Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity: Are You Ready?

Data breaches. Natural disasters. Power outages. These events can have a devastating effect on your business. Even a modest interruption can severely impact company operations and require a Herculean effort to get back up and running again. 

While you may not be able to prevent a disaster, you can certainly mitigate the havoc it can wreak by having a plan in place. To help you get started, here are the basic components of the disaster recovery and business continuity plans I create for my clients.

Security Policy. This has three parts to it: (1) Confidentiality – Ensuring that only the people who are authorized to have access to information are able to do so; (2) Integrity - Maintaining the value and the state of information so it is protected from unauthorized modification, and (3) Availability - Ensuring that data and information systems are available and operational when they are needed.

Infrastructure Overview. A review of the network, data management, email, internet, voice services, and data backup systems that are in place.

Server Disaster Scenario. Short- and long-term plans should any component of the company's infrastructure sustain an outage of one hour or longer.

Physical Building Disaster Scenario. What to do if the there is a sustained outage to the company's main place of business, or there is destruction or damage to the company's servers, data, or workstations.

Geographic Disaster Scenario. Documents the company response if a natural disaster makes systems, employees, and office facilities inaccessible for a matter of weeks or months.

Data Breach Incident Response Plan. A step-by-step plan how to classify, respond, and contain a breach of secure data within the company.

Testing and Compliance. The procedures and timeframes of testing the business interruption plan.

Planning for a disastrous event can feel like an unneeded distraction from an otherwise busy work schedule. However, the alternative—having no plan in place in case of a significant business interruption—can be catastrophic. Taking the time to put a plan in place brings peace of mind, is fiscally and operationally prudent, and protects your company should the unthinkable happen.