Unless you’re an IT expert, chances are that the phrase ‘Disaster Recovery Plan’ isn’t one that you’re overly familiar with. Perhaps you just haven’t got round to doing one yet or you have a trusted IT department that takes care of this for you. Either way, a Disaster Recovery Plan is absolutely vital to any business because this is the set of processes that are used to handle and protect a company’s IT infrastructure in the event of a disaster.
How do you know when it’s time to review your Disaster Recovery Plan however? Even if you didn’t know a thing about disaster recovery until 30 seconds ago, below is a helpful guide to help you establish whether or not it’s time to review your procedures. Many of the major banks such as HSBC will offer helpful business advice including plans for disaster recovery as well.
Does your plan still fulfil the needs of your business?
If you haven’t reviewed your plan since you first set up, then now is the time to do it. If your business has grown significantly or introduced new systems, this could affect how your current processes handle disasters. Always make sure that you keep your Disaster Recovery Plan up-to-date so you can guarantee you are covered for all eventualities.
What is your Recovery Time Objective?
One of the key metrics that should be measured when reviewing your Disaster Recovery Plan is the length of time you expect your system to be completely up and running following a disaster. Discuss this with your provider so you can have an honest and realistic time frame that you know you can work from should anything happen.
Are you getting value for money?
Whilst we certainly don’t recommend scrimping when it comes to your Disaster Recovery Plan, it’s always wise to make sure you’re not spending more than you have to. For example, a pay-as-you-go pricing model is a great way to manage costs more effectively depending on the different levels of service required before, during and after a disaster.
Can you use cloud based services?
The layering techniques used in cloud based services means that rather than running a number of products on their own network, companies can buy layers from cloud companies. This provides huge benefits as it’s more secure than traditional methods and it also protects against increasingly sophisticated attacks.
What support do you get?
Any company that has ever been hit with an IT disaster will know what a stressful time this is and you need to make sure you can get back up and running as quickly as possible. What levels of support does your current provider offer? Can you get hold of them 24/7? What are their estimated recovery times? Do they have dedicated specialists who can get out to you immediately? These are all important questions to ask because a poor Disaster Recovery Plan can result in huge financial and customer losses as well as a bad reputation.
This was written by Chris who works closely with Positive Computing who offer first class services and IT solutions for your business. When Chris is not working, he likes to relax with his wife and children, they enjoy going on holiday and feeding the ducks in the park.