As a business owner, you don’t need reminding that an IT disaster can strike at any time. And you also know the serious consequences that can ensue if your organization is unprepared for it.
Let’s say that you devised a Disaster Recovery plan some time ago. Can you be sure it remains viable? You need to determine if your organization’s circumstances have changed enough to update your DR plan.
The Quick and Easy Checklist
The easiest way to update your DR plan is to review a checklist of its key, critical elements. Certain aspects are always changing, such as internal and external contact names and numbers. Lists of your operational systems should also be frequently updated.
Have the priorities of these important IT systems changed? Have there been major changes to your network and system components, requiring a change in DR procedures? You need to confirm that your DR plan remains accessible at all times.
You will also need to confirm any updates to the recovery processes. You must validate any alterations made to servers, new device names and additional IP addresses. Do you still have enough storage and processor capacity? Make sure that the recovery sequence for your system’s components are still valid, and that your scripts, passwords and software versions are all complete and up to date.
Undergo a DR Assessment
On the other hand, you may decide that your DR plan is too important to simply “patch up”, or your business may have outgrown your original plan. In these circumstances, a complete “stem-to-stern review is the solution.
A DR assessment provides your organization a more holistic view of your DR plan as it relates to your overall IT practices. Such an assessment begins with an understanding of the basic needs for DR in the first place, which in some industries usually means a combination of regulatory and compliance requirements.
The starting point for a DR assessment is a needs analysis, an examination of the factors that actively expose your business to risk and threat.
For organizations in industries with heavy regulatory and compliance requirements, such as financial services, healthcare and utilities, a DR assessment will point towards specific policies and procedures, guiding your business practices to meet the relevant regulation and compliance standards, as a kind of “compliance crosswalk”.
Create A Road Map For Improvement
Once you’ve decided to pursue a DR assessment, begin by creating and walking through a comprehensive checklist of key elements of the existing plan: assess gaps in your organization’s current plan and organize initiatives to improve upon it. From there, a new model is devised for a new, improved, mature DR plan that reflects the changes in your business and its current needs. Ultimately, your organization will not only be disaster-ready now, but in the future too.
