Create your disaster recovery plan in 5 steps
As business owners, we must be able to respond effectively to a cybersecurity disaster, understanding a disaster to be any incident, natural or man-made, that could affect the operation of our business. In this sense, a disaster recovery plan is one of the essential elements for any company.
A disaster recovery plan is a structured document with specific instructions for effectively addressing any temporary disruption to our operations. Ultimately, it involves taking a series of measures to minimize the impact of a disaster and ensure our company's resumption of operations as quickly as possible. But how do we create one? What aspects should it include?
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1. Choosing the responsible team
The first thing we need to do is create the team responsible for the plan and specify the roles and responsibilities of each of its members.
2. Risk analysis
Once the responsible team has been selected, we must define which risks may threaten our company and which ones we must take precautions against to avoid irreparable damage. In this regard, the plan must specify the response capacity, the resources to be used in the recovery activities and the order, according to priorities, in which they must be carried out.
3 Backup and Recovery Strategies
When we talk about IT security, we also refer to the recovery strategies for our company's key applications and equipment. In other words, those activities that are essential for its operation.
This brings us to two very important concepts:
- el Recovery time (RTO), that is, the time that a system, computer or network can be inactive without creating serious losses to our company.
- el Recovery Point (RPO), the time in which we restore our data from another location. The latter is directly related to the backup or backup, one of the essential elements to preserve our information and that of our clients.
4. Types of disaster recovery and virtualization plans
For backups, we can choose physical media or opt for cloud storage . It's important to remember that the cloud offers a wide variety of services in this regard, with the advantage of being able to recover our data from any device, reducing downtime in the event of a computer disaster. Therefore, it's advisable to determine which type of plan is most appropriate based on our activity and resources.
5. Review and execution tests
Another aspect of IT security that we must mention is the periodic review of the disaster recovery plan . It's crucial to remember that this plan must be effective in any type of emergency. To ensure it functions properly and meets its objectives, we must implement it in various scenarios. This includes, for example, data recovery procedures, restarting operations, and establishing an alternative location to allow us to continue our business activities.
