Staging Your DR Plan
One way to implement a Disaster Recovery Plan would include two stages toward completion. With a commitment to completing these stages, your operation will be protected from the definite consequences of any disaster that may occur.
STAGE I
Step One should consist of the signing of a base disaster recovery contract with a vendor that you feel will be able to satisfy your requirements over a long period of time. Remember that a commitment to disaster recovery is not for the short fall, but for the long term protection of your organization. Therefore since your investment both in time and money will be considerable, you must make sure that this investment is made wisely.
Any disaster recovery vendor should offer contract terms that will fit your particular needs. A five year term may not be in your best interest therefore your vendor should be able to provide terms that will best serve you and not that vendor. As an example you may require that the initial term be a period of six months with some automatic extension at the end of this period. This will give you the leverage to get out of an unsatisfactory arrangement while at the same time protecting the vendor's investment if the service is as advertised.
Possibly the most important aspect of your contract is if the vendors guarantee that you will have access to the facility in case of a disaster. If there is a remote possibility that you would not have access to the disaster recovery facility, then the vendor should be scratched from consideration. Also, delete any vendor that restricts your usage of the facility to a certain time frame as it only serves to hinder any recovery if you are forced to pack up and move to another site prior to having your home site back in operation.
When negotiating your hardware configuration make sure that you have a certain amount of dedicated resources