Disaster Recovery

What are the five steps of disaster recovery planning?

A comprehensive disaster recovery plan follows five essential steps:

1. Risk Assessment – Identify potential threats to your technology infrastructure and evaluate their impact on critical operations.
2. Business Impact Analysis – Determine which systems are mission-critical and establish recovery time objectives (RTO) and recovery point objectives (RPO).
3. Recovery Strategy Development – Design specific procedures and allocate resources to restore systems within your defined objectives.
4. Plan Documentation – Create detailed playbooks that assign roles, responsibilities, and step-by-step recovery procedures.
5. Testing and Maintenance – Conduct regular exercises to validate your plan and update it as your infrastructure evolves.

What should a disaster recovery policy include?

An effective disaster recovery policy establishes the framework for organizational resilience and should include:

• Scope and Objectives – Define which systems, data, and operations the policy covers and what recovery outcomes you expect.
• Roles and Responsibilities – Assign clear ownership for plan development, testing, execution, and ongoing maintenance.
• Recovery Procedures – Document step-by-step processes for restoring critical systems and data after a disruption.
• Communication Protocols – Establish how you’ll notify stakeholders, coordinate response teams, and manage external communications during incidents.
• Testing and Review Cycles – Set mandatory schedules for plan exercises, audits, and updates to maintain readiness and compliance.

What are the four pillars of disaster recovery?

Enterprise disaster recovery programs rest on four foundational pillars:

• Prevention – Implement controls and redundancies that reduce the likelihood of disruptions affecting critical systems.
• Preparedness – Develop documented plans, train response teams, and establish the infrastructure needed for rapid recovery.
• Response – Execute coordinated actions to contain incidents, protect data integrity, and begin restoration procedures.
• Recovery – Restore full operational capability, validate system integrity, and document lessons learned to strengthen future resilience.