No matter how proactive an organization is, there’s always room for data breaches and technology failures. This can either be a result of cyberattacks, hardware failures, or power outages. Failure to recover quickly from any of these events could easily level-down the reputation you have among clients.
A solid Disaster Recovery (DR) strategy is vital to reduce damages and the time it takes to recover financially. If you’re new to Disaster Recovery, or looking forward to improving your existing DR, this article is for you!
1. Critical Response Team That’s Always Ready
A response team consisting of in-house personnel and outsourced software vendors should always be on stand-by. With their roles clearly defined, they must be able to bring the systems back online immediately in the event of a disaster.
Large enterprises that have their resources distributed across multiple locations have a better chance of faster recovery. Effective modes of communication are also essential for a rapid and efficient response.
2. Top-Down Risk Assessment
It is illogical to design a disaster recovery strategy without conducting a complete risk assessment. You should scan every single functional area of your business and reveal potential areas of failure.
You also need to clearly document what IT resources you’ll need to replace any areas of failure. Make sure you first secure the areas that might affect your external partners with the help of a full inventory and data audit.
3. Document Your Entire Recovery Plan
Documenting every single aspect of your disaster recovery strategy is not an easy task. To avoid confusion and to ensure a faster recovery, there’s no way to skip this process. Your DR document should cover every single tactic along with the steps, purposes, and methods.
It should also define the roles of every individual member and mention a clear chain of command. Make sure every member of your business has access to a copy of the DR plan.
4. Cloud Databases Are An Absolute Must-Have
DRaaS is a really popular strategy that businesses are beginning to adapt. Every cloud-based disaster recovery has its own approach and modus operandi.
You can use them as a backup or, go one step further and use them to store a digital copy of all your servers and applications. These virtual fallout systems need relatively low investment. They can help you recover your files from the cloud at any instant.
Want to know more about why cloud databases are important? Read this article: 6 Reasons Why Your Business Needs Cloud Computing In 2020
5. Practice Disaster Drills
Planning is one-half of disaster recovery. It is useless without proper implementation. Practicing disaster drills won’t stop them from happening. But instead, it’ll help people know what they must do and where they have to be in such a circumstance.
A proper DR strategy needs regular drill practices to make sure all your plans are working as expected. Making a plan is good but knowing everyone follows it should be the ultimate goal.
6. Identifying & Isolating Weak Spots
Being proactive and having good a security practice is a separate topic on its own. In short, it reduces the risk of disasters and your DR plans may never have to be implemented.
Building a resilient infrastructure in itself can contain – if not prevent – a lot of disasters from happening. Eliminate every single spot of failure and distribute them across your structure. This also includes planning for an uninterrupted power supply.
7. Periodic Revisions & Coaching
Disaster recovery is not a goal but a process. No matter how well you think you’ve constructed it, there are always places that you can improve. Constant revisions can help you find potential weak and vulnerable spots.
These spots will take the most hit in case of a disaster. Every time you update your DR plans, it is also vital to educate every single employee about it.
Conclusion
A BDR can work wonders and you’ll have to read this to know more: Will Your Business Survive A Disaster? Here’s How A BDR Plan Can Improve Your Odds
Always have an external point of support (outsource). They can immediately send you help or periodically take over your operations. Apart from reducing the physical damages, this will also save you from financial losses due to interruption in your operations.
If you’re just starting to plan a DR strategy or want to improve your existing one, Schedule A Free Consultation with our experts and let them guide you.