The Basics: Write a Disaster Recovery Policy
Before you can write a disaster recovery policy, you must first know what it is. A disaster recovery policy is a plan that outlines the steps to be taken in the event of some disaster. This could be a natural disaster, data breach, system failure, or any other event that impacts your business. Having a clear, well-written, and tested disaster recovery policy in place can go a long way. It will minimize downtime, reduce data loss, and ensure that your business can recover as quickly and smoothly as possible.
Why Have a Disaster Recovery Policy?
The purpose of any policy is as a reference point during a stressful event, such as a data breach. So, imagine that your company is hit with ransomware. Would every employee know what to do (probably not). A clear, well-written, and tested policy will be the reference point used, and will explain action items. One example would be to report the event to your IT staff, or third party IT service provider. Depending on your infrastructure, you may want to shut down certain systems, or notify certain customers. If you have cyber insurance, you’ll want to be clear about how and when to notify your insurance company.
Remember, a disaster recovery policy is only useful if it can (and will) be used. Otherwise, don’t bother writing one.
Here are some tips for writing a disaster recovery procedure:
- Identify Critical Systems and Data: Identify the systems and data that are most critical to your business. These might include your financial systems, customer databases, accounting data, or production systems.
- Determine your Recovery Goals: For most, this means getting your systems up and running as quickly as possible. It may also mean minimizing data loss, or maintaining business continuity. Your ability to do this will depend on the data recovery options available to you.
- Create A Plan: This should outline the steps you’ll take in the event of a disaster. So, it will include how you’ll get your systems and data back online, how you’ll communicate with your employees, customers, and third parties. Generally, it will explain how you will get your business back up and running.
- Test Your Plan: It’s important to regularly test your disaster recovery procedure to ensure that it’s effective. This might include running simulated disaster scenarios or performing regular backups and restores.
- Update Your Plan: As your business changes and grows, you’ll need to update your disaster recovery procedure to reflect these changes. Be sure to review and update your plan at least once a year.
By following these steps and regularly testing and updating your disaster recovery procedure, you can be confident that you’re prepared for any potential disaster that may come your way.
Wrapping Up
So, if you’re on a budget we’d recommend finding free resources online and/or writing the policy yourself. If you’re unsure if your data is backed up, stop what you are doing and find out – It is your last line of defense. You can contact CTS Companies here, or simply search for DR Policy.
For reference, you can view our article about modern backup strategies or Database Migrations.