No matter how skilled and dedicated your IT guys might be, it’s probable that your tech systems will malfunction at some point, causing a disruption to business. The length and scale of the disruption can be controlled, though, by having an effective IT disaster recovery plan to fall back upon. This sets out the steps that must be taken to get back up to speed in the event of a disaster and ascertains who is responsible for what task. Essentially, it is a contingency plan that, once devised, will save a lot of time should the worst-case scenario come to pass.
How do businesses go about making an IT disaster recovery plan? There are four fundamental stages to this, the first of which is to identify any risks that could be posed to your computer systems and evaluate the scale of these risks. Next, a budget needs to be set, with the greatest allocation given to those risks deemed highest. After that, a detailed step-by-step plan should be created, with responsibility assigned to key stakeholders. The final stage is to put the plan into practice and test it to evaluate whether it would be reliable in the event of a real-life IT disaster.
Another key aspect to disaster recovery planning is to account for dynamic circumstances. If a plan was created two years ago, it could well be irrelevant now as the business is likely to have evolved since. A disaster recovery plan must be flexible enough to move in tandem with the company’s changing circumstances. If new steps need to be added, or if a key member of staff leaves, the plan should be updated immediately.
This infographic from The Missing Link goes through the four stages of making an IT disaster recovery plan and advises on how the plan can be optimized to its fullest potential.
Guest Post Contributed by: Thomas Roach, he can be contacted at tom.roach@symberity.com
