Since its birth in the 1950s, the business recovery industry has continued to broaden, moving from original batch application processing on mainframes to include recovery for telecommunications connectivity, distributed processing on mid-range systems, and most recently, network and work area recovery. Whenever accidents, disasters and natural events interrupt business activities, one thing is certain: businesses lose money. How much money often depends on how prepared companies are for dealing with business interruptions. This primer is intended to help businesses plan for an occurrence that could mean a business stoppage. It helps you evaluate your business in terms of vulnerability to disaster and guides you through the process of creating a disaster recovery plan.