Disaster Recovery Journal

By Sameer Sule

I have always emphasized the need for all businesses to make disaster recovery(DR) a priority and to have a written disaster recovery plan. Even though most business owners are aware of the need for disaster recovery planning, limitations of time, money and resources can put the actual DR implementation on the back burner. Small businesses may feel that they do not have the expertise in house to work on DR planning. They may also feel that the cost of Backup and Disaster Recovery (BDR) solutions is prohibitively expensive and is something that only larger businesses can afford. This is not the case anymore.  BDR technology has come a long way in recent years. The advent of cloud computing has not only enabled faster and accurate recovery of applications and data, but has also made it affordable for small business to deploy a BDR solution.   

Even if deploying a BDR solution seems prohibitive, the planning process does not need to wait-the assessment of the current infrastructure, your business needs and workflow evaluation will give you an idea of where you stand with respect to your BDR needs. This determines the key steps needed to bridge gap between your existing technology and the desired BDR solution . 

Here are some steps that every business can take to start their DR planning process. 

Conduct a technology assessment – This is a high level overview of all the IT systems in your organization, your policies, work processes, people skill sets etc. 

Perform a full technology inventory- This is a detailed inventory of all your computer systems and network, hardware and software, including details of date of purchase, vendor contact information, warranties, support contracts, license information, product keys etc. 

Perform a risk analysis- This determines the potential threats and vulnerabilities to your systems and data. It also identifies potential points of failure in your infrastructure that could potentially lead to a disruption in your business operations. 

Prioritize application and data criticality- Prioritize all your applications and data according to their importance within your business. This determines the order in which applications and data will be restored in the event of disaster, ensuring that the critical line of business applications, systems and supporting data are restored before other non-critical applications. 

Decide how much downtime can be tolerated- How long can a business stoppage be endured before you start losing significant money due to downtime? This analysis will be a good starting point to determine the appropriate BDR technology that your business needs in order prevent significant business loss due to unforeseen disruptions. 

Taking these initial steps will help you develop a BDR plan that meets your business needs. It will help you select an appropriate plan with the knowledge that the deployed solution will provide a good return on investment in the long run. 

Sameer Sule is a Business Technology Consultant at Kinara Insights. He helps his clients understand and use technology to reduce business downtime, improve efficiency and be successful.

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