By IT Brew Staff
less than 3 min read
Definition:
A solid disaster recovery plan attempts to prevent, anticipate, and mitigate catastrophic events. For example, disaster recovery after an earthquake that knocked out a data center likely involves a different set of protocols than retrieving databases deleted due to human error or sabotage from an adversary.
Installing tools that scan for misconfigurations and vulnerabilities, along with a practice of continuous testing, can mitigate human-powered disaster, but surviving a natural calamity often requires a set backup and recovery protocol, backed by effective failover and failback procedures. In any case, a disaster recovery plan generally involves creating a risk assessment, analyzing how disruptions will impact business functions, setting up disaster recovery steps, implementing those steps (i.e., setting up backup systems), and regular testing and adjustments.
As part of disaster recovery procedures, IT teams should also establish clear lines of internal and external communication before something bad happens; all stakeholders should know their responsibilities. A recovery timeline is also essential, as people throughout the organization will ask when critical systems will come back online.
In addition to backups, disaster recovery could also involve virtual machines (VMs) that mirror crucial apps and processes; third-party disaster recovery services that host a client’s data and apps on their own cloud platforms (sometimes known as disaster-recovery-as-a-service, or DRaaS); and “cold sites” where employees can set up operations and work in the event an office is compromised by a disaster. AI may also prove helpful by allowing IT teams to model potential disasters and responses, automatically monitor systems, and guide stakeholders through a recovery.
