IT managers spend their jobs (and careers) working to keep disasters from happening. That’s as it should be as companies rely on their networks and data and the loss of the IT function through a disaster can result in damage via the loss of customers, orders, etc.
If disaster prevention is all that you do as an IT manager, you have only done half of what you need to do concerning disasters. You also need to have plans in place as to how to recover from disasters.
By “recover from disasters”, I don’t mean how to come back from spilling coffee onto your server keyboard. I mean recovering from a truly major problem – E.g. the building burns down, the server room floods, etc.
A fast and accurate disaster recovery can make you a hero. When every hour of down time costs your company $10,000, recovering in 2 days vs. 4 weeks can save your company (and your job).
Spend some time imagining what disasters might possibly happen to your IT area. Then work out how you would recover from each calamity. Document the recovery steps in as minute a detail as you can and put them in you “policies and procedures” manual. (See http://www.davidrier.com/?p=168).
Remember that s**t happens. All your anti-virus systems, backup AD controllers, etc. don’t protect you from a hurricane or fire. Having well-designed (and tested) recovery plans in place before a disaster strikes is invaluable. The recovery process will be faster as a) you will not forget things, b) things will be done accurately and in the right order, and c) you will not be searching around for important information (E.g. administrator passwords, validation keys, etc.)
