In a previous blog, we explained the key elements of a business continuity plan that will keep your business operational during an unplanned outage, but how do you reestablish functions and get back on track operationally when disaster actually strikes? Often confused with or used interchangeably, disaster recovery planning is a subset of the business continuity (BC) plan to restore a company’s IT infrastructure and data access after a data or connection loss. Closely intertwined, a business continuity plan and a disaster recovery (DR) plan are both necessary to the company or organization because a business continuity plan cannot work without a method and steps to recover the data and programs used to manage the business. Take a look at how to create a DR plan that complements your BC plan.
Why You Need a Disaster Recovery Plan
When it comes to your resuming your business, time is everything. According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, up to 40% of small to mid-sized businesses never recover from a disaster. The primary goal for a business continuity plan is to keep your business running while your disaster recovery plan ensures the recovery of your lost/missing systems, networks, applications and valuable data.
A business continuity and disaster recovery strategy helps minimize interruptions to normal business operations by providing a smooth and quick restoration of service as quickly as possible. A methodical and carefully planned and tested DR solution saves you money, time and your hard-earned reputation.
Implementing Disaster Recovery Solutions
If you’ve followed the key steps to a business continuity plan, then you’re already on the right path. The business impact analysis you’ve run will help determine where to focus your efforts for disaster recovery. From there, creating a disaster recovery plan includes the following steps:
- Define your disaster recovery team and their roles. This cross-functional team consists of individuals from multiple departments who are tasked with bringing your business back online. Find out why you need more than just the IT team here.
- Prepare and identify disaster recovery procedures and strategies. This is a written document that establishes the scope of recovery necessary for your business’s critical assets with step-by-step procedures.
- Communicate by established notification rules and scripted responses. This will be the appropriate internal and external messaging that needs to be relayed once an incident has occurred.
- Assessment of damage. Once you have identified the system disruption damage, you can begin DR recovery actions and procedures, begin restoring your backups and systems or reconstructing a new data center or system.
Planning for data recovery may not be easy but there are resources available to you. Have questions about disaster recovery or need help from an outsourced team of experts? Contact Computer Solutions to operate as your outsourced IT company complete with disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS). From infrastructure assessments and business impact analyses to disaster recovery plans and disaster simulations, we can provide a custom solution to protect your business. Get started today with disaster recovery assessment today.
