Who hasn't experienced that one irreversible mistake that has wiped out an entire document and, in some cases, an entire hard drive? Then you understand the pain that one computer techie felt when his mistake caused a loss to an account worth $38 billion. The technician, performing routine maintenance, accidentally wiped out application information in an account - and managed to reformat the backup drive at the same time.

However, the Alaska Department of Revenue, owners of the drive and information in question, had a backup plan. They had a worst-case-scenario plan in place, which came in handy. This soon became exactly that - a worst-case scenario. Nine months worth of hard data had been erased, and scanned images (much of it personal information on applicants) were gone.

Thank goodness for paper - the Alaska Department of Revenue had most of the missing data stored in boxes - more than 300 boxes, to be precise. Because the Department had to meet its obligations to pay those within the fund, the data had to be restored as quickly as possible. It took 70 workers doing overtime and weekends, but the data - all 800,000 images - was restored in time for the Department to meet its obligations. The cost - $200,000.

So what's your backup plan? That scenario involved one file. Imagine the impact on your business if one or more files disappear. What would you do? IT managers should understand what a worst-case scenario looks like for their companies and plan for it now.