How to make a disaster recovery plan activity ?
The How to make a disaster recovery plan or DRP is a component of the Business Continuity Plan (BCP), the objective of which is to ensure that activities can continue and that information remains available no matter what happens. The DRP reveals the different measures to adopt in case of a disaster that leads to a business interruption. What is it really about and how to do a DRP ?
Why a disaster recovery plan?
The disaster recovery plan gathers several measures to be applied in case of a disaster or incident within a company and allowing to restart the activities of the latter as soon as possible. It can be due to organizational or security measures, or to technical procedures. Thanks to a disaster recovery plan, a company has the possibility to foresee the different processes to be implemented to restart the information system.
In the event of a disaster, the DRP allows the restoration of servers and the restarting of various applications that are essential to the business. This recovery can be effective between a few minutes and a few hours. It all depends on the solutions adopted, which are chosen according to the needs, requirements and priorities of each company.
In the computer age, the DRP becomes a real necessity and even an obligation. Indeed, the life of any company depends strongly on information technology. The slightest incident can be catastrophic and totally paralyze your activities. So, how do you make a disaster recovery plan ?
The different steps to follow to create a disaster recovery plan
A disaster recovery plan is the result of an analysis and reflection at several levels. All the organs of a company must participate in its elaboration to be sure to obtain a reliable and operational system that corresponds precisely to the specificities of the company.
- Anticipate the risks and imagine the disaster
The first thing to do before drawing up a disaster recovery plan is to imagine all the existing risks and to anticipate all the scenarios that could arise. So what are the failures that are likely to occur ? If it is a question of hardware problems ? A software failure ? From an electrical concern ? A fire ? A natural disaster ? A human error ? The possibilities are numerous and no scenario should be overlooked.
- Anticipate risk management
It is then necessary to imagine how the risks will be managed, from a human, organizational and technical point of view. You must then ask yourself some crucial questions. In case of a problem, "who does what ? "How do you do it? ? "What are the means of recovery? ? "
It is then a matter of designating key people who will intervene in the event of an emergency and who will have a responsibility in the management of the crisis. Their tasks will also be determined.
- Analyze the business applications
You must then think about the possible consequences of the losses on the business applications. It is important to identify the ones that are impossible to operate in case of an incident. You must then analyze the application environments, more precisely their criticality, and know the conditions to be applied for data backup and recovery.
In particular, it is necessary to define an automatic backup frequency that takes into account the company's needs.
- Plan the crisis management
This step is about setting priorities. It is indeed necessary to realize that the recovery cannot be done in the blink of an eye. And the deadlines can be very different depending on the situation.
It is then important to put forward the priorities as well as the cost that the company can allocate to the management of crisis situations.
Note that these two parameters are closely linked: priorities define the budget to be planned and the available budget can influence priorities. In all cases, the final decision determines the selection of the backup equipment and the conditions for disaster recovery.
- The crisis material
The crisis equipment chosen must be such that it is capable of supporting the return to service and everything that may result from it.
Many disaster recovery plans opt for the creation of a remote site. The latter is activated in case of a disaster at the main site. In any case, the crisis equipment must always be ready to be started.
Most importantly, it must be able to respond effectively to the crisis, knowing that it is generally temporary.
Thus, even if the information system is not at its best, the activities should be able to continue, the time the situation returns to normal.
- Testing the disaster recovery plan
Once the specifics of the DRP have been defined, it is essential to test it regularly. The objective is to ensure that it is reliable. This step implies a substantial cost, but it is a very important step that will minimize costs in the long term.
It should be noted that, generally speaking, the first test always goes well. Things tend to get more difficult after a second or umpteenth test. Hence the importance of performing the "tests" more than once.
- Systematic update
You must keep in mind that an information system is not fixed. On the contrary. It is constantly evolving.
The slightest change must be taken into account and a systematic update of the DRP must follow each time modifications are made.
At the same time, it is very important that the disaster recovery plan is accurately documented. In this sense, it is necessary to take into account feedback, especially after tests and in case of failures.
- The regulatory framework
Finally, the implementation of a disaster recovery plan must imperatively be in line with the regulatory framework, in particular the constraints imposed by organizations such as banks or insurance companies.
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