Success factors for IS disaster recovery planning in Hong Kong

The organization of information technology components into effective enterprise information systems is fast becoming a basic infra-structural and operational necessity for every organization and business sector. These information systems must be well managed, cost-efficient, legal, and safe. There is a growing reliance upon IT in many organizations to the point of mission-criticality. Ideas from disaster recovery planning (DRP) can and should be applied to installed information systems and the new information services whose continuous and reliable functioning may be vital to the organization. This paper reviews the literature concerning the factors that have been identified as essential to the development of DRPs in organizations. As a result of a survey study of four business sectors in Hong Kong: banking, manufacturing, trading, and hotels – the top five critical factors for a successful DRP in information systems are identified with the preferred patterns of DRP identical for three of these sectors.