Mapping out all the preparations necessary for an effective disaster recovery plan and its safeguard—a continuous maintenance program—this guide is aimed at IT managers of small and medium businesses. The opening section covers the initial steps of auditing vulnerability, ranking essential IT functions, and reviewing the storage of tape backups, with the following discussion focused on the elements of the plan itself. The plan includes a mission statement, a definition of disaster, the assignment of staff to teams, methods of compensating for human error, and standards for documenting the steps of recovery. The final portion of the guide covers the all-important initial testing of the system as well as the proper maintenance thereafter and weighs in on the pros and cons of using outside vendors for recovery systems.