13 Questions To Help Prepare For A Disaster

Is your company prepared for a disaster? Here are some thought provoking questions to ask your technology and leadership teams.

Ayman Elsawah

Mar 13, 2023

volcano eruption during daytime — Photo by Yosh Ginsu on Unsplash

In light of the recent collapse of SVB and now Signature Bank and the possible ramifications across markets and industries, it made me ponder about worse case scenarios.

Below are some questions to ask of your technology and leadership team to help understand how prepared (or unprepared) you are for a disaster:

Disaster Prep Questions To Consider

What would happen if someone ran aws-nuke on your AWS Accounts or production infrastructure was completely destroyed or gone?
- Do you have any protections to prevent such a thing?
How long would it take to bring back operations?
- Do you have any contractual obligations regarding this timing?
Would you lose any data?
- What if you did lose any data? What’s the impact to the business?
Assuming you have backups…
- How long would it take to restore data?
- What’s the backup gap from real-time?
- Are you sure your backups are not corrupt and restorable?
What would you tell your customers in the event of a disaster? Who would tell them?
Do you have outside counsel with a response team on retainer if you need?

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