Disaster Recovery
Disaster recovery and business continuity planning
Does your business have a plan in the event of cyberattack, fire, or another kind of threat? You may need business continuity planning, which involves preparing for any type of event that can disrupt technological systems or other significant operations. Creating a disaster recovery (DR) plan is an important aspect of this preparation.
Importance of a disaster recovery plan
The main advantage of a disaster recovery plan is the prevention of interruptions in order to limit costs to a business. Organizations create a contingency plan to ensure that critical business operations persist and to efficiently restore other impacted operations.
A disaster recovery plan outlines how to back up data during a data loss event such as a cyberattack and establish security safeguards to protect sensitive business information from being accessed by unauthorized parties. Accounting for such scenarios keeps your business from being caught off guard and ensures it's ready to act- not to mention cost and time savings in the event of a disaster.
Types of disaster recovery plans
- Data center disaster recovery
With a data center disaster recovery plan, the entire facility is designed to ensure maximum protection and operational readiness, including physical building security. However, one serious threat is a major natural disaster that can destroy servers stored on-premises. Utilizing a data center for business continuity planning can also be expensive. - Cloud-based disaster recovery
A cloud provider can offer a cost-effective alternative for disaster recovery services. Records stored in the cloud are also securely managed by an external provider, freeing up internal resources for other aspects of information security and preparedness. - Virtualization disaster recovery
Rather than relying on physical servers, a virtualization disaster recovery plan can lead to much faster recovery times. Virtual servers can be easily restored if the proper infrastructure is in place, allowing for more flexible recovery options. - Disaster recovery as a service
An increasing trend is for organizations to completely outsource major technological business continuity tasks. Network monitoring, immediate failover, and fast disaster response are some benefits of this type of disaster recovery plan.
Tips for creating a disaster recovery plan
In order to maximize preparedness, a disaster recovery plan should be comprehensive and include some of the following tasks:
- Assign specific responsibilities to each staff member to complete during a disaster.
- Develop a list of priorities and dependencies describing what needs to be fixed first.
- Determine an alternative location for operations during a disaster event.
- Establish manual processes for use until the network is fully functional and restored.
Working with Direct Networks to develop a business continuity strategy and understand crucial vulnerabilities is also a smart way to prepare for disaster recovery.
DirectNetworks can guide your disaster recovery plan and manage the most important aspects of business continuity planning. Contact us today to learn more.
Learn more about disaster recovery solutions today!