The lessons from the catastrophe of 9/11 are all too often replayed with every new calamity that comes along. If your company's operations are in any way reliant on data stored on computers, you cannot afford to ignore the basic tenets of disaster recovery preparation. If data is not backed up a sufficient distance out of harm's way, your company may not survive the disaster. At some point, maintaining shareholder value and meeting regulatory criteria will become paramount in the disaster recovery discussion. I have distilled the basics of disaster recovery to a baker's dozen. Use this as a checklist to gauge -- and improve -- the effectiveness of your disaster recovery plan.