DRP is an acronym that stands for Disaster Recovery Plan. A disaster recovery plan is a documented process or set of procedures to recover and protect a business IT infrastructure in the event of a disaster. The plan aims to minimize downtime and data loss.
What is a Disaster Recovery Plan?
A disaster recovery plan (DRP) is a strategy that outlines the steps an organization will take to restore critical systems, applications and data after a disruption or disaster. The plan serves as a roadmap for how the business will recover from disruptions ranging from minor incidents to catastrophic events.
A DRP is an essential part of an organization’s business continuity planning. It contains detailed procedures for responding to a disaster and recovering critical technology infrastructure and systems. The plan helps minimize downtime and data loss in the event of both natural disasters like floods, fires or earthquakes, and human-caused disasters like cyber attacks or technology failures.
Elements of a Disaster Recovery Plan
A comprehensive disaster recovery plan will include the following key elements:
- Emergency response procedures – Steps to assess the incident, activate the recovery plan and assemble the disaster recovery teams.
- Recovery location – Details on the backup facilities and technology resources to shift operations to during recovery.
- Personnel – Contact information for disaster recovery teams and roles and responsibilities.
- Vendor agreements – Contact details for key vendors that may need to be engaged during the recovery process.
- IT hardware inventory – Catalog of all critical technology systems and components.
- System configuration – Documentation of system settings and requirements to restore systems.
- Data backup processes – Policies, schedules and procedures for backing up critical data and applications.
- Reconstitution phase – Steps to restore systems, data and facilities and resume normal operations.
- Testing and updates – Plans to train personnel, conduct drills, and keep the DRP current.
Why is a Disaster Recovery Plan Important?
A disaster recovery plan is a critical part of managing risk and ensuring business continuity. Here are some key reasons why having a DRP is so important for organizations:
- Minimizes downtime – With tested plans in place for recovery of systems and data, companies can restore operations faster.
- Limits data loss – Regular backups and established procedures prevent permanent loss of critical data.
- Maintains compliance – Regulated industries often require documentation of disaster recovery processes.
- Reduces costs – An effective DRP minimizes financial losses from disruptions.
- Supports resilience – A DRP enables organizations to withstand and recover from disasters.
- Manages reputation – Having a DRP shows customers and stakeholders the business is prepared for disasters.
Failing to have a plan in place can have devastating consequences including million dollar losses from downtime and permanent loss of essential data. Even minor incidents can result in hours of disruption if proper backup and recovery procedures are not established in advance.
How to Create a Disaster Recovery Plan
Developing a detailed disaster recovery plan involves the following key steps:
- Establish a disaster recovery team – Gather key IT personnel, executives and personnel from other departments to coordinate planning.
- Identify critical systems and processes – Document all essential technology infrastructure, systems, applications, and data.
- Perform risk assessment – Analyze potential vulnerabilities and threats that could impact systems and operations.
- Determine backup and recovery strategies – Select appropriate data backup scenarios, offsite facilities and system redundancies.
- Document detailed procedures – Outline step-by-step instructions to respond to a disaster and recover systems in a prioritized sequence.
- Select disaster recovery site – Choose a backup facility with the technology infrastructure to restore operations.
- Secure vendor agreements – Formalize arrangements with vendors to provide essential response and recovery services.
- Delegate responsibilities – Define roles and responsibilities for disaster recovery teams, managers and staff.
- Test the plan – Perform simulations and drills to test procedures and identify any gaps.
- Train personnel – Educate staff on procedures and ensure understanding of individual responsibilities.
- Update the plan – Review and revise the DRP on a periodic basis to keep information current.
This process requires careful planning and documentation. Most organizations utilize specialized risk management software and work with consultants to ensure their DRP is comprehensive and meets industry standards.
