On a daily basis, your business uses electronic email, Voice Over Internet Protocol telephone systems, electronic data sharing, servers that store critical business data, and numerous devices used by employees that hold information essential for your company to run. What would your business do if something happens that causes your data and information to be lost, destroyed or corrupted? Â Hardware failure, human error, catastrophic natural disaster or hacking are only a few of the things that could go wrong. Every company needs a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) to keep a business running and to recover/restore hardware, applications and data that is vital to the survival and continued operation of your business.
Creating a disaster recover plan takes much more than just the members of your IT department – it takes the whole company to identify threats as well as areas that will need to take priority when it comes to recovery and restoration. Here are some things to consider when drafting your DRP.
- Perform a risk assessment (RA) and/or business impact analysis (BIA)
- Identify critical systems and establish recovery time objectives (RTOs) and recovery point objectives (RPOs).
- Plan ahead for what strategy you will need to use when responding to whatever the crisis might be as well as what the possible recovery strategies could be depending upon the situation.
- Include in your strategy who would be responsible for what, and try to plan a budget in advance for whatever may happen.
- Planning should also take into consideration what happens if your physical workspace is compromised. Are there alternate work areas within the same site, at a different company location, at a third-party-provided location, at employees’ homes, or at a transportable work facility.
- Access to technology should also be a consideration. What if hardware is ruined? Is there an alternate technology that can be used? Are there companies in your field of expertise that would allow use of their equipment on a temporary basis?
- Data backup is also a huge issue when it comes to a disaster. Do you have a backup plan, alternate tech support or a qualified third party provider?
- Call M&H Consulting to help plan your DRP and make sure you are covered in the event of a “worst case scenario.
Categorised in: data management, disaster recovery, Security