In today’s world, cybercrime has become so prevalent that you can almost guarantee that your organization will fall victim to an attack or unforeseen flaw. How do you prepare for the day it happens?
That is where disaster recovery plans and Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) come in. It is the best way to ensure that even if you get hit, you can get yourself back up and running again.
This brief guide outlines what any good disaster recovery plan should have to prepare your organization for a day that you hope doesn’t come.
What Is Disaster Recovery?
Disaster recovery is when an organization recovers access and performance to its IT infrastructure following an event such as a natural disaster, a cyber assault, or even business interruptions caused by things like the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Central Tenets of a Disaster Recovery Plan
A good disaster recovery plan or DRaaS solution must specify the details of who, which, what, where/when, and how to deal with a disaster.
Let’s break it down:
1. The Who (A DRP Unit)
For any disaster recovery plan, you must know who will create and maintain the plan. In an emergency, there should be someone to call and specialists (as needed) to handle things like backups and recovery. The task force comes first.
2. The What (Risks and Causes)
This portion of the plan addresses the potential risks that could be a problem in the future and determines what causes each disaster as it happens. For instance, you have to look at the chances of a natural disaster, power outages, cyberattacks, sabotage, system failure, etc. Assessing each allows you to allocate resources to stop or mitigate each risk proportionately.
3. The Which (Which Resources Are Critical)
Of all the things you could back up as an organization, some are prioritized, given that they could be more important than others and most likely to hurt the worst if failover doesn’t happen quickly. They include apps, documents, access restrictions, files, etc. Classify everything in terms of priority to know where to start.
4. The Where/When (Data Recovery Procedures)
How do you back up or store critical resources? That is the question this portion seeks to answer. It would be best if you were very specific with what should be done while retaining simplicity so the relevant people can quickly follow the instructions. The details include how to handle sensitive data and any critical offline communications.
5. The How (Testing and Maintaining the Plan)
Testing involves running a mock disaster recovery procedure to see how well you do. Tests act like preparation drills in a fire station; everyone must know what to do in an emergency/disaster to mitigate the effects. Testing ensures that it can hold up in real-world conditions, while maintenance ensures every part of the plan is sharp and can be enacted quickly.
The Core of Disaster Recovery (Recovery Point Objectives & Recovery Point)
Two measurements matter the most when it comes to disaster recovery. They include:
- Recovery Time Objective (RTO): This is the time your business takes to restore its files from backup and resume regular operations following a disaster. As a result, RTO is the highest limit of disruption that your firm can tolerate.
- Recovery Point Objective (RPO): This is the upper age limit of files your company must restore from backup storage for regular operations to continue following a disaster. It establishes the bare minimum of backup regularity.
Once your RPO and RTO have been determined, your admins can utilize the two metrics to select the best disaster recovery techniques, processes, and technology.
To recover processes within shorter RTO periods, your business must effectively organize secondary data to be simply and swiftly available.
Data Recovery Plan Options
DRPs can be customized to fit any environment and include the following:
- Cloud DRP– Cloud-based disaster recovery can range from simple file backup to a full replication procedure. Cloud DRP saves time, space, and money, yet, it takes talent and good administration to keep it running.
- Virtualized DRP– Virtualization enables you to execute disaster recovery effectively and uncomplicatedly. You may quickly establish new VM instances in a virtualized environment and allow app backup and recovery.
- Network DRP– A DRP stores data particular to the network, such as its performance and connectivity personnel.
- Datacenter DRP– This strategy focuses on your facility’s data center and infrastructure. Operational risk assessments are critical in this DRP since it assesses the necessary components, such as the proposed site, protection, office space, power generation, and security.
To Wrap Up
It is challenging to prepare for a disaster. It necessitates a complete methodology that includes software, hardware, network infrastructure, connection, power, and testing to guarantee disaster recovery is accomplished within RPO and RTO standards.
For those who do not want to go through the trouble of it all, opting for Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) is a great way to accomplish everything necessary regarding disaster recovery without needing to create a whole infrastructure and personnel network yourself.