Building A Business Data Recovery Plan
Countless businesses these days rely on digital technology to run efficiently. That’s why such enterprises must prepare for significant disruptions.
Long-term internet connectivity problems, power outages, natural disasters, and a cyberattack can all wipe out business data. When that happens, your business should be able to get back on its feet by activating a business data recovery plan. Making one requires careful planning and testing, but with the tips provided in this article, you might find the task less challenging.
Why A Data Recovery Plan Is Crucial
A business data recovery plan is also often called a disaster recovery plan (DRP). It underlines how the organisation can continue operating after a significant incident. Businesses stand to lose USD$3.8 million for every data loss incident, making this plan a crucial organisational document.
How To Create An Excellent Data Recovery Plan
Regardless of size, all organisations must craft their DRP—focusing on business data recovery—in order to remain resilient in the face of threats. Check out these tips to prepare for major disruptions that could damage your business data:
Carry Out A Comprehensive Risk Assessment
Before knowing which steps your organisation has to take in the face of business-disrupting risks, you have to determine the threats you’ll be dealing with. Companies must craft a response based on their resources and capacities.
Specific threats resulting in business data loss require solutions from professionals. Most organisations seek third-party information technology (IT) experts in their area. If you live in Washington, for example, you can contact a company offering managed IT services in Seattle to assist you. In most instances, these IT firms can do the heavy lifting for your business.
Identify Critical Assets To Protect
After reading the thorough risk assessment report, identify which of your business software and hardware assets must be protected to facilitate data recovery after an untoward incident. In these times, your data management policies and practices would come to good use.
To develop a list of assets to protect:
- Make an inventory of your IT structure and data.
- List down the assets that your office and team members use to perform all business processes.
- Categorise each item and application according to their importance to your company, starting with the things you can’t do without. Your list may include emails, servers, networks, accounting and customer relations management software, and so on.
Take A Proactive Approach
Prevention is a cornerstone principle for crafting a business data recovery plan. Don’t wait for your assets such as network, servers, and other types of hardware to break down before checking on them. Have your in-house IT team or a third-party firm monitor your assets periodically to make sure they’re in tiptop shape. Don’t hesitate to upgrade your aging systems or replace faulty parts.
In the same manner, strengthen your business defence against cybersecurity threats. Update your staff about the most recent trends and how to avoid them. Discuss your proposal for employee participation in the data recovery plan, and ask for input from them. Consider their feedback and assess whether you need to amend some components of your data recovery plan.
Formulate Clear And Doable Objectives
One of the critical components in any plan is goal setting, and a DRP is no different. The terms ‘recovery point objectives’ (RPOs) and ‘recovery time objectives’ (RTOs) are essential for this crucial business document. RPO and RTO use time measurements in setting goals.
RTO is the business-identified acceptable downtime period or the time in which your organisation’s operations may experience a pause. This approximation defines how long it’ll take for normal operations to resume following a catastrophic incident. For instance, businesses can set a three-day RTO, which means the organisation must be able to function three days following the disaster or cyberattack.
RPO measures the extent of information your organisation can afford to lose following a disaster. Often, businesses can manage this by adjusting backup data frequencies. A one-day RPO means it’s acceptable for an organisation to lose a day’s worth of lost data. RPO and RTO settings will have to be decided by the business managers based on several factors.
Have Remote Data Backups
Securing business data by maintaining a secondary off-site backup system is a must in disaster recovery. Natural disasters such as fire and flooding may leave all physical assets damaged, making out-of-office backups necessary.
Ideally, your business should have both local backups and cloud backups to ensure your data remains safe no matter what happens. Make sure to include a robust backup system in your data recovery plan.
Final Thoughts
After creating a recovery plan, the next critical step is to test your strategy, especially if you’ve upgraded your hardware or network systems. Testing your business data recovery solutions allows you to check for gaps and correct them proactively. Doing this ensures that your business can keep going despite major cyberattacks and disaster incidents.
