Build Your Disaster Recovery Plan with a Focus on Top Priorities

Most organizations can attest to the value of having a well-rounded disaster recovery plan, yet many are not willing to invest the time or energy into such a task. However, disaster recovery is extremely important today in light of the frequent cyber attacks that put your data at risk.
Not only is data at risk; reputations are also vulnerable. To ensure that both will remain uncompromised, it’s important to carefully plan for your disaster recovery process. In the event of a disaster, whether it’s a power outage, cyber attack or any other situation, your plan should carefully outline exactly what everyone will do, leaving no confusion or room for improper reaction.
Addressing the Core
One factor in most solid disaster recovery plans involves running core systems only on infrastructure that is known to be trustworthy. This is a proactive part of the plan that works to prevent disasters.
Addressing how core systems are backed up is also important. This includes looking at the networks that the core systems are connected to and making sure there is a failover system on a different IP provider far enough away that it can’t be impacted by the same natural disaster.
What About the Cloud?
The cloud has been a popular option in disaster recovery planning due to redundancies and the fact that the servers are often far removed from the actual client of the cloud services. However, this is only a good option if your vendor is backing up your data and duplicating it in geographically disparate locations.
Being in the cloud doesn’t mean your data isn’t vulnerable to attack, including viruses. Fortunately, the public cloud doesn’t have a reputation for going down very often, but having a failover option should be part of your strategy.
Assessing Risk
Much of how you approach disaster recovery planning should be guided by the risks you face. This can help you in your approach to the technologies you use. Budget considerations will come into play, but focusing on priorities must be the guiding principle, otherwise a situation of cutting corners is likely to occur.
In the end, everyone needs to come together to develop a solid plan. The task shouldn’t be one solely tackled by IT. Everyone has a stake in outcomes, and everyone will need to know their part in the process.
At Clarksys, we connect organizations with transformative technology. From storage to unified communications to backup and disaster recovery solutions, we’ve got the experience and knowledge to assist your organization.