IT Disaster recovery – plan it, practice it

IT disaster recovery is a planned process that every business which relies on an IT infrastructure must have in place; it must be practicable, documented and practiced annually.

Every business that relies on IT Systems must have a Disaster Recovery Plan or risk going under

If you cannot put accurate figures to the three points below, your company could be in trouble.

  • The maximum tolerable downtime (MTD) represents the longest period a business IT function can be unavailable before causing irreparable harm to the business.
  • The recovery time objective (RTO) is the time within which a business process must be restored, after a major incident has occurred, in order to avoid catastrophic consequences and loss of business operations.
  • The recovery point objective (RPO) is the age of files that must be recovered from backup storage for normal operations to resume if a computer, system, or network goes down.

The DRP provides an orderly sequence of events designed to activate alternate processing sites while simultaneously restoring the primary site to operational status.

The plan minimizes the disruption of operations and ensures organizational stability and an orderly recovery after a disaster.

Managers must ensure that adequate programs are in place so that those team members charged with disaster recovery duties are well trained for their roles under the plan.

Start now – hindsight is a wonderful thing