A Disaster Recovery Plan is exactly what the name might suggest. It is a type of documentation for organizations that contains detailed instructions on how to respond to unplanned events. These events could include something like a natural disaster, power outages, or even cyber attacks.
What are the phases of a Disaster Recovery Plan?
When it comes to a good Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP), there are three big stages involved; Assessment, Restoration, and Recovery. Likewise, you should work towards the prevention of things that would enact the protocol. Moreover, you need to ensure your business is as best prepared as possible with critical steps to take as well.
Assessment
This is arguably the most important phase of a DRP. However, it also is one of the most overlooked and underused parts. You should be able to assess the extent of damage when a disaster occurs. You must understand and prepare for the next steps. You need to have the ability to answer three different questions:
“How is IT affected by this?”
“Is there any risk to services not affected right now?”
“Can this be done off-site of where the disaster took place?”
Moreover, other questions can help clarify the situation as you move along the phases of a DRP.
Restoration
This phase may refer to being able to restore services and procedures at a secondary site. However, it also may mean restoring operations at the main site of the disaster. Furthermore, during restoration, communication is key and king. Make sure your restoration team knows the logistics of the situation. Your team also needs to know what the plan is, and how they are expected to report any problems. Team leaders should ask for updates. Leaders also need to make sure tasks are still being completed and on time. This is where you can build effectiveness in putting things back into place and together.
Recovery
Recovery may seem like a part of the restoration process but there is a separation when it comes to a Disaster Recovery Plan. Restoration works on putting things back together the way they were before, or even to an intermediary functional state. However, recovery deals with gaining back possession of files in the case of a cyber-attack. Similarly, it can also deal with recovering people’s personal belongings in the case of a natural disaster. There are some things to consider during the recovery portion of the plan, such as identifying points where data could be lost, what processes need to be changed with third-party interfaces, and lastly, which critical systems may be running while those outside of those systems may still be down.
Making sure your recovery plan has these three phases is very important to having a good DRP. It is just as important for you to look over and identify any possible upgrades and/or improvements. Your company will continue to grow, so it will need upgrades/improvements for it to grow, progress, and evolve.
How To Write A Good Disaster Recovery Plan
When it comes to making a good DRP, there are a few factors in play and some steps that need to be followed along the way.
Create a disaster recovery team
This team will be in charge of everything that happens with plotting out and implementing a DRP. The team putting the DRP together is also in charge of making sure the right personnel are in place to carry out the plan when it needs to be enacted.
Identifying disaster risks
Assessment when things get into place, is just as important as assessing the risk factors before a situation occurs; this will make sure that your team is more prepared and will have a better chance to contain the situation when it arises. While assessing, you can create strategies for recovery and put the resources in place to recover from things such as natural disasters and man-made emergencies.
Determine what is critical to operations
When it comes to disasters, being able to be back on your feet promptly is of the utmost importance. A DRP should focus on what you need in the short term, creating enough cash flow to get the critical things done that need to be achieved for this restoration.
Back-up and Off-site Storage
Having backups in case of emergency is key in any part of life, from a phone backup to physical files and everything in between. It needs to be outlined in your DRP what files need to be backed up, by whom, and the process to do so.
Test and maintain
Any good part of a document in the workplace is to make sure it makes sense and works, but also that it is updated as time goes on. If you have outdated documents, it will only lead to confusion among those who are enacting the protocol needed in an already dire situation.
Making sure you have the right people in place to write your disaster recovery plan is essential to its effectiveness, and there’s no better group than Essential Data’s technical writing team for the job!
What are the benefits Of Having a Disaster Recovery Plan?
There are a number of benefits to having a DRP for your business. One of the big ones is that to have a current and up-to-date DRP, you will need to know what’s in your inventory and therefore have a good assessment of that at all times. Another big one is the cost reduction it will provide, knowing what areas you lose money in to keep a current DRP is a huge benefit. If you need a hardware upgrade, then maintaining the network should point that out for cost savings.
Having a DRP will help also with how expensive downtime is; when a disaster does happen, having the right document can help you manage the time you are down and minimize the cost associated with that.
When it comes to protecting your business, the professional writers at EDC can help you develop and maintain a disaster recovery plan with the multitude of services we offer, while also giving you the tools to get your process off the ground and running efficiently.
We have a team of consultants ready to produce a complete line of documentation. Perhaps you may only need a single technical writer for a brief project. Either way Essential Data’s Engagement Manager will lead the project from start to finish. At Essential Data Corporation, we guarantee the quality of our work. Contact us today to get started. (800) 221-0093 or sales@edc.us
Written by Dylan Friebel