Why is an IT disaster an opportunity?

What do IT disasters and natural disasters have in common? Put simply – the destruction of infrastructure.

In the case of natural disasters like floods, earthquakes, hurricanes and the like, we see buildings damaged or destroyed, along with bridges, power lines and so on. The need to rebuild is obvious, and the opportunity exists to, “build back better”. By this I mean that with some good planning, the building code can be changed to build elevated houses in known flood districts, or build better reinforced houses in areas prone to cyclones.

With strategic planning, it’s even possible to build new infrastructure such as aged care facilities or hospitals where there were once schools, if the local demographic has changed from young families to elderly. Poor planning is likely to get you building nothing, or “building back the same”.

Similarly, when a disaster strikes and IT equipment is damaged or destroyed, the typical reaction is to get anything in quick to fill the gap. All too often this leads to, “building back worse”.

There is, however, a real opportunity to bring in an improved solution and, “build back better”.

When disasters strike, there is usually a lot of time pressure to get back to business, and so the initial reaction to this advice would typically be, “You have to be joking… right?!” Well, yes, if you have no plans for an upgrade, starting to plan while the system is down won’t be practical unless you have standby systems that buy you some breathing space.

However, if you have a reasonable IT strategy in place and it is playing out at a measured pace, the next step may be planned or very obvious – and so bringing in new, improved infrastructure to restore old systems may be a much better reaction than getting matching systems in. This will be determined in the disaster recovery planning stages.

So, the question to you is this: how well is your disaster recovery planned and will the recovery project allow you to build back better, same or worse? Will it move you forward, put you back to where you were or put you a step further back than you are today? Of course, if you have no recovery plan, the disaster may just put you out of business.

My suggestion is that you set a recovery plan in place, and use it to ensure that – in the event of a disaster – you “build back better".

David Markus is the founder of Combo – the IT services company that ensures IT is never an impediment to growth. We win awards for the service we offer, so if your IT environment is slowing you down, contact Combo on 1300 726 626 to organise a complimentary consultation with David.