Which of the following is most important to have in a disaster recovery plan?
Thus far in 2020, cleaning up after the 11 biggest ransomware attacks has cost municipal governments, universities and private businesses more than $144 million, and that doesn’t factor in lost productivity and reputation damage. Show
Disasters hit organizations in many forms—from ransomware to lightning strikes—with little to no warning. So it’s crucial to have a disaster recovery (DR) plan designed, implemented, and tested long before you might need it. Your DR plan should exist as part of a comprehensive business continuity plan, and, at a minimum, include these eight elements. 1. Complete Inventory of Hardware/Software/Other EquipmentWhen creating a DR plan, you have to know what resources may need to be recovered. You will need to do a full inventory of every piece of hardware, software, and peripheral that touches your networks or is used by your employees, contractors, and vendors. This will be a pretty extensive project, because you will need to account for every on-premise, cloud-based, and mobile/BYOD tool and technology your organization uses. 2. Documented Business ObjectivesDR is often more about business decisions than IT decisions. So it is imperative to involve all business units and stakeholders in the conversation about business objectives, so you know where to focus first during recovery. Start by mapping out the entire infrastructure to ensure all systems are accounted for. Once you know what you are protecting, you can set priorities to ensure the most important systems and applications are up and running first. Divide systems and applications into three tiers to facilitate recovery efforts:
Be sure to consider any system dependencies in your business objectives, because they may affect how you prioritize recovery efforts. 3. Defined Tolerance for Downtime and Data LossWith your documented business objectives in hand, you can define recovery time objectives (RTO) and recovery point objectives (RPO). These are the metrics you will use to determine your downtime and data loss tolerance. In other words, these metrics allow you to measure how much time an application can be down without causing significant damage to the business (RTO) and the amount of data that can be lost before significant harm to the business occurs (RPO). 4. A DR TeamA trained DR team is invaluable during a crisis. Every member of the team is assigned specific tasks, so there is no question about who is responsible for which part of the recovery effort. This team will also be in charge of communications throughout the crisis and be a point of contact for stakeholders. The disaster response team is in charge of training staff so everyone is aware of emergency response policies and procedures during a disaster. 5. Alternative WorkspacesIn the event of a fire or natural disaster, your office space may not be accessible. Having a plan to enable employees to work remotely will help keep the business operating as close to normally as possible. Be sure all employees have or can quickly get access to laptops and an internet connection. And stay accessible by preparing fall-back email and phone system solutions that provide essential lines of communication for employees, customers, and vendors. 6. Remote AccessWhether you’re using VPN, RDP, SSH, or other access-control technology, accessing company data and applications remotely can be a security risk. This became very apparent when COVID-19 concerns suddenly forced millions of employees to work from home. The middle of a crisis isn’t the best time to find out your infrastructure can’t handle remote access securely. Update your security technology now to ensure your data can be safely accessed from outside the firewall. 7. Secure BackupsThe quality and frequency of your backups will make or break your DR efforts. Consider these best practices for keeping backups secure and available if you need them in a crisis:
8. A Comprehensive Testing StrategyDon’t wait for an actual disaster to find out whether your DR plan works. Implement a comprehensive testing strategy now (and actually use it). Your strategy should accomplish three objectives:
No organization wants to find itself digging out of a disaster, but the reality is that ransomware attacks, hurricanes, forest fires, and good old-fashioned human error can happen at any time. Download How to Build a Disaster Recovery Plan to learn more about how to prepare your organization so a crisis doesn’t become a worst-case scenario. What is the most important part of a disaster recovery plan?One of the most critical components of a disaster recovery plan is an up-to-date communication strategy. An outdated list of staff phone numbers is a recipe for disaster that knows no bounds -- especially while trying to use a free conferencing service.
What are important elements of a disaster recovery plan?Typical elements in a disaster recovery plan include the following:. Create a disaster recovery team. ... . Identify and assess disaster risks. ... . Determine critical applications, documents, and resources. ... . Determine critical applications, documents, and resources. ... . Specify backup and off-site storage procedures.. What is the importance of disaster recovery plan?The purpose of a disaster recovery plan is to reduce damage or disruption and recover as quickly as possible in the event of a disaster that leads to system failure. DR plans usually have two key components: a recovery time objective (RTO) and a recovery point objective (RPO).
What are the three main items in disaster recovery?The three phases of disaster recovery include assessment, restoration, and recovery. When disaster strikes, you want to get back to normal as quickly as possible. It's important to go through these three phases of disaster recovery.
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