Practical Disaster Recovery Planning

Everyone talks about disaster recover (DR) planning but not everyone follows through. Now there is a concise resource to help you understand DR. A white paper by CA XOsoft steps you through the seven phases of DR planning:

• Develop the contingency planning policy statement. A formal department or agency policy provides the authority and guidance necessary to develop an effective contingency plan.
• Conduct the business impact analysis (BIA). The BIA helps to identify and prioritize critical IT systems and components.
• Identify preventive controls. Measures taken to reduce the effects of system disruptions can increase system availability and reduce contingency life cycle costs.
• Develop recovery strategies. Thorough recovery strategies ensure that the system may be recovered quickly and effectively following a disruption.
• Develop an IT contingency plan. The contingency plan should contain detailed guidance and procedures for restoring a damaged system.
• Plan testing, training and exercises. Testing the plan identifies planning gaps, whereas training prepares recovery personnel for plan activation; both activities improve plan effectiveness and overall agency preparedness.
• Plan maintenance. The plan should be a living document that is updated regularly to remain current with system enhancements.

The white paper will lay out a framework for DR planning that keeps things conceptually simple and helps you know what steps must be carried out and why.

The white paper will be your guide to developing a successful DR plan. Whatever the scale and complexity of your organization, it’s important to employ an approach to DR planning that meets the highest standards. Whether the final plan is to be simple or complex, its quality will necessarily reflect the quality of the process used to develop it.