Disaster Recovery Planning

Why not having a Disaster Recovery Plan can kill your business

Proper emergency management in case of a natural disaster is the lifeline for saving a business and can make the difference between surviving and bankruptcy. Effectively dealing with disruptions means efficient business continuity planning and disaster recovery, having a plan before a said emergency happens and not leaving anything to chance and improvisation.

Not having a disaster recovery plan (DRP) is not just irresponsible in case of emergency, it can also mean losing clients and contracts, as major businesses increasingly filter out companies who lack a DRP when selecting partners. Without an efficient disaster recovery plan, your business also risks sanctions, fines, and lawsuits.

Key steps when building an effective disaster recovery plan

Perform a Business Impact Analysis (BIA) identifying your business’s systems and processes, and how specific events could disrupt these. This will need to be thorough, addressing every issue that can arise in any of your business departments. Categorize these events by the probability of occurring and the level of impact on your business and develop contingency plans for them. Each event comes with potential risks, like reduced productivity or recovery costs.

In case of a natural disaster, your first concern should be employee safety. Your employees should have adequate emergency and disaster training, ensuring they know how to protect themselves and their colleagues should the need arise. Formal training should be conducted by a qualified team and attended by all personnel and recorded and stored so your employees can access the information later. Formal training should also be conducted regularly, according to a schedule agreed upon with the hired team.

Your IT infrastructure should also be a priority. Natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes or earthquakes can harm not only your on-site staff but also cause damage leading to operational and financial losses. Having a standby backup generator can help mitigate downtime and equipment damage caused by a power loss and having a data backup system prevents considerable data loss.

You will have to negotiate service level agreements (SLAs) with your clients. SLAs outline estimated service unavailability time should an emergency occur and are made up of Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs). RTO is how long your systems can be offline during a disaster and RPO measures the amount of data that can be lost if such an event may occur. With these two metrics, you can develop an SLA, letting your clients know what to expect in case of an emergency. SLAs can be challenging to draw up, as they need to consider end-user needs and expectations. Sometimes clients tend to have unrealistic expectations, demanding no data loss and instant failover.

Ensure you are complying with legal requirements, by ensuring every step in your plan is in accordance with ISO 22301:2019, the international standard for business continuity management systems (BCMS).

Do not forget to test your disaster recovery plan. Think of it as a fire drill — theory is not everything; you must put it into practice and see if everything goes according to plan. Many businesses only look to their DRP when a disaster happens, often leading to unforeseen issues. Testing your plan includes ensuring your employees are up to date on your DRP, testing emergency phone numbers and communication systems, checking data backup systems, and performing maintenance on your backup generator.