DRP: Everything You Need to Know
However, no matter how small the incident may have seemed, it rendered 3.6 million websites inoperable, nearly 500,000 domain names unusable, and prevented millions of people from accessing their email. And as if that weren't enough, for customers who stored their data on these servers without a backup strategy, the repercussions were much worse.
This event is an example that revives the words of Elliot Moore in the movie The End of Time“No place is safe. Only some places are a little safer than others.” And that is precisely what happens in digital environments. Because yes, let's be realistic: no organization is immune to catastrophes. Even the largest and most prepared companies can be affected by an unexpected event. Those who have not backed up their data or invested in cyber resilience tools may suffer irreversible losses.
What does Octave Klaba, CEO and founder of OVHcloud, recommend to prevent these disasters from happening? Something quite concrete: «We recommend that you activate your Disaster Recovery Plan.» The long-postponed DRP...
What the case of OVHcloud us taught:
In this case, we have undoubtedly seen how external context or human error can significantly affect business continuity, and how, in this scenario, many companies are unprepared or do not have a contingency plan in place.
Therefore, in terms of cloud, there are best practices and processes that are convenient to implement so that the case of OVH, as well as that of many other companies that have gone through similar situations, serves as an opportunity for improvement for the rest of the organizations.
Now, what are those good practices or processes? As we said, a DRP is essential to answer this question. What exactly does a DRP consist of, and why is it so important? We'll tell you in this article.
What is a DRP?
A disaster recovery plan (DRP) is a documented and organized strategy for how an organization can resume operations – even if at a basic level – after an unexpected event. Thus, a DRP should cover all aspects of the organization's IT operations, from ensuring cloud server functionality to improving the resilience of physical facilities. It should also establish a prioritization order and identify which business functions must be resumed as quickly as possible in a complex situation.
What does a successful DRP need to have?
Involve all stakeholders: The disaster management plan should be developed with input from all stakeholders, including IT staff, managers, and professionals from other departments.
Be realistic.The DRP must be realistic and feasible. It is important to ensure that the organization has the necessary resources and capabilities to implement the plan.
The plan must be comprehensive: It should not focus solely on restoring servers, backing up the local environment, or managing cloud infrastructure. Rather, the strategy should examine all components and areas of the business. This allows for a better understanding of the role these parts play in the overall functioning of the ecosystem.
Update the plan as needed: The plan must be updated to reflect changes in the organization's operations or environment.
Consider the use of cloud-based Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) solutions: DRaaS solutions provide a convenient and effective way to implement a DRP. With DRaaS, organizations can delegate the responsibility of managing and maintaining such a strategy to a third-party provider.
Use cloud-based backup and recovery solutions Cloud-based backup and recovery services can help organizations back up and, in case of unforeseen events, restore data quickly and easily. These solutions typically offer various features, such as data deduplication, compression, and encryption.
Download our Ebook: How to Develop a Cloud Business Continuity Plan
Likewise, once these concepts have been assimilated, a plan should be developed which should include the following phases:
Business Impact Analysis (BIA). A BIA helps identify key business processes and the impact that these processes would have on operations if they were interrupted. Conducting BIAs regularly helps to discover and map application interdependencies, understand third-party risk, determine the cost of downtime, uncover how adding and reducing resources affect internal processes, and align business needs with IT resilience posture.
Risk Assessment. A risk assessment with short time windows will help identify threats that have a greater potential to cause damage to a business.
Test program. It is not possible to know for sure if a plan will work unless it is regularly tested. This will allow any problems to be discovered and resolved before a real catastrophe occurs, while also providing your employees with the operational memory they need to carry out the plan effectively and smoothly.
Strategy Communication. Communication is as important as implementation. A communication plan clarifies the roles and responsibilities of the recovery team and the channels for information with clients and suppliers.
These tips aren’t just for the industry’s major players. On the contrary, every business, regardless of size, should be able to develop a DRP to prevent, anticipate, and quickly recover from any unforeseen event. In fact, the industry has plenty of room for improvement. According to Connectwise, more than half (51 percent) of small and medium-sized businesses do not have an incident response plan to recover from an unforeseen event. This situation will have to change in the coming years so that users—and businesses—can enjoy safer and more resilient digital experiences.
Working with an expert cloud partner like Nublit can help you develop a strategy like this without the training costs and time required to do so.
