A disaster recovery plan is a documented process put in place to recover and protect an organization in the event of a disaster. Disaster recovery planning is an integral part of business continuity planning and allows organizations to continue operations and recover data and systems after a disruptive event. An effective disaster recovery plan will minimize downtime and data loss while ensuring the organization can continue critical functions during and after an emergency situation. While plans vary based on the size and scope of an organization, most disaster recovery plans incorporate five major elements.
Risk Assessment
Conducting a risk assessment is one of the first steps in developing a disaster recovery plan. The goal of a risk assessment is to evaluate potential threats, vulnerabilities, and impacts to determine disaster scenarios that could interrupt business operations. As part of a risk assessment, an organization will analyze the probability and severity of various disaster scenarios that could impact facilities, people, technology systems, data, third-party vendors, and other business areas. Common potential disasters evaluated include fires, floods, cyber attacks, loss of utilities, data corruption, supplier bankruptcy, pandemics, and other scenarios unique to the organization’s location, assets, and industry. The findings from this analysis help inform development of disaster recovery, emergency response, and business continuity strategies that align to the organization’s top risks.
To develop a risk assessment, an organization will typically conduct interviews, surveys, inspections, audits, and research. Historical incident data, insurance claims, audit reports, and input from leadership across the company can help identify areas of potential vulnerability. A Business Impact Analysis is often conducted to estimate quantitative impacts such as financial losses, recovery times, impacts to customers, and other business consequences associated with various disaster scenarios. Organizations may utilize outside risk management consultants to ensure thoroughness during the risk assessment process.
The resulting risk assessment report documents organizational assets, threats, vulnerabilities, potential impacts, and quantitative loss estimates. Leadership can use this information to guide decisions on risk mitigation strategies, levels of redundancy, data backup requirements, emergency preparedness, and disaster recovery planning. Since new threats and impacts can develop over time, organizations conduct periodic risk assessments to update their plans.
Emergency Response
A documented emergency response plan is another key component of disaster recovery planning. The emergency response plan outlines actions to detect and respond to a disruptive event to limit immediate impacts to human life and business operations. It details responsibilities and procedures for rapid, coordinated communication and response during the initial crisis period. This includes establishing crisis management procedures, communication trees, roles and responsibilities, and evacuation protocols.
An emergency operations center is often activated to centralize direction and control during the emergency response. typical emergency response activities include:
- Activating alarm systems
- Conducting evacuation and shelter-in-place procedures
- Communicating with employees, customers, vendors, authorities, media, and other stakeholders
- Securing facilities to prevent additional impacts
- Investigating and documenting the incident
- Assessing and containing damages
- Preserving records and providing information to support resumption activities
The emergency response plan provides step-by-step guidance to stabilize the situation, minimize immediate threats to life and property, and transition into a recovery period. Well-thought-out emergency plans facilitate quick and effective decision making during chaotic circumstances.
Recovery Strategies
Recovery strategies are documented plans to restore business functions during the aftermath of a disaster. They serve as detailed playbooks outlining how each business process and technology system will be resumed after an outage. The strategies identify recovery priorities and timeframes based on business needs and dependencies. Specifying these details in advance minimizes delays when implementing recovery during a crisis situation.
There are two main approaches to defining recovery strategies:
- Backup and restore – Returning systems to a known pre-disaster state using backups
- Rebuilding – Recreating capabilities using original sources
Recovery strategies may utilize a combination of both approaches. Popular disaster recovery technologies include redundant servers, backup generator power, disk mirroring, replication, cloud backups, and alternative worksites. The strategies aim to restore critical systems within the recovery time objective established through the business impact analysis.
Documented recovery plans outline roles, responsibilities, and step-by-step procedures to rebuild infrastructure, reload data from backups, redirect operations, restore vendor services, and reopen facilities. Testing these plans on a periodic basis helps ensure that recovery can occur within the designated objectives.
Plan Administration
Administering a disaster recovery plan involves defining the governance model for ongoing maintenance of the plan. This includes designating roles and teams responsible for reviewing, updating, testing, auditing, training, and enforcing adherence to the plan. Two common models for administering disaster recovery plans include:
- Centralized model – Responsibility resides with a single disaster recovery manager or department
- Ownership model – Business units maintain plans for systems under their domain
Hybrid approaches are also common, with a central disaster recovery team providing oversight and coordination of unit-level planning. The administrative element of the plan establishes reporting metrics, maintenance schedules, record retention, awareness and education activities, and compliance to steer the disaster recovery program on an ongoing basis.
To remain effective, disaster recovery plans must be living documents regularly updated to align with changes to business processes, technologies, staff roles, locations, and organizational risks. As the organization grows and evolves, responsibilities for keeping the plan current should be clearly defined.
Testing and Exercises
Testing and exercises are a critical practice for maintaining the viability of disaster recovery plans. Since actual disasters happen infrequently, testing provides a way to verify that recovery strategies work as intended. Testing also helps train staff on procedures and uncover potential gaps. Disaster recovery testing exercises come in several main forms:
- Walkthroughs – Team discussions focused on a recovery scenario
- Tabletop exercises – Simulated scenarios with emphasis on communication, coordination, and decision making
- Simulations – Isolating systems from production to test recoverability
- Parallel testing – Utilizing dedicated recovery infrastructure
- Full-scale exercises – Comprehensive tests involving internal teams and external stakeholders
A robust disaster recovery testing program incorporates a range of testing methods on a regular basis, such as annually. Results and recommendations are documented in an after-action report that guides plan updates. Some key metrics tracked and reported after testing include recovery time, data loss, system functionality, documentation, and staff preparedness. Disaster recovery testing provides assurance that the organization can successfully recover if faced with a real emergency.
Conclusion
Developing and maintaining a strong disaster recovery plan is an important investment for every organization seeking business continuity assurance. While specific plans are tailored to each company’s unique operations and risk profile, most plans incorporate the five core elements of risk assessment, emergency response, recovery strategies, plan administration, and testing. Combining preventive measures to reduce the likelihood of disaster, along with thorough preparation to respond to disruptions, allows organizations to survive and thrive in the face of unexpected emergencies.
