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In today’s digitized world, you may have heard the term Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) probably a hundred times. DRP refers to a well-documented process that outlines the detailed instructions on recovering your data and resuming your work after an unplanned event or emergency. 

They may include but are not limited to:  

• Application and operating system failures
• Cyberattacks like hacking and phishing 
• Cyberespionage 
• Data storage failures
• Earthquakes
• Fire
• Floods
• Hardware failures
• Physical theft
• Power outages
• Ransomware threats 
• Riots and violent protests 
• Terrorist attacks 
• Viruses and malware 

The disaster recovery plan ensures every stakeholder in your company takes the necessary steps during and after the disaster. It is an essential part of Business Continuity Planning (BCP), which encompasses a detailed layout for complete organizational recovery after a disaster.

A. Why Does Your Business Need DRP?

An unexpected network failure will directly impact your business operations and revenue. A DR plan allows you to respond to an unplanned disaster resourcefully.

The fundamental benefits of a DRP include:

1. Cost Effective IT Network

A typical DR plan includes preventive, detective, and corrective measures. These three elements help you optimize your entire IT network for better efficiency, reduced downtime risk, and real-time response. This constant optimization translates into cost-efficient IT infrastructure.

2. Improved Employee Productivity

As the DRP assigns role-based responsibilities, it can also improve employee productivity during the crisis. It also increases the overall integrity of your organizational network in the long run.

3. Lowers Economic Impact

With a DR plan, your business can get back online as quickly as possible. The reduced downtime means fewer financial losses and quick loss recovery.

4. Boosts Customer Retention

As customers nowadays expect a reliable and secure network, extended and frequent unplanned downtimes will drive them away. That’s where DRP comes in. As it ensures high service quality, retaining your customers is easy.

B. Understanding the Critical Steps In a Disaster Recovery Plan

Each organization will have to create a unique DRP based on its size, industry, budget, and compliance needs, among other factors. However, a typical disaster recovery plan should have the following steps.

1. Define the Scope and Objectives

The first step is to define the general scope and objectives of your DRP. While the objectives may vary depending on the enterprise, the two most common ones are:

• Recovery Point Objective or RPO

RPO refers to how much data you are willing to lose if the disaster strikes. For example, if you can lose two hours of data, you will need to back it up every couple of hours.

• Recovery Time Objective or RTO

ROT is nothing but the acceptable downtime after the disaster. It essentially defines how much time you need to resume your operations after your system goes down.

2. Identifying the Incident Response Team

You will need to identify and create a list of the incident response team. It can be an organizational chart with a list of responsibilities assigned to the respective IT personnel and other employees.

For each employee, you need to:

• List the name, designation, and role 
• Record critical contact information 
• Create a notification checklist 
• List vendors names and contact details  

3. Make a List of Software/Applications

You need to create a list of all your applications. You can sort them as critical, moderately critical, and non-critical applications. Be sure to record details like who has access to a particular application, which data or files are business-critical, and where they are stored. Also, set the order in which you want to back them up and recover.

4. Make a List of Hardware Inventory

Just like the software, you also need to make a list of all your hardware. Usually, it includes:

• Communications equipment
• Data center computer hardware
• On-site and off-site servers
• Monitors, screens, devices, laptops, and other accessories

In addition to how critical each piece of hardware is, you will need to record details like serial number, make, model, and other specifications.

You will also need to list other business-critical inventories like financial and tax records, registration documents, Service Level Agreements, insurance policies, certificates, licenses, and employee records (offline).

You will need to keep your disaster recovery plan up-to-date. Make sure to record whatever changes you make to the procedures, inventories, and emergency response policies.

5. Create a Communication Strategy

Often overlooked, communication is a critical element of a disaster recovery plan. A tried-and-tested communication strategy can speed up your response and recovery. You will need communication strategies to interact with your employees, vendors, media, and customers. 

Create a well-documented strategy for communication with each employee. Make sure to list the relevant contact details (other than email, phone, and instant messaging) to establish contact as quickly as possible. 

Create a media plan to communicate with customers and media. Allow only a designated PR officer (or a team) to interact with them during and after the emergency. Ensure industry best practices, legal compliance, and ethics when communicating with your stakeholders.

6. Define Data Backup Procedures

This step is the crux of your data recovery plan. To define the backup process, you need to consider your hardware, software, IT personnel, and the DRP scope. The backup procedures should clearly define the following.

• When was the data backed up?
• Where was it backed up? (location)
• Who backed it up? (personnel details)

7. Define Disaster Recovery Strategies

The second most essential step in a DRP, it includes the following three elements. 

• Defining and aligning data back procedures with recovery strategies.
• Defining and implementing emergency response procedures to ensure a swift response.   
• Defining on-site and remote (cloud-based) recovery tactics for quick restoration of your IT systems. 

