The process of reclaiming or refurbishing computer hardware, vital records, office facilities, etc., following a disaster.

Specified procedures to be activated if equipment or a facility should suffer any destruction.

A generic disaster recovery plan that can be tailored to fit a particular organization.

Data communications via satellite. For geographically dispersed organizations, may be viable alternative to ground-based communications in
the event of a disaster.

A predefined set of events and conditions which describe an interruption,
disruption or disaster related to some aspect(s) of an organization’s business for purposes of exercising a recovery plan(s).

Predefined areas of operation for which a disaster recovery plan is developed.

Disasters which occur as collateral events associated with a primary disaster. Earthquakes are primary disasters which may cause subsequent fires, etc.

A data processing utility that provides processing capability, normally for specialized processing, such as payroll.

An agreement between a service provider and service user as to the nature, quality, availability and scope of the service to be provided.

An approach to data backup in which real-time duplicates of critical files are maintained at a remote processing site. Similar Terms: remote mirroring.

A test of recovery procedures under conditions approximating a specific disaster scenario. This may involve designated units of the organization actually ceasing normal operations while exercising their procedures.

An element of a system for which no redundancy exists. A failure of such a component may disable the entire system.

A roster of employees that lists their skills that apply to recovery.

Any incident or happening that affects the well-being of a population and which is often not financially quantifiable.

Processing, typically on a PC or mid-range computer, which does not require any communication link with a mainframe or other processor.

Formal notification that the alert may be called off or that the state of
disaster is over.

Team members walk through the plan to identify and correct weaknesses.

Contract commitment providing an organization with the right to utilize a vendor recovery facility for recovery of their mainframe processing capability. Usually requires a subscription fee.

A planned interruption in system availability for scheduled system maintenance.

An unplanned interruption in system availability as a result of computer hardware or software problems, or operational problems.