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SPECIAL FEATURE: Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity Planning

With recent natural disasters and other catastrophies in the news, we've received many requests from you, our readers, seeking advise in developing a disaster recovery plan to help your business or those of your clients survive an unexpected major event.

This special section is from the November 2006 issue of The CPA Technology Advisor.

With
recent natural disasters and other catastrophies in the news, we’ve
received many requests from you, our readers, seeking advise in developing
a disaster recovery plan to help your business or those of your clients
survive an unexpected major event.

With the help of some of the most respected experts in accounting technology,
data backup, disaster planning and business continuity, along with our panel
of columnists, we now offer you an array of articles, advice and other information
– all centered around the topic of Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
Planning. We also will be presenting a free webcast on the subject on November
28 at 2:00 pm ET. All webcast attendess receive 2 hours of free CPE credit. Click
here to register
or for more information. Also check out the valuable information
on the blog at The Tech Gap.

While we hope that you never eed to utilize a disaster recovery plan, we hope
that this information provides you with the tools you need to develop a sound
strategy and continually evaluate your plan to keep your business, and those
of your clients, prepared to weather whatever future storms may arise.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Catastrophic
Disaster Planning and Recovery:
Lessons learned by a New Orleans CPA firm from Hurricane Katrina
It has been over a year since Hurricane Katrina
missed New Orleans, and not much has changed in the metropolitan area
since that fateful day on August 29, 2005. Over 80 percent of homes and
businesses in New Orleans are still uninhabitable. There is a shortage
of workers in the area…
Disaster Recovery
is … well … a Disaster!
The world changed forever on September 11, 2001.
Our inherent sense of security and stability was shaken as we watched
the chaos and terror created by a small number of people as they flew
airplanes loaded with passengers and fuel into buildings full of people.
The Most Common
Uncommon Disasters
On June 24 and 25, 2006, torrential rainfalls flooded
the IRS headquarters, leaving over 25 feet of water in the basements.
Over 2,700 workers were displaced, and 3 million gallons of water was
pumped out over four days to reveal damaged electrical systems, heating/cooling
systems and stored information.
Preparation:
Key to a Swift Recovery
Expect the unexpected. That’s the lesson
businesses and insurers alike should take away from the devastation wrought
by Katrina and Rita, which disrupted 125,000 small and midsize businesses,
according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Online B2B Disaster Recovery Database Available
Following the most active hurricane and natural disaster season in years, many businesses and organizations felt the frustration of not knowing where to turn to find the help they need to prepare for and recover from disasters.


Where Disaster
Recovery Meets Document Management!
Among other things, a disaster recovery plan covers
the data, hardware and software critical for a business to restart operations
in the event of a natural or human-caused disaster.
Top 25 Things
Every Accounting Firm Should Include in its Disaster Recovery
Plan
How secure is your company? Really? Don’t
just think or hope; take the necessary steps to protect your data and
your business.
Destroying/Erasing
Your Hard Drive
Many people have asked me recently about how to
eliminate data on their hard drives before they dispose of a computer.
Until recently, there have been no great solutions for dealing with
this.
Baseball &
Backups
A couple of months ago, the LA Dodgers were playing
great baseball and found themselves in the thick of the pennant race.
(For the non-sports fan out there, see “Wikipedia:
baseball”).
Software Companies
Also Are Strengthening Their IT
Software companies and other technology providers,
just like accounting and tax firms, are strengthening their IT infrastructure
to better serve their customers and also to increase their security
and durability.
Online B2B
Disaster Recovery Database Available
Easy Data Access (EDA) recently announced the release
of the Professional Edition of its Docsvault document management software, which
is geared toward individual professionals and Small Office/Home Office (SOHO) businesses.