Without a plan to get back on track after disaster, your IT department is just going to be guessing at which systems you have to recover and which technological components (like hardware devices) must be up and running to support those systems. A good systems list can help you take the guesswork out and reboot your entire organization sooner, but even the idea of coming up with that type of list can vary from company to company. Wondering what should be on your systems list? You’re not alone. Any good list should have at least these three qualities.
- CURRENCY – Understanding what’s in use both from an IT perspective and at a more specialized departmental level is key to a good systems list. For example, your marketing department may routinely rely on Go To Meeting or another similar service. Restoring it demands internet access among other things. The services and applications individuals in your company rely on each day could have two, four, six, or even 20 underlying infrastructure pieces, and keeping that clear on your systems list is an absolute must.
- COMPLETENESS – The list you make today may not be the exact list you would need in a month or even in a year. Ensuring your list is as complete as possible is essential in the event recovery is needed. Make certain new and upgraded applications within each department are included in this group.
- CONNECTIVITY – There are sometimes complex relationships between IT components and applications, and those have to be addressed within your list as well to help with a more complete recovery result. Providing a “whole” service or identifying pre-requisites may determine the best sequence to recover from a disaster.
It’s important to note that many companies already have this data, but it’s probably spread across three or more spreadsheets that were built for very different purposes. Disaster recovery planning can help force the consolidation of those lists so you can see how everything interfaces with each other both “horizontally” and “vertically”.
You can spend quite a bit of time hoping you’ll never need your systems list, but in the event you do, a reliable inventory can mean the difference between instant recovery and one that takes days or weeks to complete.
