We don’t always get around to doing those things we know are good for us… whether it’s exercise, getting enough sleep, taking that holiday, or eating healthy. The same thing goes for emergency planning and things like creating a disaster recovery plan if you’re an IT administrator. We know that our business needs one, but it’s easy to put it off until another day (and sometimes until it’s too late).
Putting together a disaster recovery plan doesn’t have to be painful; it can actually be fun. You just need to know where to start. Here we break down disaster recovery planning into five simple steps:
Identify your business critical systems
Even a small business can have hundreds, if not thousands, of apps and systems. Creating a contingency plan for each and every one is going to take months…and frankly, it’s just not necessary. Instead, focus on what really matters to your business. If the microwave in the lunchroom breaks down, it won’t have a major impact on your business. But what about the mail server? What about the CRM application?
Identify those business systems that your business can’t live without. This should probably be just a handful of systems for the typical small business.
Create a disaster recovery plan for each system
Once you have your list of business critical systems, you know where to focus your efforts. Define what the contingency plan should be for varying levels of issues – from a minor application glitch to full-scale disaster. Of course, there’s no need to go overboard here. A large enterprise may create a contingency plan for a nuclear threat… but a small business doesn’t have to go this far.
Test out your plan
Here’s where you can have some fun. Simulate or run-through some of the disasters and disaster recovery plans you put together in Step 2 – this will give you the critical information you need to evaluate the effectiveness of your plan. For example, when your CRM app goes down and you need to restore from your backup tapes, how long does it take to get everyone back up and running? Is that acceptable?
These dress rehearsals will help you identify any gaps in your current plan such as…
- You run through a mock fire in the server room and realize it’s not ideal to keep your back-up mail server in the same room as the primary.
- Running through a server crash you realize that backing up your sales database once per day means you lose a day’s worth of important data.