17 Steps of Disaster Recovery Plan

Businesses are prone to many threats.

These threats are possible in all shapes and sizes, from natural to human errors.

Disaster recovery plans assist the organizations in resuming their work quickly after an attack.

It helps organizations recover any lost data or system information.

Let us have a look at the steps involved in a data recovery plan.

Complete List of Steps to Recover from Data Disaster

Here the focus should be as to what is to be recovered in the event of any disaster.

It can include RTO (Recovery time objective) and RPO (Recovery point objective).

RTO will help users in determining the recovery of the system in case of any disaster.

RPO will assure the safety of the maximum amount of data that can help in the normal functioning of systems in case of disaster.

This step allows you to perform an assessment of possible disaster situations that could harm the organization.

Possible disaster situations might include:

• Fire
• Cyberattack
• Supplier failure
• Vendor failure
• Hardware failure
• Office accidents
• Human error

Also Read: 4 Best Practices For Data Mapping

Perform a risk assessment test on business assets. Also, a user needs to have a clear understanding of the deficiencies that could further affect these assets' performance.

These assets might include:

• Property
• Hardware Infrastructure
• Software assets

Include the details of every person in daily communications.

These personnel could be external as well as internal to the organization.

This step will act as a backup communication for every person involved in daily communications of business.

Apart from the name, contact, and email ids, these details should also contain the responsibilities they handle for the organization.

In the chaos, employees or subordinates will look at the authoritative person for the directions.

Set up an authority to help people understand who will be in charge, in case of absenteeism of crucial personals.

Check every inventory's status, whether it is leased, owned, or only used as service.

Check the list of the manufacturer, model, serial number, and cost.

Check the blueprints of network infrastructure in use.

This will eventually help in rebuilding and restoring the full system.

Documents need to be kept available for easy access.

In case your current working infrastructure is damaged. Be prepared with other backup options. Ask questions to yourself like:

• Can work be completed remotely?
• What asset is currently of more importance?
• Is there any temporary facility available for work?

Choosing the right method for data recovery for your organization is very critical.

The right method will either increase your cost or else will be entirely in your budget.

Factors that could show its effect on users' cost can be storage space offerings, configuration complexities, etc.

There are many methods like RAID recovery, tape recovery, and hard drive recovery.

Some organizations have specific applications or systems without the availability of which, complexities could be created in restoration.

While working on data recovery plans, a user should also keep a check of all such assets that are a priority and need urgent restoration time.

Create a backup plan keeping in mind various situations like power failure, system failure, internet failure, architectural failure, and more.

Keeping an inclusive checklist for disaster identification will ease the process and help in the quick implementation of data recovery plans.

After you have identified the disaster incident, a well-documented disaster recovery plan will help efficiently recover the organization from disaster.

It is better for the users that the disaster recovery plan is according to the standards like recovery time and data recovery objectives.

All the technical and manual plans for recovering data should be neatly and well written to speed up the data recovery process.

Consent from your team is an essential part while placing a disaster recovery plan.

Take feedbacks from every department of the organization. Explain the plans to them.

Bring them into the confidence and on the same page while approving a disaster recovery plan.

Merely a plan won’t do anything useful.

Creating an efficient team for the same is needed too.

Train this team to be responsive enough for any disaster.

The selected team should be well trained as to how to respond in a particular type of disaster.

After a user is done creating a disaster recovery plan, it will be better to check its effectiveness by putting it to test.

By creating a dummy disaster drill, users will have an accurate idea of as to what is the effectiveness of such a plan.

Not only the plan, but users would be able to learn from the test about staff responsiveness during this drill.

Users will get an idea about their readiness and plan effectiveness.

It is always in the organizations' best interest to be prepared with a separate facility wherein they can safeguard their data from any human or natural disaster.

Such a facility should have all the system substitutes, network alternatives, proper power, and security arrangements.

This will help in the smooth functioning of the organization in the quickest possible time.

If the organization introduces any new ideas or procedures that can provide them assistance in better ways in case of any disaster, it should be properly updated.

If any changes are done in applications, network systems or configurations should be recorded and updated.

The disaster recovery plan should be current, not outdated.

Regularly tested plans are effective and provide users with better information as well as outputs.

All of the steps mentioned in the disaster recovery plans should be routinely tested.

It is more effective when every team takes part in this practice. This team involved in this entire process is a must.

Conclusion

Businesses can’t escape disasters. Having a disaster recovery plan assists organizations in speeding up their process of recovery.

However, while opting for a disaster recovery plan do take into consideration the business architecture of your organization.

Also Read: What is the Importance of Data Management in different Organizations?