Walk away from this article with two pieces of data in your mind:
1. The University of Texas estimates that more than half of small and midsize businesses (SMB) that lose data in a disaster go out of business within two years
2. Gartner estimates that less than half of all midsize businesses and only 25% of small businesses have disaster recovery plans in place.
If there is any bright spot in the legacy of Hurricane Katrina, it is that business, government and education institutions seem to have a better understanding of the requirement for business continuity and disaster recovery. Yet, as the Gartner numbers testify, there is still a chasm between understanding the requirements and generating the organizational commitment to meeting them.

Like all business leaders with priorities, SMB owners and executives must juggle a number of things that compete for time and resources. As a result, they tend to put business continuity into the “solve tomorrow” pile until right before (or right after) an incident. This is a critical, sometimes disastrous mistake. Like all business-essential Information Technology (IT) programs, designing and implementing a functional continuity plan is a multimonth process. Here is why:

* Business continuity is a business process: A functional business-continuity plan is more about understanding and protecting key business process than it is about managing IT assets. As such, it will require input from key business leaders and will necessitate in-depth planning and preparation so that every person in the organization knows what to do in the event of an emergency.

* Assessment and design: Developing the core business-continuity plan is not a one-person job; it requires input from a cross-functional team that includes sales, communications, finance, back office, human resources and IT leaders. Without that input, it is impossible to correctly prioritize and tier support systems tol meet demands during a disaster incident

* Back order of critical elements: The back order log for business-sized power generators from reliable manufacturers is often 30 weeks. That means if you order today, your generator will be available in seven months. If you try to substitute this essential element with a generator from your local Home Depot, you’ll find that the power from household generators is too unstable for use by IT equipment without some type of power cleaning device. In some cases, the power simply won’t turn on, while in others you risk permanent damage to your assets.