Writing an IT disaster recovery plan – the 5 main steps

To some, writing an IT disaster recovery plan may not seem like the best use of one’s time, but the thing is you never know when you’ll need it and be grateful that you did.

The idea of preparing for man-made or natural disasters is lost on some people, who feel that their systems are secure enough and that the chance of a natural disaster striking offices in the UK is fairly remote.

But you never know – for example this year in London, a fire closed several businesses for days and those who had not bothered with writing an IT disaster recovery plan lost valuable extra time getting their systems back online.

So those are some examples of why you need one, but what’s the process for writing an IT disaster recovery plan?

We’ve covered the basics before about the need for preventative, detective and corrective measures – now let’s explore this further.

1. Designating a disaster recovery team

Staff need to know in advance that disaster recovery will be part of their responsibilities and what their specific roles and tasks will be.

It’s also important to have a representative from senior management involved in some capacity in this team, someone who can make any big calls that need to be made with the business’ best interests in mind.

This team will also be responsible for managing the development and execution of the plan.

2. Risk assessment and prioritisation

This is fairly self-explanatory.

Make sure you have identified the potential disasters which could affect your business and what the impact could be.

This will help you determine what the priorities will be if a recovery is needed one day.

Then categorise the importance of the relevant data, services, operations, resources etc. to document these priorities in the disaster recovery plan.

3. Data collection

Make sure that everything is documented, that you know where it is and that it is backed up.

This includes everything from the most sensitive data to inventories of equipment.

4. Creating the plan

This will now be much easier having gone through the first three steps.

The procedures and processes should be documented step-by-step and explained in good detail.

Times should also be scheduled for reviewing and where necessary, updating the plan, by the disaster recovery team.

5. Tests

This step is sometimes forgotten, but it’s very important.

It’s not just about making sure that the plan is suitable and covers all the essentials, it’s also about efficiency – how long does it take to implement and how much resource is required?

Test it and make alterations where required.

Writing an IT disaster recovery plan: in conclusion

Writing an IT disaster recovery plan could have great benefits in the long run as if disaster does strike, having a clear plan to implement will significantly reduce business downtime.

Form a team, carry out a risk assessment, work out your priorities and collect all the business’ data first – then create and test the plan.

If you’d like some more guidance for writing an IT disaster recovery plan or IT support in general, just let us know and we’ll share some more tips with you.