Elements of an Effective Disaster Recovery Plan
A high quality disaster recovery plan contains the key components outlined below:
1. Defined Roles and Responsibilities
The plan clearly assigns disaster recovery roles and responsibilities to individuals and teams. This establishes accountability during a crisis. Task may include:
- Activating the recovery plan
- Communicating with internal stakeholders and public media
- Conducting damage assessments
- Restoring hardware, data and software
- Coordinating vendors and third-party services
- Testing repaired systems
- Returning to normal operating conditions
2. Analysis of Business Processes and Operations
The DRP thoroughly documents all critical business systems, processes and the technology infrastructure that supports them. This analysis identifies what staff, technology, facilities and data are absolutely essential to maintaining critical operations when a disaster strikes.
3. Emergency Procedures
Emergency procedures within the DRP provide step-by-step instructions for assessing damage, activating the plan and mobilizing the disaster recovery teams immediately after a disaster occurs. This enables rapid response.
4. Testing and Updating
The plan sets a schedule for regular testing of disaster recovery capabilities through drills and simulations. It also outlines a process for reviewing and updating the DRP to account for changes to systems, processes, personnel and threats.
5. Alternative Recovery Facilities
The DRP designates one or more alternative facilities where critical systems and operations can be temporarily restored after a disaster. This provides physical resources to support system and data restoration.
6. Back-up Options
Comprehensive backup, archiving and data replication procedures are included to minimize data loss. This also outlines the policies and capacity for storing backups offsite.
7. Vital Records and Data Backups
Documentation of the organization’s vital records, databases, software and backups needed to set up systems after a disaster are included. The plan details the location and steps to retrieve these assets.
8. Financial and Legal Preparation
In order to minimize downtime and begin restoration immediately, the DRP coordinates with financial and legal departments to authorize emergency funds and expedite contracting with vendors critical for recovery operations.
9. Communication Strategy
The DRP outlines communication plans and procedures to keep internal and external stakeholders aware of response status and progress during the recovery process.
10. Long-term Recovery Strategies
The plan considers long-term needs including where staff will work permanently if the main facility is damaged. This supports restoring business operations back to normal levels.
Maintaining and Testing a Disaster Recovery Plan
After the initial creation of a DRP, ongoing maintenance is critical. Organizations should:
- Review and update the DRP annually and when major system changes occur
- Provide ongoing staff training on disaster recovery procedures
- Test the plan frequently with table-top exercises, simulations and live drills
- Conduct annual full rehearsals with disaster recovery teams
- Incorporate lessons learned from tests into plan updates
- Audit the plan regularly to ensure compliance
This maintenance ensures the disaster recovery plan stays current and team members understand their roles. Test results validate that the procedures are effective and identify any gaps that need adjustment.
Disaster Recovery Plan Template
Many organizations utilize a standard disaster recovery plan template to guide the development of their DRP. While the format can vary, a basic template will include the following structure:
| Section | Description |
|---|---|
| Introductory Material | Title page, table of contents, definitions, basic plan overview |
| Business Impact Analysis | Critical systems/process overview, risk assessment, priorities |
| Emergency Procedures | Initial response steps, plan activation, damage assessments, escalation procedures |
| Recovery Strategies | Restoration approach for systems/data, roles and responsibilities |
| Plan Components | Detailed procedures for backups, alternative facilities, vendor agreements |
| Awareness and Training | Orientation, practice drills, maintenance schedule |
| Testing and Updates | Types of plan tests, audits, reviews, document control |
| Supporting Documentation | Hardware inventories, system configs, contact lists, vendor SLA’s |
Organizations can utilize this standard template and tailor the content to match their unique environment and requirements. Structuring information in this format ensures all critical disaster recovery information is documented in a methodical way.
Disaster Recovery Plan Best Practices
Following best practices when developing a DRP helps organizations create a robust recovery plan aligned to industry standards. Recommended best practices include:
- Obtain executive buy-in and support for the DRP
- Form a cross-departmental planning committee representing all areas of the business
- Work with stakeholders to classify systems and operations based on criticality
- Consult risk management experts and auditors when performing risk assessments
- Research alternate facilities that meet capacity, security and cost requirements
- Meet with essential vendors to formalize emergency service agreements
- Document step-by-step recovery procedures aligned to system restoration priorities
- Develop cost analysis estimates for various disaster scenarios
- Establish procedures for accessing backup hardware, software and data
- Coordinate plan development with related policies for backups and business continuity
- Utilize a cyclical process of conducting tests, identifying gaps, updating the plan and re-testing
Adhering to proven best practices helps organizations create and maintain a DRP that provides the greatest chance for minimizing disruptions when disaster strikes.
