There are a good few ways of saying it. ”Too err is human.”, Murphey’s law.. In Finland we might also hear, ”Elämä on..” (life is), or “Ei mennyt niin kuin Strömsössä” (It didn’t go as in Strömsö (village)). The point is, that despite all our best planning, for one reason or another things just don’t work out as we hoped. Having a disaster recovery plan is paramount.
The RedBull Flight Day is maybe the one day when failure is not only an option, it’s actually an expected. and even desired outcome! Think of the ”Wacky Races” but for home made aircraft. We had one recently here in Helsink, and I managed to get this clip of a flight attempt which failed beyond our wildest dreams.
The build-up had been amazing. The team’s pre-flight show was well thought out and performed. The aircraft looked like it might actually get to the other side of the lake entirely. The wings were pretty long, and looked like ”real” wings.”. The tail seemed well adjusted to lift the nose. Quite unlike the flying sauna from earlier…
And then .. disaster .. I felt really sorry for the whole team. At least the flying sauna had managed to leave the runway .. About half way down the run way, a freak gust of wind from the side tipped the whole contraption over, and threw the pilot out into the safely netting. She was fine!
They had planned for a disaster, and the recovery of the pilot from the netting took only a moment.
So ..
What’s your recovery plan in case of disaster?
It’s a fair certainty that at one point your phone, computer, printer, file server .. something, will fail. It might a minor software failure which just needs the device to be rebooted. Or alternatively it might be a much more significant failure which requires a critical component or piece hardware to be replaced.
The buzz word here is ”redundancy”. Having a copy which can be brought into use at short notice. It can be redundant hardware which can instantly take up the load. It could be “redundant” data. A backup, from which your live data can be rebuilt. Without redundancy or backups, a failure could feel like the end the world. Loss of precious memories, loss of important files, loss of customer data, loss of productivity.
Should failure strike, I am very able to help you recover in terms of replacing broken parts, reinstalling operating systems and software, trying to recover lost data, etc .. These “fire-fighting” operations are a common feature in the life of IT Support.
But .. what if, even if you not are actually desiring failure, you are actively prepared for it? Rather, your data is backed up and easily accessible. Depending on your budget, you have spare parts ready on the shelf. You maybe even have an automated system in place which keeps key systems running seamlessly whilst repairs are taking place? You have a disaster recovery plan, and it performs flawlessly. Your memories, files, data, and hair, are all safe.
Let’s a have a coffee together and look at how prepared you are; so we make sure that the potential “oh no ..” moment is an “Ah, I’ve got this!” moment.
