What is disaster recovery? Disaster Recovery (DR) is the organization’s ability to respond and recover from an event that hurts business activities. The goal of disaster recovery is to enable the organization to resume the use of critical systems and IT infrastructure as soon as possible after a disaster. To prepare for this, organizations often conduct an in-depth analysis of their systems and create a formal document to follow up on in times of crisis. This document is known as the disaster recovery plan.
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What is a disaster?
The act of disaster recovery revolves around events that are serious. These events are often thought of as natural disasters, but they can also be caused by a technical system failure or a deliberate attack by humans. They are significant enough to disrupt or stop critical business activities for a certain period. Types of disaster are:
- Cyber attacks such as malware, DDoS, and ransomware attacks
- Deliberate vandalism
- Power outage
- Equipment failure
- Epidemics or pandemics such as Covid-19
- Terrorist attacks or threats
- Industrial accidents
- Strong storm
- Tornado
- Earthquake
- Floodwater
- Fire
Why is disaster recovery important?
Disasters can cause different types of damages with different severities depending on the scenario. Short-term network outages can lead to customer frustration and lost transactions in an e-business system. A hurricane or tornado can wipe out an entire manufacturing facility, data center, or office.
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In addition, many businesses are required to develop and follow plans for disaster recovery, business continuity, and data protection to meet compliance regulations. This is especially important for organizations operating in the financial, health, manufacturing, and government sectors. A lack of disaster recovery procedures can lead to legal or regulatory penalties, so understanding how to meet resiliency standards is important.
It may seem impossible to prepare for every possible disaster, but the Covid-19 crisis has shown that even seemingly far-fetched scenarios can come to pass. Businesses that had emergency measures in place to support remote work had a clear advantage when quarantine orders were put in place.
Thinking about disasters before they happen and creating a response plan can have many benefits. This increases awareness of potential disruptions and helps the organization prioritize its critical tasks. It also provides a forum to discuss these issues and make informed decisions about the best response.
Elements of the disaster recovery strategy
Before an organization can determine its disaster recovery strategies, it must first analyze its existing assets and priorities. Two different analyzes are typically involved in disaster recovery decisions:
Risk analysis
Risk analysis or risk assessment is the assessment of all possible business risks and their consequences. Risks vary greatly depending on the industry the organization is in and its geographic location. The assessment should identify potential risks, determine who will be harmed by these risks, or use the findings to develop procedures that take these risks into account.
Conclusion
While some organizations find it a challenge to invest in comprehensive disaster recovery planning, no one can afford to ignore this concept when planning for long-term growth and sustainability. Additionally, if something bad happens, organizations that have made disaster recovery a priority experience less disruption and can resume normal operations more quickly.
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