Imagine: it’s raining heavily this weekend, much more than usual. From your home, you watch the multitude of raindrops mercilessly fall on the ground… And you think about your business. What would happen if a mudslide were to pour into the area where it is located? Would your computer room withstand it? And if it wasn’t, how could you continue your activities?
In the context of global warming, it is essential that you are able to answer this question, especially if your company is established in Reunion. This is precisely the objective of a business recovery plan (PRA) or a business continuity plan (PCA).
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What Is An IT Disaster Recovery Plan?
The IT disaster recovery plan is a document detailing the procedures to be applied in the event of a disaster that could affect the integrity of the company’s IT system. It doesn’t matter if it is a weather disaster, accidental data loss, or a malicious cyberattack.
This plan is personalized for each company. It allows it to determine the risks on which it must focus its attention and to delimit the assets that it must protect as a priority.
It also provides a strategy to ensure a return to normal activity as quickly as possible with minimal data loss.
Having a PRA is essential if a disaster of this type occurs, because in some cases, it is simply the survival of your business that is at stake.
What Is The Difference Between An IT Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) And A Business Continuity Plan (BCP)?
The IT disaster recovery plan seeks to minimize the impact of an incident on your business operations.
The best-prepared companies with the most sophisticated plans may be able to resume (almost) all of their usual activities after a disaster. But in most cases, the recovery is carried out in degraded mode, and it is only gradually that the company recovers its ability to perform all of its functions.
A business continuity plan (BCP) is a more elaborate plan than a disaster recovery plan, as it aims to establish continuity of service, whatever happens. It must therefore provide means to avoid any interruption of service.
For example, it may provide for the creation and implementation of an alternative site offering infrastructure comparable to that of the site to be protected. In the event of a disaster, employees will be able to quickly go there to continue their activities. This is what is called redundancy.
This redundancy is more or less complete, depending on the means that companies can devote to it. Because it assumes having the necessary budgets to duplicate the equipment of the site to be protected. But sometimes, the stakes justify these expenses, in particular, if the slightest interruption of service could call into question the very existence of the company.
However, it is also on a daily basis that the company ensures the continuity of its operations, whatever happens. Backups must be made regularly and exhaustively, and a copy must be kept on a remote site.
Employees must be aware of emergency procedures and what to do in the event of an incident.
The Different Components Of A PRA
A good PRA includes the following elements:
1. One/ Objectives and targets
- Objectives. These objectives are those that the company aims to respect in the event of a disaster: a maximum time for restoring the service after a disaster (RTO for Recovery Time Objective) and the maximum acceptable quantity of lost data (RPO for Recovery Point Objective)
- Assets. An inventory of equipment and software must be drawn up, indicating the nature of their ownership (are these assets acquired by the company itself or leased?).
2. Means
- Human resources. This involves defining responsibilities and designating staff members responsible for managing its execution in the event of a disaster.
- Details about backups. How and how often do you perform backups? On what media do you store the data? Where do you store the backup copies? Similarly, you must indicate the methods for restoring data from these backups.
- Disaster recovery sites. Some companies may plan to create a backup site. It will include an operational computer system that can take over from the computer system affected by the disaster. This system will be based at a remote site with all the essential elements of the company (including its most important software) and a replica of its data. Ideally, this remote site will also provide the infrastructure necessary for employees to work. It will then be possible to quickly transfer all of the company’s activities there.
3. Procedures
- Disaster recovery procedures. These are ordered actions to be taken urgently after the incident to limit the damage and save what can be saved. This includes planning last-minute backups and measures to limit the impact of a cyber-attack. For example, an attempt can be made to prevent a virus from infecting the entire computer system.
- Recovery procedures. These describe the steps required to restart machines and software, restore recent backups, and reconfigure systems and networks.
- Could you resume your activities smoothly and quickly if your IT systems suddenly became inoperable? Put an end to the anxiety of not being able to answer yes to this question and contact us. We will assist you in creating your disaster recovery plan in line with the budget you can devote to it, the criticality of your applications and data, and an optimal recovery time.
