How can you create a backup and recovery policy?

1 Assess your data and risks

The first step is to identify what data you need to back up and how often. You should classify your data according to its importance, sensitivity, and frequency of change. For example, you may have critical data that requires daily or hourly backups, such as customer records, financial transactions, or legal documents. You should also assess the potential risks and threats that could compromise your data, such as malware, ransomware, human error, power outage, or fire. This will help you determine the level of protection and recovery you need for each data type.

3 Define your recovery objectives and strategies

The third step in the process is to define your recovery objectives and strategies. Your Recovery Point Objective (RPO) determines how frequently you need to back up your data, and your Recovery Time Objective (RTO) determines how quickly you need to restore it. Additionally, you should have different recovery strategies for different scenarios, such as minor data corruption, major system failure, or complete site outage. To cover all potential issues, you should also have backup plans in case your primary recovery strategy fails. For example, you may store a local backup for minor issues, a cloud backup for major issues, and a disaster recovery site for worst-case scenarios.

4 Assign roles and responsibilities

The fourth step is to assign roles and responsibilities for your backup and recovery policy. You should identify who is responsible for performing, monitoring, and testing backups, who is authorized to access and restore backups, and who is accountable for reporting and auditing backups. You should also define the communication channels and escalation procedures for backup and recovery incidents. You should document and communicate these roles and responsibilities clearly and regularly to your IT staff and stakeholders.

5 Implement and monitor your backups

The fifth step is to implement and monitor your backups. You should use reliable and compatible backup software and hardware that meet your backup methods and locations requirements. You should also configure and schedule your backups according to your data and risk assessment and your recovery objectives. You should monitor your backups regularly to ensure they are completed successfully and without errors. You should also review and update your backup logs and reports to track your backup performance and compliance.

6 Test and review your recovery

The sixth and final step is to test and review your recovery. You should test your recovery regularly to ensure you can restore your data in a timely and accurate manner. You should also simulate different disaster scenarios to evaluate your recovery strategies and plans. You should document and analyze the results of your recovery tests and identify any gaps or issues that need improvement. You should also review and update your backup and recovery policy periodically to reflect any changes in your data, risks, objectives, or strategies.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?