Disasters can have multiple meanings for modern companies. Natural disasters can disrupt your entire infrastructure. Cyber attacks can cripple your entire network systems. A disaster can threaten your ability to use and access your data and systems. Thus, companies should focus on building a strong Disaster recovery plan. This plan will help you in protecting your business from disasters. In this article, we are going to share some tips that will help you in building a good Disaster Recovery team.
Definition of Disaster Recovery:
Disaster recovery is a complex plan which will include all the processes, tools, people, and strategies you will use to protect your business from disasters. Disasters can include cyberattacks and natural disasters. Your disaster recovery plan will ensure that you can maintain business continuity. Companies that had a Disaster recovery plan in 2020 were in a much better position. They already have access to a plan which they followed to deal with the coronavirus crisis.
What points are included in the Disaster recovery plan?
We are going to talk about the actual strategies and procedures that you should include in your DR plan. A fully realized DR plan will include your disaster recovery team. Also, it will include other resources like IT hardware and software that you need for implementing your plan. Your DR plan should include these three main strategies:
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Prevention
This is going to be the most important part of your disaster recovery plan. You should focus on prevention first. Your disaster recovery team is going to play a big role in this process. They will help you in finding vulnerabilities in your organization. You should take input from all your departments. This will help you in creating a powerful preventative strategy that you can use for preventing disasters. Also, it will ensure that you are focusing on all the departments.
You can use cloud-based backup solutions to backup your data. Also, you should focus on building hardware redundancies. Make sure that all your security tools are updated. You should perform security audits for finding bugs in your system. Also, you should train your employees.
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Monitor
This will be an ongoing step that you need to perform regularly. In this step, you need to continuously monitor your DR plan. The threat landscape is only going to change with time. Hackers are always looking for new ways to attack your stem. Thus, you should always stay active by monitoring your systems and infrastructure.
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Correct
This step will ultimately depend on the above two steps. If you are monitoring your systems regularly, then you will find vulnerabilities in your system. Thus, you should work on fixing all vulnerabilities in your system. Also, you should focus on backing up your data and systems.
You should try to isolate the problems that are present in your network. Also, try to find the cause of every problem. Try to communicate with your vendors, stakeholders, and internal teams. You should also try to communicate with all the necessary authorities. Try to implement the best restoration processes for network environments, applications, and data.
What is a DR team?
Every business should have access to a Disaster recovery team. This team should be dedicated to documenting and developing a disaster recovery plan. Your disaster recovery team will be responsible for creating your DR plan. They will also help you in implementing the procedures and processes. These processes will help you in ensuring data integrity and recovery. A good DR plan should be updated regularly. You should also test this plan for ensuring its effectiveness.
Your DR plan will have an impact on your entire organization. Thus, your DR team should contain members from different departments. This will help you in addressing your business needs and system availability. Every business will have different criteria. However, some of the people that should be in your team are:
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Business leaders
Your business senior leadership doesn’t need to be directly involved in the disaster recovery planning process. However, they should participate in different discussions. They are going to be signing off on new policies and budget proposals. Thus, they should know about the importance of your DR plan. Some of the business leaders will find it difficult to understand the technical terms. However, they will still understand the importance of a disaster recovery plan.
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IT management
The technical aspects of your DR plan will be executed by your IT department. Thus, they should be a big part of your disaster recovery team. They will have a clear idea of your existing systems and network. Also, they can help you in ensuring network and system availability. Senior IT managers will have knowledge of your organization’s database and storage systems. They will also know about the applications that you are using. Thus, they can help you in developing a good disaster recovery plan.
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Important business unit advisors
Your IT department will know everything about your systems. However, they don’t know how important these systems are for your other departments. Thus, you should involve leaders from other departments. They will help you in calculating the downtime tolerance of your organization. Sometimes you need to implement workarounds from some specific departments. These workarounds will help you in quickly recovering your systems in case of a disaster. It will also help you in reducing your disaster recovery budget.
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Compliance and security management
A disaster will have a bad impact on your compliance and security management. You might lose access to your data. Thus, your organization will be liable for legal costs. Compliance requirements are becoming more complex with time. Thus, you should ensure that some security professional is in your disaster recovery team. You should also ensure that someone from the legal team is in your DR team. They will help you in mitigating a disaster according to the standards. This will ensure that you don’t need to worry about unnecessary legal costs. It will also help you in fulfilling your SLA contract.
Conclusion
These are the main members that should be included in your DR plan. You should focus on creating a good DR plan as it will help you in protecting your organization. Experienced MSPs like Bleuwire can help you in creating a customized disaster recovery plan for your business. They will ensure that you can recover your business from a disaster. Also, they will help you in backing up and restoring your data. This will ensure that you won’t lose access to your data. If you need more information regarding Disaster recovery, then you can contact Bleuwire.
Contact us today to learn about Bleuwire™ services and solutions in how we can help your business.
