2 - WHERE can we go?

Where you need to go depends on what happened:

• You're systems are fine, you're not allowed in the building -  Are you setup to work from home? Can you do business from home? Lawyers, Programmers, Writers, etc. generally can. Retail & manufacturing operations can do most of the office work. Do you have more than one location? How many can work there?
• You're systems are down or disconnected, or gone - Well, to your previously prepared disaster recovery location! this can be:

1. Another location of the business that you have prepared to take over operations.
2. Another business that you are friendly with that has spare capacity.
3. A Disaster Recovery / Business Continuity facility.
4. A portable Disaster Recovery / Business Continuity facility that is delivered to you.

DR/BC facilities come in various flavors, with several types of services to help you recover. No matter which way you go, everyone of these need to be signed up for in advance, the contract will be multi-year, and paid monthly. This is a form of insurance, and like the insurance industry, no matter how many spokes-critters say differently, they really don't want to hear from you once they have that recurring revenue stream.

One option is to use a major DR/BC provider such as IBM or Sungard. They most likely have hardware that matches what you have, and completely configured sites for you to go to, all you need to do is get your data there. The downside is it's expensive, and the recovery site may not be geographically close to you.

Another option is to use a local / regional DR/BC provider. These companies often do DR/BC as an offshoot of another business, typically Systems Co-Location and/or Managed Services. Or the other way around. The downside here is that a regional disaster might damage them too, and the range of hardware and technical support available will be much less.

They types of facilities can be classified into 4 types:

1. Portable/Mobile - Trailers preconfigured with systems and infrastructure are brought to your site. Typical usage is if your facility is lost, but utilities and network connectivity are still available onsite.
2. Cold site - Office/work space. No IT infrastructure. At disaster declaration time systems and infrastructure will be need to be provided. Depending on time and cost, DR company can supply, a 3rd party such as a PC rental company, or you supply your own.
3. Warm site - Office/work space. Some IT infrastructure. Typically a phone system, and network connections are supplied when you walk in. PC's & servers are supplied as above.
4. Hot site - Fully configured and provisioned workspace with PC's, phones, and Datacenter area for servers. You may be provided with servers, or use yours that you have maintained there.

 The major providers can make all types available, and can do so in structured fashion. An example would be that the hot site is 100 miles away, you would plan to send just critical staff there for 3 days while the local cold site was provisioned, or the mobile units are delivered and setup.

These facilities have a fixed number of seats, and are sold by the seat. Seats can be shared, or dedicated. In the shared model, if 2 or more clients declare a disaster at the same time, each client gets a prorated portion of the seats. In the dedicated model, you get all the seats you have been paying for no matter who else declares.