Disaster Recovery Plan Testing: Cycle the Plan, Plan the Cycle

Once a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) is created there is a tendency for management to relax. Disaster Recovery Journal, in an online poll conducted between May and June 2001, reported that 65.5% of 2223 respondents had not enacted their DRP in the past 10 years, and that a further 26.32% had enacted it only one to three times (DRJ surveys, 2001). These figures are astonishing considering that a ten-year time frame encompassed Y2K, several serious natural disaster events such as earthquakes and hurricanes and terrorist activities such the World Trade Center (first attack) and the Oklahoma City bombings. This paper takes an in-depth look at the Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) testing process.