How To Make Disaster Recovery Planning More Effective
Most companies prepare for emergency situations by focusing on fire detection and prevention systems such as fire alarms or fire extinguishers, improving company security, training a special team to respond during an emergency and getting everything insured.
But emergency preparation does not end in being aware of whats to come, but in identifying the means to recover from a disaster.
This is where disaster recovery planning comes in. And one of the most important areas in disaster recovery planning is database protection.
Disaster recovery planning is actually part of two larger processes: risk management and BCP or business continuity planning. In order for the company to pick itself up and resume normal operation after a crisis, the following procedures must be carefully considered.
A major consideration in a disaster recovery planning is BIA or business impact analysis.
Business impact analysis involves thorough assessment of the influence and risk of the company’s different business sections. The idea is to identify the relative contribution of, for example, the human resources division or the information technology department to the overall organization, whether it’s functional or monetary. This is a primary step in determining disaster recovery priority.
The development of a disaster recovery framework must also be included in disaster recovery planning.
It is enough that you keep a database duplicate. Your company must also consider the integrity of the data being backed up and the time frame of data restoration. Actually there are two ways you can categorize the importance of a database: RPO and RTO. RPO stands for recovery point objective. The priority is to back up the most recent data possible. This is especially true in businesses where records are constantly updated. Airline companies and insurance providers are best examples of these. That is why the frequency of database protection in these businesses is higher. Usually, back ups are made monthly, weekly or even daily.
Internet based companies, web developers and e-commerce owners are also making their disaster recovery planning more reliable and readily available. RTO stands for recovery time objective. It refers to the span of time data recovery or restoration can be made from the time of disaster to operational resumption. For these companies, the shorter the time it takes for data to be restored, the faster the business will be able to recover.
Remember that during emergencies, it is not only the physical assets that are in danger, your data is your company’s lifeblood. So protect them from undesirable loss. By following these procedures, you will be able to make your disaster recovery planning become more effective.
