Disaster recovery planning is a critical component of any organization’s risk management strategy. Having a comprehensive disaster recovery plan in place can help minimize downtime and data loss in the event of a disruption. Here are some best practices to follow when developing a disaster recovery plan.
Conduct a Risk Assessment
The first step in creating an effective disaster recovery plan is to conduct a thorough risk assessment. This involves identifying potential threats, analyzing their likelihood and potential impact, and prioritizing them accordingly. Some common threats to consider include:
- Natural disasters like floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, etc.
- Power outages and utility disruptions
- Cyber attacks such as malware, hacking, and denial of service attacks
- Human errors like accidental data deletion or corruption
- Hardware failures of critical IT systems and data storage
Once threats are identified, analyze the vulnerability of your systems and data to these threats. Estimate the potential frequency and recovery costs associated with each one. This will allow you to determine which risks are highest priority and require the most focus in your disaster recovery planning.
Define Recovery Objectives
The next key step is to define your disaster recovery objectives. This means setting goals for recovery point objectives (RPO) and recovery time objectives (RTO) across your IT systems and data:
- Recovery Point Objective (RPO) – The maximum acceptable amount of data loss in the event of a disruption. For example, an RPO of 1 hour means no more than 1 hour of data can be lost.
- Recovery Time Objective (RTO) – The maximum acceptable amount of downtime after a disruption. For example, an RTO of 8 hours means systems must be restored within 8 hours.
Define RPOs and RTOs based on the criticality and urgency of different systems and data types. More business critical platforms require more aggressive recovery objectives.
Implement Resilient Infrastructure
Once RPOs and RTOs are defined, design infrastructure and systems to meet these objectives. Consider the following best practices:
- Redundant, fault-tolerant server infrastructure – Use techniques like clustering, failover servers, and load balancing across data centers.
- Geo-distributed storage and backups – Replicate data across multiple sites and maintain backup copies in separate locations.
- High availability configurations – Eliminate single points of failure throughout your infrastructure.
- Network redundancy – Maintain alternate network links and paths to keep infrastructure connected.
- Regular system backups – Backup critical data on a frequent, automated schedule in alignment with RPOs.
Modern cloud platforms make many of these resilience capabilities easier to implement.
Document Detailed Recovery Procedures
Once you have implemented resilient infrastructure aligned to your RTOs and RPOs, the next key activity is to document detailed recovery runbooks and procedures. These playbooks should cover the exact technical steps required to recover infrastructure, systems, configurations, and data for various scenarios. Include details like:
- Recovery instructions for different applications, servers, networks, and databases.
- Contact information for critical staff and vendors.
- Locations of backups, spare equipment, and software installers.
- Network diagrams and system credentials.
- Validation testing steps.
Store recovery documentation in formats that will remain accessible even if networks and systems are down, like printed docs or USB drives.
Perform Regular Testing
Even with thorough documentation in place, recovery procedures need to be validated through regular testing. Types of disaster recovery tests to perform include:
- Tabletop exercises – Simulate a disaster scenario and walk through recovery procedures on paper.
- System failover/failback tests – Manually initiate failovers across redundant infrastructure to validate capability.
- Live data recovery tests – Restore production data from backups to ensure recoverability.
- Full end-to-end tests – Execute a full site-level recovery to validate all systems are restored within RTO.
Conduct tests frequently enough to keep procedures fresh. Annual recovery tests are recommended for most applications.
Maintain Offsite Backups
As mentioned earlier, maintaining geographically distributed backups is a key resilience practice. Some guidelines for effective offsite backups include:
- Store backups at least 20 miles from the primary site to isolate from regional disasters.
- Encrypt backups and use media rotation to guard against theft and corruption.
- Validate backup integrity through periodic restoration tests.
- Follow a defined media rotation schedule based on retention policies.
- Maintain detailed inventories of backup archives and their contents.
Cloud-based object storage offers a valuable option for offsite backups that is inexpensive, durable, and easily accessible for restores.
Secure Critical Data
In addition to system backups, pay close attention to safeguarding critical business data. Recommended data security practices include:
- Classifying data by sensitivity level and applying appropriate protections to sensitive data.
- Encrypting data both at rest and in transit.
- Enforcing access controls and least privilege permissions based on roles.
- Maintaining audit logs of critical data access and changes.
