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I won't get into the cost of downtime here, but I will say this: It's expensive, and it's not just downtime. It's the total cost of business recovery. Try looking at it this way: If you're down for five days, how long will it take you to win back the customers you will have lost in that time? The answer to that question is documented elsewhere (see Disaster Recovery Journal at www.drj.com), and though it is an important point, it's not really the point.

The point is actually staring you in the face--at least that's what the Motley Fool at www.fool.com thinks. Every business day the Motley Fool publishes the "Daily Double," a commentary on a company whose stock has gone through the roof. It also publishes the "Daily Trouble," a commentary on a company whose stock has gone into the cellar. Accompanying the anointment is an analysis of how you--the long -suffering workaholic--could have pick ed the winning stock six months ago. See, all that was really required of you was to pay attention to all the information about that company. And that information was located in plain sight--in the company's annual report or SEC documents--available for you to see, every business day. Believe me, it's a real pick-me-up after a 12-hour day.

So, once your shop gets hit with a devastating natural disaster or man-made snafu, what will be staring you in the face?

Keenly Observe the Obvious A few major trends, with minor underpinnings, illustrate the fact that both disaster recovery and nonstop networking are within reach for more and more shops. Of all the initiatives, standards and products out there, which ones can you leverage into a successful disaster-recovery/nonstop networking project?

· Obvious Fact No. 1: A travel agent is not a mountain climber. Along those lines, the person who facilitates the operation of your network is not necessarily the best person to design, implement and execute a disaster recovery or nonstop networking plan. The average corporate middle manager spends most of his time avoiding work and responsibility. There is nothing in his background to indicate that he is ready for a task like business resumption. Yet, folks like him are often the ones to whom this task falls. Let's look at this in contrast to mountain climbers, where what's at stake if there's no disaster recovery plan is a lot greater than a loss of revenue.

Mountain climbers use a mnemonic, SRENE, to describe the safety and backup scheme for getting a party of climbers up thousands of feet of vertical rock over multiple days of sustained exposure to the elements and human error. A climber is serene about his or her chances for survival if every placement is Solid, Redundant, Equalized and NonExtensible. Let's look at these one at a time. Solid: Each link in the climber's network is high-quality, matched to its task and its capacity far exceeds its routine use. Redund ant: If any link fails, a backup link exists. Equalized: The primary and backup links share equal loads at all times, under all conditions. Nonextensible: If the primary links fail, the system switches the load to the backup links without shocking them. This working theory has made bold climbers old climbers. It's also a worthy philosophy to contemplate as you design your network.

Let's note what should now be obvious: Make sure that the manager in charge of your resiliency/disaster effort is someone who can think on her feet and who knows the implications of risk and the meaning of responsibility.