Disaster recovery planning and business continuity for informaticians
| Published date | 08 May 2017 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/DLP-02-2017-0007 |
| Date | 08 May 2017 |
| Pages | 78-81 |
| Author | H. Frank Cervone |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Librarianship/library management,Library technology,Records management & preservation,Information repositories |
TOPICS IN DATA SCIENCE AND
INFORMATICS
Disaster recovery planning
and business continuity
for informaticians
H. Frank Cervone
School of Public Health, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper isto address the problems associated with informatics and analytics
projects that are developed in an “organic”manner. As such, this often circumvents formal project
management principles and practices. The decision to do this is determined by organizational factors;
however, even in an informal environment,ensuring that adequate disaster recovery and business continuity
plans are in place for all mission-criticalapplications is vital to ensure the long-term survival prospects of an
organizationin the event of a disaster.
Design/methodology/approach –By adapting the principles and techniques of traditional disaster
recoveryand business continuity planning,an informatician candevelop plans that integratethe requirements
of their projects into a larger, organization-wide plan to recover from incidents and ensure continuity of
businessoperations.
Findings –The use of disaster recovery planning and business continuity planning can help ensure the
long-termviability of informatics and analytics projects withinan organization.
Originality/value –Most businesscontinuity planning is focused on projectsthat are formally developed
and relatively large in scale. This paper applies these principles and practices to informatics and analytics
projects that are developed informally and managed casually. Thorough an example, the point that more
traditional disaster recovery and continuity practices can and should be applied in this less-formal
environmentis demonstrated.
Keywords Business continuity planning, Business impact and risk analysis for informatics,
Disaster recovery planning, DRP, BCP and BIRA, Informatics project planning,
Risk prioritization in informatics projects
Paper type General review
Introduction
The principles and practices of disaster recovery planning (DRP) and business continuity
planning (BCP), while constantly evolving, are well established in the information
technology community (Myers, 1993). However, as analytics and informatics projects often
develop organically within organizations, the implementation of these projects often
develops in response to community needs (Couldry and Powell, 2014), and it may not take
into account some of the more formalpractices used in IT project planning.
This should be a concern for informaticians because informatics projects, even those
that originate organically, are often critical to the operations and sustainability of an
organization. When you consider that two out of five organizations that experience a
DLP
33,2
78
Received15 February 2017
Accepted15 February 2017
DigitalLibrary Perspectives
Vol.33 No. 2, 2017
pp. 78-81
© Emerald Publishing Limited
2059-5816
DOI 10.1108/DLP-02-2017-0007
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