How to Make an IT Disaster Recovery Plan

Today it is nearly impossible to do business without modern technology. It has become ingrained in every industry, from how work orders are created, to how projects are managed. With this reliance on technology though comes the danger of jeopardizing your business in the event of an IT disaster. How do you combat this danger? By creating an IT disaster recovery plan.

Create a List of Possible Threats

Before you can begin to plan how to get through an IT disaster, sit down and write out a list of possible threats. Start with very realistic threats and work your way out to less common scenarios. For your IT disaster recovery plan, focus on those scenarios that are a threat to your IT infrastructure. These sort of threats are everything from cyber attacks, to system failures, to even floods. You will likely see some overlap in the types of threats you imagine, but create a long list regardless. It pays to be thorough.

Plan Reactions to These Threats

Now that you’ve got your list of threats to your IT infrastructure, go through each scenario and plan how you and your business would react. What steps would you need to take to stop the threat if possible? How would you recover any lost data? What role would certain employees need to play? How would you continue business as usual with customers, if possible?

As you plan these reactions you can begin to narrow threats down into similar categories with similar solutions. If a fire and a flood both have the same steps to recovery, combine the plans.

Take Necessary Steps to Prepare for These Threats

When running through your plan to react to these IT threats, you have probably noticed a few gaps in your own IT infrastructure. For example, if you have no data backup system in place, you’ve probably realized how out of luck you would be if you lost of your data due to a system failure. Make a plan to take the necessary steps now to make your IT disaster recovery as painless as possible. The more time you put into preparing for disaster, the less it will cost you when the time comes.

Brief Employees

Preparing your IT recovery strategy will involve the cooperation of many moving parts – employees included. You should not only work with key employees in developing your plan, but you also need to brief everyone on what steps to take in each given scenario. The sales team should know how to continue business, customer service should know how to work with affected customers, and of course, IT personnel should know what role they play in the recovery plan.

Run Drills

How will you know your recovery plan works? Run a few drills to look for missing pieces of the plan and to ensure every employee knows their part. Practicing getting through these “disasters” will be both team building and educational.

IT Disaster Recovery Plan

You don’t have to go this road alone! An IT partner can be a lifesaver in the event of a disaster. Work with an IT provider to create back-ups of your business data, set up an off-site server, and put a plan in place for data recovery. Not only are IT providers a great help with day to day functions, but they can set you up to survive anything on your list of possible disasters.