How to Structure an Effective DR Plan
Companies that rely on IT to compete, need a DR plan. A DR plan will help you prepare for, respond to, and recover from unplanned downtime, and return your operations to normalcy. Creating a solid, manageable plan is doable for motivated businesses. The structure below, greatly condensed from the Gold Standards of DR--ISO 27031 and ISO 24762--provides a basic DR planning framework:
- Introduction: includes plan purpose and scope, names of those authorized to activate the plan, and links to other relevant planning documents.
- Roles and Responsibilities: defines which DR team members will do what, when and in which sequence; also includes their contact information and may note limits to team members' emergency responsibilities and remediation spending authority.
- Incident Response: includes steps for assessing and responding to alarms and alerts triggered by "out-of-normal" situations; also describes how responders are to: determine disaster severity; attempt containment and control; and notify key stakeholders of status.
- Plan Activation: this section lists the required decisioning data for determining whether to launch the plan, where staff should gather, instructions for activating the DR team, and procedures for standing down if the launch is a no-go.
- Procedures: describes response and recovery activities DR teams will take using their assigned steps and materials; more procedural details usually results in better chances of recovery and restoration.
Other common DR plan elements include Appendices, Document History/Versioning, and a Testing Schedule with dates for identifying strengths and weaknesses in the plan.
For help with DR planning or implementation, call TeamLogic IT today.
#backup #disasterrecovery #bdr #dr