A Guide to Disaster Recovery Solutions
Sep
24
24
When people think about disaster recovery they often imagine providing relief through food or monetary donations, rebuilding homes or helping displaced refugees, but in the world of technology this means something else entirely. Disaster recovery solutions refer to the strategies and procedures implemented to return IT to an operational level following any kind of disruption.
Both natural and manmade disasters can wipe out information and technology systems and the results can be devastating. With so much of our world controlled with computers and data systems, it’s easy to understand why safeguards must be in place. Rather than spending nearly four times as much in recovery efforts with a disaster recovery company, learn what you can do preemptively to prepare for an IT disaster.
- Begin with a risk assessment and business impact analysis. The jumping off point for the whole disaster recovery planning process is to assess the risks to your data systems and how they impact the business overall. This will help in prioritizing the IT components that are absolutely critical to the function of your business.
- Establish recovery time objective and recovery point objective. Recovery point objective (RPO) is the age of files that must be recovered from backup storage to return to regular operations following a disaster. Recovery Time Objective (RTO) is the maximum amount of time that a data system, computer or network can be down following a disaster. Knowing the RPO and RTO can make a huge impact in preparations for disaster recovery. For example, if RPO is a week, backups should be made every seven days or less.
- Develop disaster recovery strategies. The strategies should outline what you intend to do in response to an incident. Consider all obstacles including budget, technological constraints, and costs versus benefits. There are a multitude of online resources to help develop these strategies, but all will be specific to your company’s needs and resources.
- Rendering strategies into plans. If strategies are what you intend to do following a disaster, the disaster recovery plans are how you intend to carry them out. These plans should serve as a step-by-step guide to responding to a disaster. Making sure these plans are structured, easy to follow and clearly designated to individuals in your team is critical to a quick response in the face of an IT disaster.
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