8. Set Up a Temporary Response Site

When a disaster strikes, your primary data backup center/s will be down, at least for a while. So, you will need to set up a temporary response site. Think of it as your command center. Make sure the site is well-equipped for 24/7 communication until everything goes back to normal.

9. Restoration

Sometimes, you may need to recover your entire network system. You will need to define the procedures to recover and restore the whole system.

10. Rebuilding

Apart from the software, you will also have to rebuild damaged hardware and other infrastructure. Your DRP needs to outline the procedures for rebuilding every element of your IT network.

11. Testing

Your DRP is no good without rigorous testing. Make sure to test and evaluate your disaster recovery plan regularly. Regular testing is essential as you will be adding new applications and hardware to your network eventually, which will require you to update your current backup and recovery procedures.

Furthermore, testing will help you identify deficiencies and missing elements before the actual disaster hits your network. You can also streamline your IT budget based on the latest DRP updates.

12. Review and Approval

In mid-sized and large organizations, you will need to ask the management to review your DR plan. You can put a plan in place only after the higher-ups have approved it.

13. Update the Disaster Recovery Plan

You will need to keep your disaster recovery plan up-to-date. Make sure to record whatever changes you make to the procedures, inventories, and emergency response policies.

You can get a free disaster recovery plan template on the web. These steps and along with a free template, can be a good starting point to chalk out your DRP.

C. Make a Disaster Recovery Plan Checklist

You will also need to create a DRP checklist. It can help you determine whether or not you have included all the essential elements in your DRP. Usually, the list includes but is not limited to the following.

• Backup, recovery, and response procedure highlights
• DRP audit records 
• DRP objectives in short 
• Emergency contacts 
• Financial and legal information
• Incidence response team details
• Internal and vendor communication strategies  
• Inventory of software, hardware, and documents
• List of business-critical data and processes 
• List of critical threats and vulnerabilities     
• Media communication strategy  
• DRP testing and approval details

D. Create an Incident Management Plan

You also need to include an Incident Management Plan, also called Incident Response Plan, into your DRP. According to IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report 2020, businesses with an IR team that tested their IR plans can save $2 million in average cost of data breach compared to companies without IR teams or testing.

Although IMP and DRP sound similar, they are very different. While DRP focuses on the recovery process, IMP is all about protecting sensitive data during an emergency. As a result, including an incident management plan into your DRP will help you create a comprehensive recovery process.

E. Choose the Right Type of Disaster Recovery Plan

Depending on your IT environment, business needs, and budget, you will need to choose a suitable disaster recovery plan. You can choose from the four most popular types of DR plans offered by leading managed services providers.

1. Cloud-Based Disaster Recovery

In this type of DR plan, you can use the cloud as your data recovery site. It is not only cost-effective but also saves time and space. Most cloud providers will offer this service with varying features. 

However, you will need to know the location of both physical and virtual servers for comprehensive planning. Also, you will need to pay attention to data security as cloud computing is still vulnerable to cyberattacks. But, an experienced managed IT provider can help you enhance your security through rigorous testing and automation.

2. Data Center Disaster Recovery

This DRP focuses on the entire data center setup, not just the system hardware and software. It will include analyzing and optimizing components such as the HVAC system, building location, physical security, support personnel, power backup, utilities, office space, and firefighting systems.

This plan takes a wide range of factors into account. As a result, it may not be a cost-effective option for most businesses. Also, your data center can be susceptible to a natural disaster or cyberattack despite taking extensive precautions.

3. Disaster Recovery as a Service

Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) is a cloud service model that allows you to backup and recover your data and applications in the event of a disaster or cyberattack. Usually, the cloud service provider will take care of all the disaster recovery tasks. 

DRaaS is also cost-effective and highly efficient as you don’t have to own and operate the disaster recovery infrastructure. Being in the cloud, you can also switch to failover applications immediately. 

However, some cloud providers may use DRaaS tools from partner vendors. You should find out who the partner vendors are and whether the tools they are using can offer you the desired level of service.

4. Virtualization Disaster Recovery

This disaster recovery plan uses virtualization to build applications and database backup. It usually involves creating and copying Virtual Machine (VM) workloads to off-site servers.

With this DR plan, you can bring your applications back online faster. However, there must be a way to help you validate if you can run these applications in recovery mode and whether you can restore them within your RTO and RPO limits.

Conclusion

Disaster recovery planning is critical to ensure business continuity. Without any preparations, a disaster may force you to shut down your business, perhaps permanently. However, backing up and recovering an intricate IT network with several business-critical applications is easier said than done. Hopefully, this post will help you understand the basics of the disaster recovery plan, how you can create it, and its types and benefits. If you still have questions about DRP, reach out to our experts for help.