Common Disaster Recovery Plan Mistakes
There are some common mistakes organizations make when developing or implementing a DRP. Being aware of these pitfalls can help avoid undermining the effectiveness of the plan:
- Not keeping the plan updated – Failure to update after system changes leaves gaps in the procedures
- Incomplete documentation – Lack of comprehensive documentation prevents effective execution
- Focusing only on technology – Plans overly focused on IT ignore impacts across the broader business
- Unrealistic expectations – Impractical recovery timeframes create a false sense of capability
- Failure to validate backups – Companies discover too late backups were incomplete or corrupted
- Inadequate training – Staff turnover and infrequent drills result in lack of familiarity executing procedures
- No offsite copies – All copies of the plan itself are kept onsite and unavailable in a disaster
- Absence of executive support – Lack of leadership buy-in leads to inadequate resources and compliance
- Isolation from business continuity planning – Lack of integration with business continuity hampers overall organization resilience
- Insufficient budget allocated – Inadequate budget to execute all aspects of the plan fully
Being proactive to avoid these common pitfalls will strengthen the overall effectiveness of an organization’s disaster recovery planning capabilities.
Disaster Recovery Plan Tools
Specialized software and tools are available to assist with disaster recovery planning. Common capabilities provided by these DRP tools include:
- Templates for industry-standard plan content and formatting
- Questionnaires to gather information on systems and processes
- Risk analysis to identify and prioritize potential threats
- Reporting to document plan components
- Dashboards to view status and track progress
- Notifications and alerts during plan activation
- Audit tracking for plan reviews and updates
- Plan distribution tools to control access
- Testing functionality for tabletop exercises and drills
Leading providers of disaster recovery plan software and tools include RSA, Dell, VMware, and Zerto. Many business continuity management platforms also incorporate DRP modules.
Tools provide robust templates, questions prompts and workflows to simplify plan development. They help streamline documentation, maintenance, distribution and testing of the DRP.
Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS)
Many organizations choose to outsource some or all of their disaster recovery capabilities by using Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS). DRaaS providers maintain alternative computing facilities and cloud infrastructure that clients can access to quickly restore IT operations.
Benefits of DRaaS include:
- Eliminates capital costs for secondary disaster recovery sites
- Provides tested redundancy and backup capabilities
- Offers expertise in managing and executing recovery
- Scales recovery capacity as needed
- Allows focusing internal resources on core business
Leading DRaaS vendors include Microsoft, IBM, Amazon Web Services, and SunGard Availability Services. Though DRaaS capabilities may be part of a disaster recovery plan, businesses retain responsibility for documenting detailed procedures and executing elements managed internally.
Key Points
- A disaster recovery plan is a documented process to restore IT operations quickly and recover from disruptions
- DRPs minimize downtime, limit data loss, and support overall business resilience
- DRPs include emergency procedures, system backups, alternative facilities, restoration steps, and testing
- DRPs should be developed in coordination with business continuity and IT security policies
- Plans must be kept updated and team members trained through regular testing
- Specialized software tools can support disaster recovery planning activities
- Outsourcing disaster recovery capabilities through DRaaS is a strategy used by many organizations
Conclusion
An organization’s ability to rapidly bounce back after disaster events depends heavily on having a thoughtful, detailed disaster recovery plan in place. Investing time upfront to carefully develop disaster recovery plans, keep them updated, and practice executing them through rigorous testing pays huge dividends when crises emerge. A comprehensive plan minimizes costly downtime and safeguards critical data to enable maintaining operations. Following disaster recovery best practices, utilizing available tools, and integrating disaster recovery with broader business continuity initiatives helps create and sustain a robust capability.