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Best Practices for Developing an IT Disaster Recovery Plan

WEBINAR TRANSCRIPT

Webinar Transcript Best Practices for Developing an IT DR Plan

In todays hypercompetitive business environment, disruption of business operations is something that no organization of any size can endure. The collapse of critical systems in the wake of a disaster, which could be natural, environmental or manmade, can lead to disastrous consequences making a complete recovery difficult and in some cases impossible for the affected organizations.
In such a scenario, where organizations are increasingly dependent on information technology to execute its various business functions and where any form of disruption can cause irreparable damage, preparing the organizations to face any untoward incidents can go a long way in minimizing downtime and data loss and thereby fostering trust and confidence of the clients/customers.

Disaster Recovery Concepts

A pre-disaster planning approach is the best way to deal with the problem, as apart from being cost-effective, it helps to reduce the disruption of business functions during and after a disaster. Known as a disaster recovery plan (DRP), it specifies the course of action to be taken in the event of a disaster. Subsets of business continuity (BC), the two important concepts of disaster recovery (DR) are the Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and the Recovery Point Objective (RPO). RTO is the maximum desired length of time allowed between an unexpected failure or disaster and the resumption of normal operations and service levels. It refers to the maximum length of time that the IT system s can be down after a disaster RPO, on the other hand, is the the maximum tolerable period in which data might be lost from an IT service due to a major incident. It is the length of time within which a business process must be restored

Fundamentals of Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP)

DRP is one of the important constituents of business continuity planning (BCP). DRP helps to prevent any untoward incident from derailing business processes and causing revenue loss, reputation loss and subsequently customer loss. According to Gartner, a great percentage of SMBs can go out of business if they cannot get to their data in the first 24 hours after a crisis. In such a scenario, the best means to avoid the business and legal implications of downtime and data loss is a well thought, all encompassing DRP with defined actionables, roles and responsibilities, in the event of a disaster. Every business has different needs and therefore the DRP must be customized to meet the particular requirements of each organization. A DRP must: Identify disaster risks and threats Categorize and prioritize the various risks Perform risk assessment by analyzing risks based on their likelihood and severity Determine the effects of the various disaster risks Analyze various recovery methods and identify the best recovery method for a particular disaster risk The responsibility of creating, maintaining, activating, executing, monitoring and improving DRP is upon a disaster recovery committee, a set of cross-functional executives entrusted with the continual functioning of the business.

Netmagics 6Rs of Recovery

Netmagic helps to minimize the damage to business continuity when disaster strikes and enables the organizations to get back on their feet by focusing on 6 Rs of recovery namely Reduce Response Recover Resume Restore Return With the 6Rs recovery plan, clients can get back to their data and resume their activities quickly and cost effectively.

Webinar Transcript Best Practices for Developing an IT DR Plan

DR Teams
Netmagics DR team structure is defined across the organizations management and technology / platform experts, as listed under: Management Teams Steering Committee Crisis Management Team Disaster Assessment Team DRP Manager/ Coordinator Disaster Response and Recovery Teams Network Team Server Team Application Teams Storage Team, etc. Salvage Team

Best Practice Guidelines for DR Plans

All recovery procedures should be written in simple language Recovery procedures should not be dependent upon any particular individual or group for success The plan should be designed so that decisions and activation can be handled by personnel other than those familiar within these tasks All recovery procedures should be complete and tested At least one copy of the DR Plan must be stored off-site in a secure location

Conclusion
There is no argument against the fact that preparing organizations to meet any untoward incident helps in accelerating the recovery phase. Hence, a DRP plan is highly necessary as todays organizations are highly dependent on IT systems and it is not always possible for them to avoid disasters.

Watch the webinar recording Learn more on Netmagic DR capabilities For any assistance/ queries, write to marketing@netmagicsolutions.com or call us on 1800 103 3130.