Disaster Recovery Plans: What They Are and Why You Should Have One

Unforeseen disasters can cause irreparable damage to a company. Consider a natural calamity, data breach, or technical malfunction—they all strike unexpectedly and without warning.

This is why, following an unexpected event, business owners often ask the worrying question: Can my company bounce back and recover from the impact?

About 25 percent of businesses fail to spring back after a disaster, according to reports from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) [1]. Becoming disaster-ready is one way to make sure your business can continue operating in the face of challenging circumstances. That’s the purpose of a disaster recovery plan. Read on to explore the finer nuances of enterprise-focused disaster recovery planning.

What is a disaster recovery plan?

A disaster recovery plan (DRP) outlines a systematic and documented approach to how an organization can rapidly restore its operations after unexpected downtime. A vital aspect of a firm’s business continuity plan (BCP), a DRP is geared towards restoring the IT infrastructure-dependent attributes of an organization. 

The primary objective of a DRP is to mitigate data loss and reinstate system operation, allowing an organization to continue functioning after a disruptive event, even if only at a basic level.

Types of disaster recovery plans

DRPs differ between organizations, with options to plan for network disasters and others. The list below offers a few standard disaster recovery plans and the methodology behind them:

1. Virtualized disaster recovery plan

A virtualized disaster recovery plan involves strategies for cloning workloads, typically to another cloud or physical site. To ensure the backup virtual machine instances work as planned in the aftermath of a disaster, you must test the applications within the recovery point objective (RPO) and recovery time objective (RTO) limits. RPO and RTO define how must data loss and downtime duration an organization can tolerate. 

2. Network disaster recovery plan

A network disaster recovery plan aims to recover an organization's network infrastructure if something happens that disrupts service or causes system outages. This aspect of disaster recovery planning centers around ensuring that backup data and alternative sites are available and developing a strategy to restore control over network services.

 3. Cloud disaster recovery plan

A cloud DRP utilizes cloud solutions to replicate and host an organization's virtual and physical servers. While cloud disaster recovery can be more efficient in terms of space, time, and cost, it requires careful management to ensure its effectiveness.

4. Data center disaster recovery plan 

 A data center DRP focuses primarily on the facility and infrastructure of data centers. A key element of this type of plan is an operational risk assessment that evaluates critical components, including office building location, power systems, and security. The recovery strategy includes maintaining a backup site at a secondary location to uphold operational continuity during a disaster. 

What industries should have a disaster recovery plan?

Regardless of size or sector, all industries must have a disaster recovery plan to help prepare for and respond to unanticipated disasters. From hurricanes and floods to cyberattacks and human error, disasters come in all shapes and forms.

Industries that deal with sensitive information, such as health care, finance, and government, are particularly vulnerable to cyberattacks and should have a comprehensive disaster recovery plan in place. 

Another industry that benefits from a DRP is manufacturing, which encompasses a wide range of sectors, including electronics, automotive, textiles, and aerospace. Small businesses, which often have limited resources, should also have a disaster recovery plan to mitigate disruptions' impact.

Benefits of having a disaster recovery plan

A disaster recovery plan brings the immediate benefit of ensuring business continuity even amid adversities. Some other notable benefits of crafting a DRP include:

• Cost optimization: Embracing cloud-based data management as part of a disaster recovery plan helps reduce hefty backup and recovery costs. 

• Compliance: DRPs help firms better comply with industry regulations such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), among others. 

• Enhanced customer retention: Preventing data loss and downtime during and after a disaster improves loyalty towards an organization.  

Who creates disaster recovery plans?

The IT department or a designated disaster recovery team within the organization is usually responsible for creating a disaster recovery plan. Examples of critical players include crisis management coordinators, business continuity experts,  impact assessment and recovery teams, and more. 

How to prepare a disaster recovery plan

It all starts with a risk assessment to pinpoint vulnerabilities. From there, the following steps can serve as a guideline for developing a DRP:

1. Perform risk assessment.

Business impact analysis (BIA), which predicts the organizational and financial consequences of business disruptions, is the first step toward creating a disaster recovery plan. Make sure to include infrastructure and geographical risk factors in your analysis. For instance, consider the ability of employees to access the data center during natural disasters. Your risk analysis should be independent of existing cloud backup and available organizational sites and infrastructure.

2. Examine key necessities. 

Following a risk assessment, identify the critical needs of each department within your organization. This information will help you devise alternative solutions that will help prevent downtime during disasters. A written agreement for chosen alternatives is good to have. You can include specific details about security procedures, availability, and cost, among other contractual terms.

3. Establish objectives for DRP. 

Determine the recovery time objective (RTO) and recovery point objective (RPO) based on the cost of downtime and the amount of data your organization can afford to lose. Additionally, assess any service level agreements (SLAs) made. An SLA outlines the services your business will provide to your customers and establishes the service standards you want to maintain.

Correspondingly, write a plan that includes critical contact information, insurance policies,  inventories, backup and retention schedules, temporary disaster recovery locations, and procedures for system restoration and recovery.

4. Test the plan.

The last step brings everything together. Test your DRP by conducting an initial dry run. You may choose to carry out the test outside of your organization’s regular operational hours. 

Finally, further enhance the disaster recovery plan by performing additional tests such as full interruption and parallel tests.

Next steps 

Having a DRP is essential for businesses and organizations of all sizes. The core objective of disaster recovery is to bring applications back online after an outage quickly. Expand your knowledge concerning disaster recovery with the IBM and ISC2 Cybersecurity Specialist Professional Certificate offered by the International Information System Security Certification Consortium (ISC)² on Coursera. This beginner-friendly course can help you learn more about computer security incidents, disaster recovery, and business continuity.