We’re officially in the midst of hurricane season! Time to make sure your business has everything it needs to survive a disaster. A disaster can be anything from a data breach to flooding to a hurricane. The best way to do this is with a disaster recovery (DR) plan that focuses on both your physical business and its data.
According to FEMA, 40% of organizations fail to reopen following a disaster and an additional 25% don’t reopen after a year. These are scary statistics for any business owner or executive.
Here are 10 things business owners forget to include in their DR plan:
#1: The location and value of their data
In order to protect your files properly, you must know where they’re located and just how valuable they are as they might require even more protection. All too often, businesses think all their data is backed up only to find they were missing large amounts of it as they didn’t know the location.
#2: The criticality of each asset
How long can your business survive without your data, phones, computers, etc.? It’s crucial to know what’s necessary for your business to continue running and making money. If phones are important, then you need a plan when they go out. Can you easily forward it to your cell phone? Do you have an application on a laptop to make and receive calls?
#3: A disaster recovery planning team
In your plan, you need a section for your disaster recovery planning team. What employees have been selected for the team? When do they meet? What is their contact information? Do they all know how to implement the disaster recovery plan effectively?
#4: Defined roles and responsibilities of the disaster recovery planning team
Creating a disaster recovery planning team is step one, but now you need to know the roles and responsibilities of each member. Who will handle communication? Who is responsible for working with IT to get things back up and running? There should also be a leader chosen who ultimately is responsible for the entire implementation of the disaster recovery plan.
#5: Dissemination to the company of the disaster recovery planning team
The entire office should know who is on the disaster recovery planning team. They should know what each member does and how to contact them. This needs to be distributed in multiple ways including digitally, in an email, on SharePoint and on a physical paper in their employee handbook.
#6: Definition of what constitutes a disaster
A disaster can be defined as anything that interrupts your business operations like a data breach, hurricane or flood. There needs to be perimeters defined as to when the disaster recovery plan is implemented. This needs to be communicated to the entire organization.
#7: The communication process
Who needs to know about this disaster? Clients? Employees? Vendors? Maybe different disasters require different people to know about it. There needs to be documentation on how these people will be informed of the disaster and backup communication processes if phones or email are down. How often should people be communicated with? They may need hourly, daily or weekly updates depending on the type of disaster.
#8: Default sync up times
In the plan, default sync up times need to be set. Does the DR planning team meet daily until the disaster is over? Do they need to meet hourly if it’s super critical?
#9: Criteria for determining when the disaster is over
Many organizations think the disaster is over before it truly is. That’s because they don’t have criteria in place to know that everything has been remediated. Part of remediation includes implementing new protections and strategies to make sure the disaster doesn’t have the same impact again.
#10: Testing
A disaster recovery plan is essential, but so is testing. If the plan has never been tested, then there’s a possibility it won’t work. The disaster recovery planning team should do a drill and see if the plan is effective. If it’s not, they need to make improvements.
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Got questions on disaster recovery planning? It’s hurricane season and time to meet! Book a discovery meeting below to talk with a specialist.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Phillip Long – CISSP, CEO of , along with his team of marketing and information technology experts, will walk you through an overview of what your business should be doing to protect your data and plan your digital marketing strategies.
You may reach out to us at:
Phone: 251-405-2555
Email: support@askbis.com