The effects of hurricanes like Harvey and the approaching Irma should be a reminder to all businesses of the importance of disaster recovery planning. When a storm approaches, a business’s first concern is how to protect its employees and physical property. However, we shouldn’t forget that a natural disaster can also destroy a business’s information and technology assets critical to its success and continuity. Key steps to prepare and respond to a natural disaster can help minimize the blow. There are many aspects to comprehensive disaster recovery planning.
Below are some recommended best practices for an effective disaster recovery plan:
- Build the Right Team. Companies should be clear about what they are setting out to do and involve the appropriate segments of their organizations.
- Conduct a Risk Assessment. Before a company can develop a disaster recovery plan, it must first identify the information and technology assets it needs to protect, their locations, their role to the success of the business.
- Employee Safety. Information and technology assets are critically important, but not at the expense of human life.
- Develop a Plan. Having involved key personnel and assessed the risks, the business is in a position to develop an enterprise-wide disaster recovery plan. The disaster recovery plan should be in writing.
- Update the Plan. As your business changes, grows, and adds locations and new people, the disaster recovery plan also may need to change to address those changes. A regular review of the plan is critical.