Author: Thejendra BS
ISBN No: 9781849285384
Review date: 15/04/2026
No of pages: 294
Publisher: IT Governance
Publisher URL:
http://www.itgovernance.co.uk
Year of publication: 01/09/2015
Brief:
Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity by Thejendra BS. Third edition, published 2014
price
£29.95
Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity, by Thejendra BS. Third edition, published 2014 by IT Governance.
If you find your organisation has blank computer screens, itโs too late to turn to Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity, by Thejendra BS – especially if you want to read the e-book or to order it online. That would be your own fault; and itโd be a pity, as the book is highly readable.
As the author points out early on, predictable disasters can strike, and hoping for the best, or paying for insurance, might not suffice. Whether due to a hacker or virus, fire, explosion or power cut, human error by a contractor, or failure of your data centre back-up, your computers may fail, and the inter-connectedness of business may mean that if part of your business or a supplier loses their IT systems, you canโt carry on either. And lost time can soon equal money. The bookโs sub-title is โa quick guide for organisations and business managersโ, and the author is as good as his word, noting that a technical disaster does not always require a technical solution: โItโs about providing quick workable alternatives to minimise adverse impact.โ He covers plenty of ground, as budgets are seldom unlimited and the DR and BC specialist or team has to consult with other managers. Information and cyber security for example take up two of the bookโs total of 15 chapters.
The writer does us a service by admitting disarmingly at the very start that disaster recovery and business continuity, DR and BC, โare often considered to be a costly, complex and over-complicated task that can only be handled by specialistsโ. The author instead takes you through the various terms and risks, and suggests that you can plan for DR and BC, by โqualified internal members of staff, contractors, external consultants and some common senseโ. Some of the authorโs generalisations can be queried – is it really true that โbusiness people prefer to avoid travel unless itโs absolutely essentialโ, for example?
As an example of how the book covers many angles at some speed, industrial espionage is done in three pages for instance. The author advises background checks on all staff, โespecially newly hired staffโ, storing data properly and using software tools to check if files are copied illegally, shredding documents once used, and hidden CCTV in restricted areas. As the author, an IT manager (and fan of cricket) in Bangalore, notes, thanks to mobile phones with cameras, anyone can photograph sensitive informationand send it by email via the mobile phone, without going through your computer network. The author, then, is alert to security besides IT in general. The book closes with a chapter on โhow do I get startedโ that details plans, making mock runs, and sample checklists. Itโs striking that although every recovery from disaster is unique, though IT is all about technology – and those specialists in the field might give that impression. So much is about finance, the law, and what we can sum up as โthe human factorโ, whether itโs a choice between outsourcing IT staff or not, or computer users falling for phishing attacks. While you can use sample or template checklists and plans, the author shows that you have to go into some detail, if not at first, and planning is a process and not a one-off. Do you have emergency contact numbers? Have you ever tried them after office hours?!
Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity, by Thejendra BS. Third edition, published 2014 by IT Governance, paperback, 284 pages. ISBN 9781-905356-19-5. Visit www.itgovernance.co.uk and www.thejendra.com.
