Planning Storage Environments › Catastrophic Events › Risk Assessment

Risk Assessment

Before going further, decide what sorts of disaster you can realistically prepare for, given the importance of your data, the expense of protecting it, the magnitude of the risk, and the corporate policies that apply to your sites.

Consider the following questions.

• What is the likelihood that your organization will face a large-scale disaster that affects the whole region or metropolitan area? Such catastrophes might include earthquakes, large floods, or acts of war.
• What is the likelihood of smaller disasters, such as building fires, localized flooding, or vandalism?
• How much data would you lose in a large disaster? In a small disaster?
• How severely would the loss affect your organization in each case?
• How much is your organization prepared to spend to defend against each of the risks you identify?