Forming a disaster recovery plan is not on the top of your list of favorite things to do - but it's not hard to argue that it should be. As ransomware, cybercrime, and general cyber security breaches become more and more sophisticated, it is crucial for organizations to define their data recovery and protection strategies. Businesses of all sizes create and store large volumes of data, which can be vital to survival and ongoing operations.
A disaster recovery plan is a policy or process integrated into your business continuity plan that outlines the recovery process in the event of a critical incident, such as a cyber-attack, fire, flood, or other disasters. The main purpose is to explain the actions that must be taken when an IT disaster occurs so that you can fully recover and be up and running as quickly as possible. The result: reduced downtime and minimized financial and reputational damage.
A disaster recovery plan should:
- Outline of the personnel who are responsible for executing the plan
- List current IT inventory including hardware and software assets
- Include environmental and technological disasters.
- Consider both malicious and accidental incidents
- Estimate how fast you could be back up and running in the event of a disaster
- ensure your data is backed-up on a daily basis
- Plan a process and firmly understand what steps and costs would be involved to rebuild and recover your data if you had to
