There’s only one thing that’s known in business: uncertainty. There are so many different variables that can affect a business that it can be tough to make sure they’re all covered. Strange events in the past have occurred, like squirrels attacking data centers and ships dropping anchors on underwater Internet lines, and so, it’s important to know just how your business will develop it’s IT disaster recovery plan. Because you truly never know what’s gonna happen! Here are a few of the super important boxes to be checked on your disaster recovery plan.
FIGURE OUT WHAT NEEDS TO BE RECOVERED
It’s important to inventory any physical hardware or online software that your business has. This is an investment for the long term – understanding the amount of hardware and software that you have makes disaster recovery much easier. Understanding the quantity of software that needs to be fixed is super important and can make your recovery time much quicker. Make sure to mark down product names, any important insurance, and help numbers or customer service contacts to ensure that your data can be recovered as quickly as possible.
DEVELOP A RECOVERY TEAM
Data won’t recover itself. It’s important to establish roles and understand who is responsible for what when it comes to recovery. Make a team, establish a hierarchy of command, and make sure people are amply trained on the component that they are in charge of. It’s important to know a lot about how to recover data effectively and properly, and giving that responsibility to a team will make it much easier than having an individual in charge of data recovery.
TRAIN ABOUT PREVENTION AND MISUSE OF INFORMATION
It’s important to know how to prevent data misuse and the handling of sensitive information during recovery times. Not only that, but it’s even more important to train your employees on how to prevent the need for disaster recovery. Make sure people who handle data are in touch with how to backup information and ensure that data is secure and safe, no matter how much data is involved. All data is important, and so establishing methods for ensuring that backups both exist and are secure is a great step in the right direction for your data plan. Training is key for disaster recovery – so make sure everyone is up-to-date on data protocols!
TEST IT OUT
No, I’m not asking you to lose data and see if you can recover it. However, running simulation recovery and drills to understand how you would respond to different situations is incredibly important to keeping your plan as effective as possible. Running diagnostics and ensuring that employees know how to properly handle a recovery incident is the key to to making sure that you’re ready to respond in case of a data recovery emergency.