Re: Disaster Recovery Plan
Ryan,
I work at a small to medium offset shop (14 employees), and we have 3 main elements in our disaster plan.
First, all our customer records (since we converted from a ledger card system to Filemaker Pro in 1998), are backed up every couple of days to a flash drive that goes off site. Same with our accounting records, they are backed up to a Firewire drive at the end of every day.
Second, all art files are backed up about once a month to a Firewire drive that is stored off site. It should be more often, but you know how that goes. This doesn't cover all the old archived files - stuff put on CD 5 or 6 years ago. It also doesn't cover our technical pen and galley type art boards from the 80's, but you have to draw the line somewhere.
Third, we paid for all our entire shop to be documented by a company that does such things for insurance purposes. They videotaped the entire shop, just to get a feel for shelving, miscellaneous tools, etc. Every item with a serial number was recored with model, description, cost, date purchased, serial number. This list includes everything from presses to spectrophotometers. All software was recorded as well, with serial numbers, etc. All this information is kept in the company's safe deposit box.
What would likely happen in the event of a major catastrophe, is that we would take our customer records and art files and start knocking on doors looking for a buyer for the business. It would take months to make a start at re-equipping a shop, and our customers would expect their jobs within days. The asset documentation would just be icing on the cake for the owners, to get the insurance company to pay full price for all items lost, not just their 20 cents on the dollar initial offer.
Protect the data, the other "stuff" is just going to be numbers on an insurance cheque.