By Taylor McKnight
Creating a disaster recovery plan is one of the most important things that a company can do. However, it can also be overlooked as not all that important, which tends to be increasingly likely the more time that has elapsed since the last disaster. Conversely, an up-to-date disaster recovery plan will help your organization respond quickly and effectively to unexpected circumstances in a manner that limits their impact on your bottom line and otherwise.
What Is a Disaster Recovery Plan?
A disaster recovery plan is a document that describes, in detail, what steps should be followed if a disaster occurs.
What is a disaster as it relates to this? Examples include earthquakes, floods, power outages, industrial accidents and cyberattacks. Not included are things like lawsuits, fraud or decreased cash flow.
What Factors Should Be Considered?
A number of considerations should be taken into account when creating a disaster recovery plan.
One is determining the services and applications that are most important as far as the running of the company is concerned. Related to that is determining what files should be retrieved from one or more back-up locations if regular access to those files has been compromised.
Also consider things like budget constraints, insurance coverage, how data is being backed up, how that data can be accessed during and after the disaster, the physical locations of affected elements, the technology necessary to get things running smoothly and regulatory and compliance regulations that should be followed.
Additionally, note your organization’s most critical assets, where it is most vulnerable and which staff members will be responsible for putting this plan into action, including what should happen if this disaster occurs during off-peak hours.
Having as much of this plan be virtualized as possible will usually result in it being more effective and faster. Consider making this as much of the focus as possible while also taking into account that doing so depends highly on what type of business is being covered by this plan.
Another consideration is the distance to any off-site locations that are relevant to this plan. For example, one close by has its positives as far as time spent traveling there following a disaster and otherwise are concerned, but if it is too close, it might end up being adversely affected by the same disaster.
Consider including in the plan what should be done if a scenario occurs that is not covered in it. In other words, what should happen then, particularly if someone is enacting the plan and has no one to contact for assistance? This is particularly important to prepare for if the time factor ends up being important.
What Should Be Avoided?
There are a few things that should be avoided in connection with a disaster recovery plan. These include not testing it as often as should be the case, not anticipating as many potential disasters as possible and neglecting to consider aspects such as customer service needs and employee engagement.
Written by Taylor McKnight, Author for CLDigital