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

Michael Wallace and Lawrence Webber

The book consists of three parts. The first part (The Plan) provides the steps in the development of various continuity plans. The second part (The Assets) details the various assets that support and drive organisational business and the steps that should be adopted to protect them. The final part (Preventing Disaster) provides the essential information to mitigate threats to organisations. This book is intended for use by business continuity practitioners, risk managers, facilities managers, information systems/technologies specialists, security consultants, and those responsible for preserving and safeguarding critical assets of the organisation.

The book is a comprehensive reference to the discipline of business resilience and disaster recovery. Its key objective is to enable organisations to survive every possible kind of major crises by developing proactive continuity programme that safeguards key resources. The book deals with everyday issues encounter in the managing of business continuity activities. Such activities include project management, team building, risk analysis, plan development and testing, which could determine the eventual success of the entire programme.

In the past, a wide range of literature have focused on the technological aspect of mitigation and recovery, this book goes beyond the basics by addressing the entire process of developing organisational resilience. This means that conventional disaster recovery of information technology is not adequate to address today's complex business requirements. It prompts a series of important questions that are often taken for granted by business continuity practitioners. It reinforces the importance of understanding mission critical services and provides guidance on essential steps of conducting an effective risk analysis. The book also provides concise explanation on the technical aspect of business recovery.

The purpose of the book is not merely to describe the current state of best practices of establishing business continuity capability, but to provide quick reference to the different aspects of business continuity planning. It is organised in a logical order to help readers find what is needed quickly and easily. To complement the book, a special CD-ROM packed with helpful resources such as templates, databases and risk-assessment score sheets could readily be used as "quick fixes".

Wallace and Webber have combined force on the subject matter where every page contains essential principles that could help practitioners to avoid pitfalls in the journey continuity management. Whether for large corporations or for small and medium enterprises, the wealth of information in this book will serve as invaluable solutions to ensure that business stays ticking round the clock.

Dr Zechariah Wei Ning WONG
Crisis and Business Continuity Management Consultant