do if things were removed from the office.

Fast forward a little - I spent quite some time from Christmas day (!!) to last Monday (Jan 2) digging up old clay pipes in the back yard and replacing them with PVC piping. Whilst working I was listening to the SBS Show (www.sbsshow.com) and lo-and-behold episodes 3 & 4 are about disaster recovery!! How very timely :D (In fact, I was also thinking our our home DRP in the event I couldn't get the pipes replaced properly or in time for the next flush!! I was successful in getting everything sorted out though)

So, this is where you've got to look for the silver lining - the break in got me thinking seriously about improving our DRP which will be MUCH MUCH better from here on. Save yourself from the anquish I went through and get started on improving your DRP now before it's too late. As I get things sorted out I'll have to make sure I let you know. I'd be keen to hear about your own experiences too.

Oh yes, the police called me the next morning to let me know they'd caught the guy that broke in - 30yo heroin addict!