You might be aware that disasters of varying types can have devastating consequences on businesses. The key to mitigating such occurrences is to have a data recovery strategy plan in place. This means that you have a structured and documented approach detailing how your organization can resume work quickly after an unforeseen disaster. This is an essential tool for your company's continuity plan and applies to all parts of the organization that is dependent on your IT infrastructure. This data recovery plan will help you resolve any data loss and will allow the recovery of your system’s functionality. This means that you can continue operating your business with minimal disruption.
Types of Disasters to consider
Potential disasters are plentiful. We’re not just talking about hacking and data breaches, but natural disasters too. Being able to handle disasters efficiently means there will be minimal impact financially. Having a data recovery strategy plan will allow you to ensure that all requirements for compliance are met. The plan will also provide a clear recovery roadmap. Here are some of the potential disasters that might affect your businesses:
Building disaster (Fire, power outage, etc.)
Communication failure (Due to data breach, hacking or natural disaster)
Application failure (Outdated hardware, viruses, etc.)
Datacenter disaster (Hacking, data breach, natural disaster)
City disaster (Earthquake, tornado, flood, etc.)
Regional disaster (Power grid outage, wildfires, etc.)
National disaster (Epidemic)
Multinational disaster (Pandemic, computer viruses, ransomware)
You can see that this list covers lots of different types of disasters. It's worth noting, however, that it's not exhaustive. When making data recovery strategy plans, businesses need to consider their potential individual circumstances. If you’re based in the Midwest, for example, it’s very unlikely that your business will be affected by a volcanic eruption. But there are other natural disasters like floods or tornados that are more likely to happen. With that said, the 2010 Iceland volcanic eruption had repercussions worldwide, so you never know!
Considerations for your Data Recovery Plan
A data recovery strategy plan should begin at the business level. You need to determine what infrastructure is most important to your organization. The plan should implement an RTO (a recovery time objective), which describes how much time each application could be down for as a target.
A data recovery strategy defines your business’s plan for incident response. To determine your optimal data recovery strategy, you must consider the following issues:
Resources (both facilities and personnel)
Finances
Insurance
Data
Technology
Risks
Compliance requirements
The supply chain
How to write a Data Recovery Strategy Plan
A business can start its plan by prioritizing a list of contacts and vital software programs so that the most important information is easily and quickly accessible.
The data recovery plan should define each team member’s role and responsibilities in the recovery process. This is so there is no panic or time wasted should an unexpected disaster occur.
There are many important points to write into a data recovery plan. These include:
A policy statement or statement of intent.
Specific tasks assigned to staff.
Goals of the plan.
Passwords and other authentication tools essential to data recovery.
Geographical factors and risks appropriate to the local, regional or national area.
Advice on dealing with the media.
Legal and financial information with points of action.
A history of the plan – and any amendments that have been made to it.
As you can see, being prepared for these events is not difficult, but it will take some time. It is, however, very important that you take the time to complete it. You should also run through the plan in a mock rehearsal. That way you’ll find out if you’ve missed any steps or if there are gaps in your plan.
The bottom line is, you want to be as prepared as possible for any disaster that causes data loss. After all, keeping your doors open when other’s can't sure makes you the popular choice over your competitors.
If you need advice or want help to build your data recovery strategy plan, don’t hesitate to contact us. You can book a consultation at any time.
