Has your business ever grinded to a standstill? From natural disasters to sophisticated cyber attacks to something as basic as a power outage or a hardware failure, there are always disruptions in the way of your business growth. So given the issues businesses face these days, this is no shocker. Disruptions of all sorts are there to hinder your business growth.
Setting all of that aside, there is something that exists to mitigate such situations. The very known Disaster Recovery Plan or DRP as it is called. It is a comprehensive strategy that comes into action after a business or infrastructural disruption has taken place. Its key objective is to restore all the vital operational components to the affected businesses while minimizing the downtime.
When a disaster strikes, most businesses end up remaining dormant and inactive for a significant time-period. Just in 2023 alone, almost 73% of businesses paid ransomware to retrieve their data. The out-percentage of losses is astounding – loss of revenue alongside client dissatisfaction can be very catastrophic. And let’s not forget the legal issues in terms of legislation non-compliance and potential data breaches.
Setting all of those concerns aside, fear not! In this article, we’ve provided you with 5 business disaster recovery plan actionable strategies that are sure to improve your business’s disaster recovery plan. If you implement these 5 strategies, you are sure to minimize the impact of unforeseen events.
Let’s begin!
Establishing Clear Recovery Metrics (RTO and RPO)
What is the bedrock of any effective disaster recovery plan? The answer is to establish clear recovery metrics. Two of the most fundamental metrics are Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO). If you were to combine these two, you’ll get the framework that defines your recovery strategy. Do not take these two strategies lightly; they are not just good practice but essential for minimizing disruption and ensuring business survival.
Recovery Time Objective (RTO)
How long can you afford to be down before experiencing unacceptable consequences? The entire foundation of RTO is based on answering this one question. Think of it like this; it is the maximum acceptable duration of downtime of a specific IT system or business process after a disaster. Do not make the mistake of thinking this will be the same for all business types or all IT systems.
For an e-commerce platform, you’ll have a short RTO, maybe a few hours or less because every minute of downtime is resulting in lost sales. But if you were to compare it to an internal document archive that is not as critical, your RTO will increase to a day or two. It is basically a deadline for when systems must be operational again.
Recovery Point Objective (RPO)
Apart from time, another key aspect that is extremely valuable and is often lost during disasters is data. Hence, the RPO measures the maximum amount of data loss that is acceptable in the event of a disaster. Simply put, here is the question you’re looking to answer, “How much data are we willing to lose?”
Once again, it will vary depending on the business. For example, if your business processes real-time financial transactions, your RPO will be of a few minutes max! That’s because you’ll need to perform backups frequently. In contrast, a company that has less critical data will have a longer RPO which can be in the range of 20-24 hours.
Business Impact Analysis
Measuring RTO and RPO is not a stab in the dark, you need to run a systematic process which will help you identify the critical business functions and assess the impact of their disruptions. That’s where the business impact analysis (BIA) comes in: it tells you which systems and data to prioritize based on their importance to the business.
After the BIA, you’ll have both the RTO and RPO in a well-defined form, ready to move onto the next phase. Keep in mind! If your RTOs and RPOs are too far apart from the business and risk appetite, you will suffer the most when disaster strikes. One last piece of advice; the further your RTO and RPO distances are, the more investment firms will make in resources and technology to defend against catastrophes so that their disaster recovery plans are less fragile.
Develop a Comprehensive and Accessible Disaster Recovery Playbook
In a digital business world, every second counts when catastrophe strikes. A guaranteed approach to staying ahead is having a well prepared Disaster Recovery Playbook. Envision being able to control operations from a command center while the disaster is taking place. Rather than waiting for the crisis to react, why not have clear step by step guides on what each person is supposed to do when a disaster hits.
Clearly Defined Goals and Objectives
Rather than having to articulate the purpose of the DRP when disaster has occurred, why not do it in the playbook? How much easier would it be if you had a step-by-step guide on what to do during and after a disaster! That’s why you need to ensure that the playbook has instructions written in active voice, e.g. “Restart server A,” not something like “Server A will be restarted.” Another example could be, “Isolate the affected network segment immediately” which is far better than to have, “The affected network segment should be isolated.”
Clearly Defined Roles and Responsibilities
What about the personnel who are supposed to carry out this recovery mission? Do they have specific roles or are we expecting everyone to be clueless when disaster occurs? That’s where the playbook must have a well-defined section on who does what. For instance, if databases are to be restored or stakeholders are to be communicated, each task should be given to a designated member of the team to avoid confusion.
Also make sure that the contact information is updated regularly in the playbook with multiple modes of communication like phone, email, messaging apps, etc.
Clear Escalation Procedures
When and how should one escalate the matter to upper management or external support? No one pays attention to minor problems—only to see them balloon into major issues. Therefore, to avoid this, problems need to be focused on and solved quickly and efficiently with reasonable approaches.
