Business continuity threats come in many shapes and sizes. Effective disaster recovery policies are needed to minimize data loss and restore normal business operations in the shortest amount of time. In this article, more information is laid out for you to understand more about what is a disaster recovery policy and the examples you can look at.
Disaster Recovery Policy
What is a Disaster recovery policy? It is the practice of promptly restoring vital technological services that support corporate operations following a large man-made or natural disaster. The disaster recovery process is also built upon a foundation of numerous supporting recovery procedures and is frequently arranged into a disaster recovery plan (DRP).
Within the context of recovery, the DRP complements the longer-term approach outlined in a business continuity plan (BCP). While disaster recovery is concerned with technology and short-term disruptions, business continuity is concerned with the continuation of the majority, if not all, of business functions over a lengthy period of time.
Purpose
The (District/Organization) Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Policy serves as a guide and sets forth broad guidelines for the development, execution, and administration of the (District/Organization) Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP).
Enforcement
Personnel who violate this policy may face disciplinary action, including termination of employment, as well as associated civil or criminal penalties.
If a vendor, consultant, or contractor is discovered to have violated this policy, they may face sanctions ranging from access privilege suspension to contract termination and corresponding civil or criminal penalties.
Three Critical Elements of a Disaster Recovery Plan
The following are a few critical components of an effective disaster recovery policy.
#1. The Scope Of Your Policy
There are numerous types of crises that can strike a company, and each crisis scenario necessitates the protection of every component of the organization’s key assets. However, the policy’s specific reach is held to a stop by the disaster recovery plan. Therefore, the policy should be written in conjunction with the disaster recovery plan and include specific rules and processes for each asset that must be protected.
#2. Roles and Responsibilities of the Organization
To recover from a crisis, you’ll need a disaster recovery team that is conversant with the defined recovery process for your firm. Therefore, the recovery team’s responsibilities should encompass rapid response to a disaster and post-disaster activity.
It should also be very obvious who is accountable for what and those assigned specific responsibilities should possess the necessary skills and training to carry them out. Apart from the disaster recovery team, corporate personnel should be trained in disaster recovery processes so they understand what to do in a crisis, how to protect themselves and the assets with which they work, and how to continue functioning throughout the crisis. Proper training not only aids in practical matters but also provides moral and psychological support during a trying period.
#3. Communication Plan
A disaster recovery policy must include a clear communication plan, as well as a list of contact information for individuals who must be contacted about the crisis. The strategy should include exact communication protocols—which information to communicate, via which channel, and in what format—in order to save time and minimize confusion during a crisis.
Guidelines for Creating a Successful Disaster Recovery Policy
Here are a few best practices to ensure the success of your disaster recovery policy:
#1. Create an Asset Inventory
You must, therefore, have a firm grasp of the hardware, software, and data that are crucial to the operation of your business. Examine server rooms, data centers, on-premises and cloud-based virtual machines (VMs), and endpoints such as employee desktops. Conduct an examination of networks, apps, and data repositories.
However, you should pay careful attention to the network, hypervisor, and server configurations that will need to be restored in the event of a disaster.
#2. Examine Backup Procedures
Ascertain that each critical system has a functioning backup system, that backups are conducted on a regular basis, and that a tested mechanism for restoring these systems from backup exists. Assess the likelihood that some systems will be unable to recover from backup and plan replacement methods accordingly.
#3. Calculate the Downtime Cost
Not only can downtime jeopardize productivity and revenue, but it can also jeopardize a company’s reputation and result in legal and compliance violations. Calculating the potential cost of a failure can, however, assist you in determining the appropriate level of investment in preventive measures.
#4. Maintain Consistent Policy Updates
Policies for disaster recovery must evolve. It must be updated whenever the organizational structure, infrastructure, applications, or data structure changes. Conduct regular drills to determine whether your policy remains valid or if there have been unanticipated changes to systems that must be accounted for.
What Is A Disaster Recovery Policy?
A disaster recovery policy’s objective is to identify essential business assets and describe the procedures necessary to assure their continued operation in the event of a disaster. The policy can also include any assets critical to the operation of the business, including equipment, software, physical buildings, and even employees, and establish procedures for protecting and recovering them.
A disaster recovery policy outlines the organization’s response in precise terms in the event of a disaster. Without a practical policy that is properly understood and practiced by all essential stakeholders, a disaster recovery plan alone cannot ensure business continuity.
Why Are Disaster Recovery Policies Necessary?
When calamities strike, whether it’s a power outage, a ransomware assault, or an insider threat, organizations that are unprepared may sustain considerable harm.
The consequences of data loss and a successful breach vary by firm and industry. Not only may a financial institution lose customer trust, but it may also face regulatory fines. When a healthcare facility experiences downtime or data loss, lives could be put at risk.
This is thus, where a disaster recovery policy comes in—it details the procedures and tools that must be implemented in the event of a disaster. Typically, when developing a disaster recovery policy, two critical metrics are used:
- Recovery point objective (RPO)—The amount of time allowed between outage and recovery from backup repositories. These files are necessary for normal operation. The RPO assists in calculating the minimum backup frequency.
