Disaster Recovery Planning & Why It’s Important
A disaster recovery plan, sometimes referred to as a “business continuity plan”, is the planned set of actions that an organization will take in the event of a disaster or failure of critical business systems. Disaster recovery is almost always synonymous with IT or critical business functions. Having an effective and clear disaster recovery plan can help any organization resume business as usual as quickly as possible after a disaster. Here we’ll talk about some of the potential issues that can arise, how they can affect day-to-day operations, and how you can begin forming a solid disaster recovery plan.
What Is A ‘Disaster’?
A disaster, in the context we’re discussing today, could mean anything – a major weather event, terrorist attack, cyber attack, or malicious software attack. Cyber attacks are becoming more prevalent, and it’s important for businesses not only to have proper data security but a plan to recover after such an attack. We recently talked about how data security is becoming more and more important after recent attacks on major corporations such as Target and Apple.
How Crucial Is Having A DR Plan?
Of course, creating and implementing a disaster recovery plan, or how robust it may be is up to the individual organization and could change based on what type of business they do and how critical it is to have systems back up and running as quickly as possible. For instance, a financial firm that trade stocks will want their critical systems up and running at all times, so if something fails, they want a completely redundant system set up (possibly multiple redundancies) to maintain business as usual. However, a small shipping company may be able to sustain several hours of downtime without it affecting critical business, so their plan may be less diverse.
In the end, having a disaster recovery plan of some kind is absolutely imperative. Having downtime in the business world could be factor of whether or the not the business is successful or profitable – or even sustainable. Creating and implementing even the simplest of disaster recovery plans will allow your staff to know exactly what needs to be done and how it should be done when the time comes. While a disaster may not be imminent for most businesses, it is still a possibility, so a solid DR plan is a must.
How Do I Create & Implement A DR Plan?
The first step to creating and implementing a disaster recovery plans is to have a Business Impact Analysis (BIA). This analysis will allow your organization to discover what is critical to everyday business and learn how to prevent unforeseen disaster events. It will also provide the basis for building a reliable disaster recovery plan.
Implementing such plans simply means educating your employees on what to do in disaster situations, and testing your DR plan to see its effectiveness. Neovera is a leader in Disaster Recovery planning and solutions that are geared towards each individual organization, without any “boilerplate” type planning.
If your organization is unfamiliar with disaster recovery, or doesn’t have the necessary skills to create and implement such a strategy consulting with industry experts is the necessary route to take. Again, if critical business systems shut down and disrupt the continuity of your business it could mean lost customers, lower revenues, or worse. Don’t let a poor disaster recovery plan disrupt your business.