Disaster Recovery Plan

Disaster Recovery Plan is an essential strategy that defines the steps to be taken in the event of an unexpected disaster that disrupts normal business operations. It helps organizations minimize the impact of a disaster on their operations, assets, and employees and to resume normal business functions.

It aims to include a range of procedures and policies designed to address various types of disasters that could impact a business, such as natural disasters, cyberattacks, power outages, and other catastrophic incidents. It is a critical component of a comprehensive risk management strategy that helps organizations minimize the impact of unforeseen disasters and quickly recover normal business operations.

• A disaster recovery plan is a plan that businesses can develop to ensure the recovery of critical systems, data, and infrastructure following a disaster.
• The main objective of it is to minimize downtime and data loss by ensuring that critical functions and systems can be quickly restored and made operational again.
• It typically includes backup and recovery procedures, emergency contact information, recovery time objectives (RTOs), and recovery point objectives (RPOs).

A disaster recovery plan testing is a structured process. Organizations can identify potential risks, prioritize critical functions, and develop a comprehensive plan to minimize the impact of disasters and quickly resume normal operations.

A disaster recovery plan steps include:

1. Risk Assessment: The first step is identifying potential risks and threats that could disrupt normal business operations, such as natural disasters, cyberattacks, power outages, or other catastrophic incidents. A risk assessment helps to prioritize the risks and identify the critical functions.
2. Business Impact Analysis: The next move is to perform a business impact analysis (BIA) to assess the potential impact of each risk or threat on the organization's critical business functions. This analysis helps identify each required position's recovery time and point objectives.
3. Plan Development: Depending on the risk assessment and BIA, it outlines the procedures, policies, and strategies before, during, and after a disaster. The plan includes detailed data backup and recovery steps, infrastructure recovery, communication plans, evacuation and emergency response plans, and testing and updating them.
4. Plan Testing: It ensures effectiveness in real-life scenarios. Tests include tabletop exercises, walk-throughs, simulations, and full-scale trials. The results of the tests identify gaps in it and make necessary improvements.
5. Plan Maintenance: It should be reviewed and updated regularly to remain relevant and practical. This includes updating contact information, revising recovery procedures based on changes in the organization's IT infrastructure, and incorporating lessons learned from previous tests or actual incidents.

Businesses can implement different Disaster Recovery Plans depending on their needs, resources, and priorities. However, some of the common types of business disaster recovery plans are:

1. Cold Site DRP: It is a cost-effective solution involving a backup location with the necessary infrastructure, such as power and cooling, but with no equipment or data stored on site. This plan can take longer to restore critical functions since equipment and data must be installed and configured before operations can resume.
2. Warm Site DRP involves having a backup location with some of the necessary infrastructure and equipment, such as servers and network systems, pre-installed and configured. This type of DRP can reduce the downtime and recovery time compared to a cold site DRP but may require additional equipment and software licenses to be purchased and installed.
3. Hot Site DRP is a high-availability solution with a fully equipped and functional backup location ready to take over operations immediately after a disaster. This type of DRP typically involves replicating critical data and systems in real-time or near-real-time to the hot site so that the organization can continue operations without interruption.
4. Cloud-DRP involves using cloud services for backup and recovery, such as storing critical data and systems in the cloud and using a cloud disaster recovery plan to restore operations rapidly. This type of DRP can provide a scalable and cost-effective solution for businesses of all sizes.
5. Hybrid DRP combines different DRPs to create a customized solution that meets the organization's needs and requirements. For example, a business may use a hot site for critical functions and a cloud-based DRP for less critical operations.