Prioritize Employee Education, Training, and Regular Testing
A disaster recovery plan does not only depend on the plan itself, but how it is implemented. Therefore, while planning for a disaster recovery procedure, other factors like employee training, education and training exercises must be factored in. This is a perfect way of ensuring that the complex emergency procedures formulated are streamlined so that they can be followed easily by everyone involved and gone through without chaos.
Testing Methods
- Tabletop Exercises: Develop fictional adverse events and let everyone involved, including management participate. This should highlight the gaps in training so that the responding actions can be improved. This is a good starting point because there are no real consequences, so employees are free to experiment with what they think the acceptable course of action is.
- Simulations: One more step you could consider doing is causing the situations with stronger “mock” systems or data meant to represent the systems that are in place. Employees need to be placed in particular problem scenarios like processes that do not work properly so that they can get a feel for the real drama and chaos lacking in their workplace.
- Full-scale Tests: If you want to spice it up a bit more, why not just set up the disaster recovery plan for the mock scenario without any real concern for what happens if the plan does not work? Let the entire organization from the top to the bottom employ the strategy and figure out how to develop it into their everyday dealings.
Generating Post-Test Reports
What are the outcomes of a testing procedure? Were all the objectives of the test achieved? The analysis is critical if you wish to refine the DRP and ensure it stays effective. Testing is never checking a box and a mock exercise that is to be taken lightly. It is a thoroughly essential part of DRP that will ensure its continuous improvement.
Leverage Cloud Solutions and DraaS
Why go for complex, expensive on-premises disaster recovery solutions when you can use a game-changer in Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS). Cloud has offered solutions to all IT aspects by providing a more compelling alternative that is scalable, cost-effective and accessible. Imagine having a readily available backup site that can be activated at a moment’s notice. No more burden of maintaining physical infrastructure.
Advantages of Cloud-based Disaster Recovery Solutions
- Scalability: Why have a DRP that is stagnant even if the threats keep increasing? Rather, have a cloud-based solution that can be increased in scalability the more comprehensive your business needs get. So not only can you scale up, you also adapt to changing business requirements and disaster scenarios.
- Cost-effectiveness: If you could have an entire DRP without having to invest in hardware, software and physical space, you’re going to save so much money. A cloud-based DR solution gives you a more budget-friendly option. This is the most perfect option for small and medium-sized organizations.
- Accessibility: Imagine if you could access the data and applications of your DRP anywhere anytime with an internet connection! Now you get that alongside faster recovery and business continuity.
Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS)
If you wish to take cloud-based DR to the next level, you will have something called DRaaS. An external, third-party provider can be hired by businesses that deal with all things related to Disaster Recovery Plan. Their expertise starts from the initial planning and goes on to implementation, testing and even recovery. Here are some benefits you’re going to avail if you were to choose DRaaS:
- Specialized expertise in disaster recovery
- Implementation is as per the best practices followed throughout the industry
- Reduced burden on your internal IT team
- Reduced infrastructure, no more investment needed to maintain a DR infrastructure.
- Faster recovery times
Integrate Security Practices and Regularly Re-evaluate the Plan
If you still have not realized, security and disaster recovery are two heavily interlinked procedures. Think of security as the first line of defense. Disaster recovery is the safety net that makes sure the business continues to operate even if preventive measures fail. If your business has robust proactive security measures in place, the likelihood of disaster occurring reduces. Essentially, you are reducing the frequency with which you might need to activate your disaster recovery plan.
Integrating Security Protocols
Do not let the disaster recovery plan just be about making amends after a data breach has occurred. Rather, integrate security protocols directly into the DRP. This will make a coordinated and effective response to security-related incidents.
Incident Response Planning
What are the steps you should take immediately following a security breach? That’s what you will get from incident response planning. They include the following:
- Containment
- Eradication
- Recovery
- Post-incident activity
So DRP must give you clear instructions on the following:
- How to identify and isolate affected systems
- Notify the relevant parties such as law enforcement, customers, etc.
- Conduct forensic analysis to determine the root cause of the incident.
Data Encryption
Apart from incident response planning, businesses must integrate data encryption into the DRP. Your sensitive data must be protected from unauthorized access, even when a breach occurs. Such protection can only be provided when DRP is combined with data encryption. Moreover, DRP must also define how, with what standards, and along with what procedures, key management and encrypted data recovery will take place.
Final Thoughts
It is no longer a question of if your company will invest in effective disaster recovery plans, but when. If you are looking for a managed IT service provider in Asian countries with more than 20 years of experience in disaster recovery and disaster recovery planning, FunctionEight is the company for you.
Talk about managed disaster recovery and disaster recovery planning; we do it all! Reach out to us if you are looking for a team ready to adapt to any circumstance and utilize best-fit technology. We look forward to hearing from you!
