IT Disaster Recovery Services: How to Update Your Plan

So, you have just finalized your back up and disaster recovery plan, ensured every step was tested and validated, and created SOPs so that when a disaster does strike, normal operations will remain intact. Right? Unfortunately, strategic initiatives are not that easy to plan – and disaster recovery is no different. Setting up protocols for reviewing and updating your disaster recovery plan is something that is included in many IT disaster recovery services and is essential to ensure business continuity in the event that something catastrophic happens.

 

Set a Review Schedule

The first step in updating your disaster recovery plan includes planning. Depending on the nature of your industry, you might need to perform a disaster recovery check every few weeks, once every quarter, or only once a year. It is always a good idea to perform these reviews more often than you would expect initially and then to adjust as needed in the future. Many companies find it useful to schedule disaster recovery checks once a year, usually during a slower month, and review as needed throughout the rest of the year as environmental factors change. However your IT team chooses to go over your disaster recovery plan, make sure it gets done. Failing to update your plan is almost as detrimental as not having one at all.

 

Review Change Factors

Changes within your organization are likely to impact your disaster recovery plan. These factors might come from within your organization or from an external source. As you get ready to review your disaster recovery plan for your enterprise, it would be wise to look at the following external and internal factors to evaluate how they will affect your future strategy:

Internal

• Hardware/Software Updates
• Legacy Applications
• Staffing Changes
• Down-Structuring
• New Facilities/Sites

External

• Regulatory Changes
• Policy Adoption
• Vendor Partnerships
• Technological Innovations
• New Vulnerabilities
• New Solutions

 

Analyze Incident Data

Updating your disaster recovery plan can also be based around your organization’s past experiences. The threats and risks that your company faces are constantly changing, and sometimes – regardless of how hard you work to prevent and prepare for them – your network can endure various negative events. These disasters could be viewed as mere failures. However, it is smarter to analyze these incidents and learn from past mistakes. Maybe you had a ventilation issue that caused overheating, or maybe you had poor BYOD policies that led to a compromised network. Regardless of what happened, use information from previous years to provide insight into ways to improve your current disaster recovery plan.

 

Partner with Experts

Every review of your disaster recovery plan should evaluate the return on investment that it brings. This investment that your business is making (in the form of time, training, implementation, risk, and more) should inform your future plans. Having possible scenarios laid out can help to ensure that your business operations will continue uninterrupted in the case of an emergency, but this can be a very time-consuming and complex task. Sometimes creating a good plan involves getting help from experts that offer IT disaster recovery services. Investing in a partnership with a trusted third-party IT team lets you focus on more strategic initiatives instead of having to deal with the technical side of things. In addition, your managed service provider can take the lead on updating your disaster recovery plan in the future, so you don’t forget.

 

Share It

The work that goes into updating your disaster recovery plan is important. It is just as important, however, to fully inform all parties about your plan. After all, even if all of the right people are present when a disaster strikes, if they are unaware of the disaster recovery strategy, then the plan is no good. Make sure that your plan is dispersed to the appropriate people within your organization and double check that all entities know about the plan framework. It is also important to note that storing your disaster recovery plan on a single server is not the best idea, as it can be compromised in the event of a disaster. Make sure that your back up plan is properly duplicated and kept secure.

Occasionally checking and updating your disaster recovery plan shouldn’t be a disaster. While there are certain measures that your business can take to ensure they have a good strategy in place, it is likely that periodic reviews are not being performed. To eliminate the stress of a potential cyberattack and to take these pesky but necessary reviews off of your plate, consider contacting Contigo today. Sometimes having a third-party IT team to keep you in check is all you need to keep your mission critical applications up and running. Our IT disaster recovery services are no joke – just ask any of our happy clients!