- Applying data loss prevention controls to avoid accidental or malicious deletion/alteration.
These controls protect data integrity and confidentiality in the face of compromise or disaster.
Have Alternate Work Locations
Disasters that affect facilities can significantly impact workforce productivity and operations. Establish alternate work site arrangements to support continuity:
- Equip employees for remote work with laptops, VPN access, collaboration tools, etc.
- Designate a backup office location with workspaces, telephony, and connectivity.
- Leverage shared workspaces with seats that can be activated on-demand.
- Coordinate with business partners to use shared office recovery facilities if needed.
Test and exercise work mobility to ensure smooth operations during a site disruption event.
Assign Disaster Recovery Roles
A successful disaster recovery activation requires mobilization of stakeholders across the organization. Define DR roles like:
- Crisis management team – Executive leaders who declare a disaster and activate response.
- Damage assessment team – Technical staff who evaluate damage and recovery needs.
- Data recovery team – IT staff who restore systems from backups.
- Field teams – Facilities personnel who repair and restore physical infrastructure access.
- Communications team – Public relations professionals who manage internal and external messaging.
Document and train personnel on their specific responsibilities during a disaster scenario. Conduct exercises to rehearse response.
Define Escalation and Notification Procedures
The disaster recovery plan should clearly define escalation and notification procedures including:
- Criteria for activating the plan and declaring a disaster.
- Notification methods to mobilize recovery teams and personnel.
- Escalation paths for decision-making and coordinating response.
- Internal and external communication plans to keep stakeholders informed.
Automating notifications via systems monitoring and on-call schedules accelerates mobilization when disaster strikes.
Secure Senior Management Commitment
Gaining senior management commitment and support is key to implementing robust, effective disaster recovery capabilities. Activities like:
- Educating leadership on disaster recovery best practices.
- Aligning DR with business goals for resilience and continuity.
- Getting executive budget and resource allocation for DR planning.
- Coordinating DR exercises and preparedness activities across the organization.
Senior management interest drives participation, accountability, and continuous improvement of disaster recovery measures.
Review and Audit Regularly
Disaster recovery plans must be regularly reviewed and updated to account for changes like:
- New threats or risks.
- Evolving business needs and priorities.
- New applications, data, and infrastructure.
- Corporate restructuring or mergers and acquisitions.
- Updated compliance obligations.
Formal audits of recovery documentation and capabilities should be conducted at least annually.
Integrate With Business Continuity Planning
While disaster recovery focuses on resuming technology and data after a disruption, business continuity planning deals with maintaining overall business operations. Integrate these complementary programs by:
- Aligning continuity strategies for people, facilities, suppliers and processes with infrastructure systems recovery.
- Coordinating DR teams and scenarios into the overall business continuity framework.
- Embedding data backup and recovery requirements into broader business impact analysis and risk assessment activities.
This delivers an enterprise-wide capability to restart the full business, not just IT systems.
Leverage Managed DR Services
Given the expansive expertise and infrastructure required to implement resilient disaster recovery, many organizations opt to leverage managed DR services from an outside vendor. Benefits of managed DR services include:
- Access to alternate data center facilities purpose-built for disaster recovery.
- Assistance developing detailed response plans and procedures.
- Regular DR testing included in the service.
- 24×7 invocation support during disruptions.
- Reduced DR costs by converting it from a capital to operating expense.
Evaluate provider capabilities carefully to ensure they can deliver on contractual service commitments.
Maintain Comprehensive Insurance
Even with a mature disaster recovery program, residual risks remain that could result in financial impacts from data loss, facilities damage, or business interruption. Maintain adequate insurances like:
- Cyber insurance to cover data restoration, legal liabilities, and ransomware payments.
- Business interruption insurance to replace income lost following a disruption.
- Property insurance covering buildings, equipment, and core infrastructure.
- Directors and officers insurance to defend against liability claims.
Work closely with risk management teams and insurance providers to structure policies and coverage levels appropriately based on potential exposure.
Conclusion
Disaster recovery planning is a complex undertaking, but vitally important for organizational resilience. The best practices presented here, including conducting risk assessments, meeting RTOs/RPOs, documenting procedures, testing, securing data backups, assigning DR roles and managing third party services, provide a blueprint for building and operating a robust disaster recovery capability able to restore IT operations and data in the face of business disruptions.