Disaster Recovery (DR)
Disaster recovery plan is a combination of processes, policies, procedures and key metrics that gives an organization the ability to recover all vital infrastructures, databases, applications, and services after a disaster. DR plans are generally part of a larger and more extensive practice known as Business Continuity Planning.
Data and databases are critical to business continuity thus ensuring databases availability and quick recovery must be an ongoing priority. Studies show that about half of companies that experience a major loss of business data never restart their operations and over a quarter of them close down permanently within two years.
Disaster planning is a cost-effective long-term investment and every $1 invested can save you substantial time and money.
Root Causes of Disasters
Disaster can strike in various ways and it is imperative to adopt a DR plan that is versatile and well thought-out.
Published in IT News 9/9/2008 – Symantec Annual IT Survey
RPO and RTO
The recovery point objective (RPO) and the recovery time objective (RTO) are two very important parameters that are associated with recovery. RPO refers to maximum tolerable period in which data might be lost (Amount of data at risk). RTO refers to maximum tolerable recovery duration (Downtime)
During the design of a DR plan, it’s required to analyze and determine key metrics of RPO (Recovery Point Objective) and RTO (Recovery Time Objective) for any operational units such as ordering, storage management and etc. based on business continuity policies.
How we get it done
Although businesses usually prefer to have zero data loss and zero time loss, the cost associated with that level of protection may be too high and that’s why a cost-benefit analysis often dictates which DR backup system should be chosen. The workflow below shows how we offer our customers peace of mind by collaborating with their various teams to evaluate the business requirements and develop a customized, reliable, and cost-effective DR Backup system and DR plan.
Disaster Recovery Work Flow
- Review system spec and analyze business requirements
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Design DR backup document (Make the system recoverable)
- Specify desired RPO and RTO duration
- Determine budget *
- Consider DR backup side effects
- Select a cost-effective design
- Create DR backup design document
- Implement DR backup system & evaluate
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Create DR plan document
- Purpose and Objective
- Scope
- Dependencies
- Disaster Recovery Strategies (Summary of DR Procedures)
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Disaster Recovery Procedures
- Response Phase (The immediate actions following a significant event)
- Resumption Phase (Activities necessary to resume services after team has been notified)
- Restoration Phase (Tasks taken to restore service to previous levels)
- Evaluate DR plan
- Review and Hand-off
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Regular Update and Practice
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DR Plan Updates
- New hire
- New location
- New hardware/software
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DR Practice (At least once a year)
- Evaluate the completion and accuracy of DR plan
- Practice roles and responsibilities
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DR Plan Updates
