Disaster Recovery Plan
A Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) is a detailed, documented process or set of procedures to recover and protect a business’s IT infrastructure in the event of a disaster. Such disasters can include natural disasters like floods, earthquakes, or fires, as well as human-made disasters like cyber-attacks, terrorist attacks, or significant equipment failures.
The goal of a DRP is to minimize downtime and data loss, aiming for a quick recovery to normal operations. A comprehensive DRP should address all critical systems and processes, and detail a clear plan of action for various disaster scenarios.
Key elements of a Disaster Recovery Plan typically include:
- Disaster Recovery Team: Identification of the individuals responsible for managing the disaster recovery process and their specific roles and responsibilities.
- Critical Assets and Functions: Identification of the business’s most critical systems, data, and processes, including a detailed inventory of hardware, software, and data.
- Recovery Strategies: Detailed plans for restoring critical systems and data, which might include using redundant systems, restoring from backups, or relying on cloud-based services.
- Communication Plan: Guidelines for notifying employees, customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders about the disaster and ongoing recovery efforts.
- Testing and Maintenance: Regular testing of the DRP to ensure its effectiveness and updating the plan as necessary to reflect changes in the business’s systems and processes.
A well-constructed DRP can make the difference between a temporary lapse of service and a complete shutdown of operations, and it is an essential component of risk management for businesses of all sizes.
Example of a Disaster Recovery Plan
Let’s consider a hypothetical example involving a software company, “SoftTech.”
SoftTech Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP)
1. Disaster Recovery Team:
- Disaster Recovery Lead: Chief Technology Officer (CTO)
- IT Infrastructure Manager
- Database Administrator
- Information Security Officer
- Communication Manager
2. Critical Assets and Functions:
- Online Service: SoftTech’s web-based product that’s critical for customer use.
- Customer Data: Stored in proprietary databases.
- Business Applications: Accounting and payroll software, project management systems, etc.
- Internal Communication Tools: Email, collaboration software.
3. Recovery Strategies:
- Online Service: The company maintains real-time data backup and redundancy servers in a separate physical location.
- Customer Data: All data are backed up every hour and can be fully restored within four hours.
- Business Applications: The company uses cloud-based applications, which can be accessed from any location with an internet connection.
- Internal Communication Tools: In the event of primary email server failure, the company has a secondary email system hosted off-site.
4. Communication Plan:
- The Communication Manager will notify all employees about the disaster and recovery plans via email, phone calls, and SMS.
- The Communication Manager will also prepare a statement to inform customers and stakeholders about the incident and the company’s actions to mitigate the impact.
5. Testing and Maintenance:
- The DRP will be tested semi-annually, which will include complete recovery drills.
- The DRP will be updated whenever there are significant changes in the company’s IT infrastructure, business operations, or physical location.
This is a simplified example, but it outlines the main components of a DRP. In a real-world scenario, each of these components would be significantly more detailed and might also include additional elements, such as more specific step-by-step recovery procedures, vendor contact information for hardware replacement, or procedures for dealing with power outages.
