With the uncertainties surrounding our very existence, every organization or business firm is prone to a serious incident that can hamper its daily operations and prevent it from performing the normal activities. This can happen to any business and at any time, the causes of which may be floods, fires, accidents, computer malfunctions, explosions, terrorist attacks and the like. Thus, Disaster recovery planning is the process where arrangements are made in advance, so that critical functions of the business can be resumed within the shortest time possible, after the disaster, thus minimizing losses and restoring working in the affected regions.
A disaster recovery plan is also referred to as a business continuity plan. It describes how an organization can recover and restore normal working functions. Disaster recovery basically involves the continuity needs and an analysis of the business. The following are the stages of an effective disaster recovery plan:
1. Program description: This involves the identification and defining of the scope of the plan and how it would affect the assets of the business.
2. Project initiation: it is very essential to get approval from the senior management to be initiated.
3. Assessment of requirements of the business: appropriate plans vary with the businesses. Therefore, it is essential to establish the requirements of the business with respect to its type, processes involved and degree of security needed.
4. Business impact analysis: is the assessment and study of the financial losses that the organization would have to bear in case of a destructive incident.
5. Plan development: Each department of the business has to contribute in the development of the plan to understand and support its role.
6. Testing and maintenance of the program: tests have to be conducted to check the viability of the plan and once cleared must be implemented under the guidelines of the procedures mentioned in the plan.
Disaster recovery planning has become an important aspect of any business and it mainly relates to preventing data loss and restoration of critical data. An estimated 2 to 4% of the total IT budget is spent on disaster recovery planning so as to minimize larger losses in case of loss of infrastructure or data.
29 Oct