- Recovery time objective (RTO): The maximum amount of downtime that an organization can sustain. During this time period, the business can recover files from on-site and off-site backup repositories and continue operating normally.
Note: The RPO and RTO assist you in developing a disaster recovery policy that is tailored to your specific needs.
Types of Disaster Recovery Policies
It is critical that the disaster recovery policy you create meets your organization’s demands. Several different types of disaster recovery policies are available for use in specific circumstances:
Virtualized Disaster Recovery
A virtualized environment thus enables you to create new virtual machine (VM) instances quickly. This can also occur in a matter of minutes, assuring excellent application availability throughout recovery. Often, a virtualized disaster recovery policy is extremely efficient.
Additionally, you can leverage your virtualized environment to conduct rapid testing. To accomplish this, you must add a policy requirement ensuring that apps can function in disaster recovery mode and subsequently resume normal operations in accordance with the RPO and RTO.
Network Disaster Recovery
A catastrophe recovery policy for a network can also be as complicated as the restored network. This is why the policy should be quite extensive, providing a detailed description of each recovery procedure. Additionally, it is critical to test and maintain the policy.
Cloud Disaster Recovery
There are also numerous methods for utilizing the cloud for disaster recovery. You can thus back up data in the cloud or keep complete replicas, allowing you to migrate operations to remote cloud resources in the event of a disaster. When compared to disaster recovery using company-owned resources, cloud DR offers significant benefits, including cost savings and increased resilience.
To maintain the efficiency and compliance of your cloud disaster recovery, you need to keep track of cloud components and adopt security measures. When developing a cloud disaster recovery policy, it is necessary to consider the location of virtual and real servers. Additionally, your policy should include provisions for security and compliance.
Data Center Disaster Recovery
A disaster recovery policy for a data center is tailored to the specific needs of the local facility and its infrastructure. To design a policy that is applicable, you must do an operational risk assessment, which evaluates the data center’s components. For instance, an examination of the facility’s electrical systems, its location, its office space, and its general security.
The risk assessment can assist you in developing a policy that is appropriate for both the data center as a whole and each of its components. Along with risk mitigation, the data center disaster recovery policy should handle relevant catastrophic scenarios.
Disaster Recovery Policy Examples
Instructions for responding to disruptive events, including cyber assaults, natural catastrophes, and power outages, are defined in a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP). Customer distrust, diminished brand value, and even financial harm are all possible outcomes of a disruption.
Examples of disaster recovery plans might be extremely helpful when creating your own. We’ve compiled a list of must-haves for your new strategy, including plans from leading firms and instances of what not to include.
When developing a disaster recovery strategy for your company, you can use these examples as a guide.
#1. IBM’s Business Continuity Plan
Developed by IBM.
The following are the major sections:
- The primary objectives of disaster recovery planning are
- Personnel
- Profile for an application
- a breakdown of a company’s inventory
- Back-up techniques for information services
- Procedures for dealing with a disaster
- The mobile site’s disaster recovery plan
- The hot site’s recovery strategy
- Performing a complete system restore
- The process of rebuilding
#2. Council on Foundations
The Council on Foundations created this
The following are the major sections:
- Event Scenarios and Risks
- Activation of a plan
- Delegation of Authority and Responsibilities
- Emergency Response Group (IRT)
- Roles and responsibilities of the Incident Response Team (IRT)
- Analysis of the financial impact of a company’s decisions
- A Review of Recovery Activities and a Needs Analysis
- Records of Vital Statistics
- Communications in the event of a natural disaster
- Information on Board and Personnel Contacts
- Evacuation of the Building
- The Center for Emergency Response
- Locations for Business Reconstruction
- Preparedness for Information Technology and Operations
#3. Evolve the IP strategy.
Design courtesy of Evolve IP.
The following are the major sections:
- Toll-Free Number
- External Sources
- Network for Sending Alerts
- DR Organizations and Task Forces
- The DR’s
- Emergency Response Group
- Teamwork in the Network
- The Server Team
- Applicant Support Group
- To put it another way, data, and backups.
- Getting IT back up and running
- Information Technology (IT)
- Equipment for the Internet of Things
- Severity One System
- Plan Testing & Maintenance
- Recovery Completion Form
#4. Micro Focus team:
Created by Micro Focus team
The following are the major sections:
- Objectives
- Key Personnel Contact Info
- Plan Overview
- Emergency
- Media
- Insurance
- Financial and Legal Issues
- Technology Disaster Recovery Plan
- Suggested Forms
Disaster Recovery Policy FAQ
What is Disaster Recovery Policy?
Disaster recovery is the practice of promptly restoring vital technological services that support corporate operations following a large man-made or natural disaster.
What is the purpose of a disaster recovery policy?
However, Disaster Recovery Policy serves as a guide and sets forth broad guidelines for the development, execution, and administration of the (District/Organization) Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP).
