IT Disaster Recovery Plan

While disaster recovery plans are an important holistic document that every company should have, the increased reliance on IT and technology within Canadian organizations has placed greater importance on the role of IT in disaster recovery. There is no denying the importance of an IT recovery plan; however, the reality is that most companies do not have an IT disaster recovery plan. This places them in a precarious position if a disaster is to occur and significantly reduces their ability to restore their IT functionality to its previous state before a disaster.

While it must be a component of every recovery and business continuity plan, some companies also develop a completely separate IT disaster recovery plan to address specific technology-related recovery issues. Companies that do this increase the likelihood that they will be able to recover most of their data and IT functionality.

Core IT recovery objectives

While a more general recovery plan focuses on the how the business will recover as a whole, an IT recovery plan focuses on the recovery of technology and a companies:

• Hardware
• Software
• Servers and systems
• Networks (LANs, WANs, virtual networks)

There are three main objectives or focal points when it comes to IT recovery. They include:

1. Recovery time: This is the identification of how long your businesses can operate without the presence of its core IT services. This is a determination of how fast the recovery process needs to be to avert significant damage to the organization.
2. Recovery Point: This is the establishment of how far back you will go in the recovery process. How far will you go back to recover your data? Will it be the previous day, start of day, or start of the week?
3. Maximum tolerable outage: Commonly referred to as MTO, this is the establishment of the maximum time that a company can exist without IT service.

Things to consider as part of your IT recovery plan

There are a number of IT service areas that need to be addressed as part of your recovery plan. What is included will depend on the make-up of your IT department. Some of the most common include:

• Network infrastructure (wireless and wired)
• The company Web site
• Databases
• Data backup systems
• Offsite data storage
• Web services
• E-mail services
• Communications systems
• Physical computing equipment
• Access capabilities

The importance of testing your IT recovery plan

To ensure that your company is properly protected, your plan needs to be tested. Testing will uncover any oversights and help to provide a realistic expectation of what can be done and within what time frame. Here is what will be accomplished through testing your plan:

• The ability to see the plan in action
• To verify the functionality the recovery plan and site
• To determine if defined recovery goals are realistic
• To improve on shortcomings in the plan
• To create familiarity with the IT recovery process

Tips for effective IT recovery planning

The following are some tips to ensure that your IT recovery plan is implementable and as effective as possible:

• Include device backup for your computers, laptops and other mobile devices as part of your plan
• Make offsite data backup part of your daily operations and part of your recovery plan
• Include redundant servers to that data is accessible
• Perform data restoration tests to ensure that your data can be recovered
• Frequently monitor your recovery plan and make adjustments as your company changes
• Consult with IT recovery professionals to ensure your company is properly prepared