Here are some essential elements of a disaster recovery plan checklist:

1. Emergency Contact Information: This should include a list of emergency contacts for employees, vendors, and customers, along with their roles and responsibilities during a disaster.
2. Critical Functions and Data: Identify essential functions and data, and prioritize them according to their importance to the business. This will help determine each function's recovery time objectives (RTOs) and recovery point objectives (RPOs).
3. Backup Procedures: Determine the backup procedures for critical data and systems, including frequency, retention periods, and storage locations. This should include both onsite and offsite backups.
4. Recovery Procedures: Develop detailed recovery procedures for each critical function, including the recovery sequence, the necessary resources, and the personnel responsible for each step.
5. Communication Plan: Develop a communication plan that outlines how to communicate with employees, customers, vendors, and stakeholders before, during, and after a disaster. This should include alternative communication methods and backup communication systems.
6. Testing and Maintenance Procedures: Test it regularly to ensure that it is effective and up to date. This should include both tabletop exercises and real-life simulations. It should also be reviewed and updated periodically to reflect changes in the business environment.
7. Resource Requirements: Identify the necessary resources, such as equipment, software, and personnel, required to implement it. This should include identifying backup suppliers and vendors and any contracts and agreements.
8. Training and Awareness: Train employees on it and their roles and responsibilities during a disaster. This should include regular training sessions and awareness campaigns.
9. Risk Assessment: Conduct a risk assessment to identify threats and develop a risk management strategy that complements it.

Let us understand it in the following ways.

Example #1

Suppose a manufacturing company operates in a region vulnerable to natural disasters like hurricanes and earthquakes. To prepare for such events, the company has developed a Disaster Recovery Plan that includes the following:

• Regular backups of critical data and systems.
• A designated hot site location that can take over operations in case of a disaster.
• Emergency contact information for employees, vendors, and customers.
• Detailed recovery procedures for each critical function.
• Regular testing and maintenance of it.

Example #2

In March 2021, a fire broke out at the OVH-Cloud data center in Strasbourg, France, which resulted in the loss of several hundred servers and impacted thousands of customers. OVH-Cloud, a cloud computing provider, had a Disaster Recovery Plan in place that helped them minimize the impact of the fire on their customers. Their DRP included the following:

• A backup strategy included multi-site replication, with data replicated to other data centers in France and Canada.
• A hot site location that took over operations while the Strasbourg data center was being restored.
• Regular testing and maintenance of it.

In this way, OVH-Cloud could quickly restore services to its customers and avoid significant disruption to its operations.

There are several benefits to having a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) in place for a business. Here are some of the key benefits:

1. Minimizes Downtime: It helps businesses minimize downtime in a disaster, allowing them to resume operations quickly and reduce the impact on their customers.
2. Reduces Data Loss: It reduces the risk of data loss and associated costs.
3. Increases Resilience: It helps businesses build resilience by identifying potential risks and vulnerabilities and developing mitigation strategies.
4. Improves Business Continuity: It helps businesses ensure the continuity of their operations, even in the face of unexpected events, by providing a clear roadmap for recovery and resumption of services.
5. Protects Reputation: It helps businesses protect their reputation by minimizing the impact of a disaster on their customers, stakeholders, and the wider community.
6. Reduces Costs: It can help businesses reduce the costs associated with a disaster by minimizing downtime, reducing data loss, and avoiding the need for costly emergency measures.
7. Enhances Compliance: It helps businesses comply with industry regulations and standards, such as HIPAA, SOX, and PCI.

A Disaster Recovery Plan focuses on restoring critical systems and data following a disaster. At the same time, a business continuity plan focuses on ensuring the continuity of business operations, even in the face of a disaster. Both methods are essential for businesses to prepare for and respond to uncertain events.

Some key points of differentiation between a disaster recovery plan and a business continuity plan.

Disaster Recovery Plan

• It focuses on recovering critical systems, data, and infrastructure following a disaster.
• It aims to minimize downtime and data loss by ensuring critical functions and systems can be quickly restored.
• It includes backup and recovery procedures, emergency contact information, recovery time objectives (RTOs), and recovery point objectives (RPOs)

Business Continuity Plan

• It focuses on ensuring the continuity of business operations in the event of a disaster.
• It aims to ensure that the business can continue operating, even after losing its physical location or systems.
• It includes contingency plans, communication procedures, employee training, and alternative business operations, such as remote working and cloud-based systems.

This article has been a guide to Disaster Recovery Plan and its meaning. We explain its examples, differences with contingency plans, checklist, benefits, and types. You may also find some useful articles here -

• Incident Response Plan
• V-Shaped Recovery
• Business Continuity Planning