Why companies need an IT disaster recovery plan

With the reliance on IT in the majority of companies these days, it's perhaps a surprise that many companies don't have any form of disaster recovery plan. By failing to have this fundamental plan in place, they are risking major problems, should something happen to their data. This article outlines some simple precautions that companies ought to take with their data.

Why do they need one?

The company's IT network
These days, a company's IT network holds the majority of important data that a company needs to work. Failure of that network or the hardware with no disaster recovery plan in place can cause major loss of earnings and in a worst case, cause it to fold. Factors which can affect IT network IT data and the supporting network can be affected by a range of things from hardware failures, power failures to major problems, such as fire or flood damage. As such, a major disaster can see a company needing to renew nearly all its hardware, with the exception of any portable hardware, that may be off-site at that time, such as laptops.

What elements are required within a plan?

Backups Probably, the most important part of a disaster recovery plan is to ensure that your data is regularly backed up and you have a corresponding business data recovery plan. Backups should be done regularly, preferably ongoing, but as a minimum every 24 hours and stored offsite. With the prevalence of the Internet, there is also the possibility of an online data backup system being implemented. Wherever it is backed up, security is essential and the recovery plan should be stored away from the office in an easy-to-access location in order to ensure that it is accessible. Hardware replacement While it's not essential that an exact record of the hardware is kept, it is important that the basics are stored. The reason that an exact record isn't required is because most likely, newer hardware will be used in the event of loss due to fire, flood, theft etc. The business disaster recovery plan should list how many desktops, laptops and servers the company holds. Basic information, like hard drive sizes, specialist hardware, printer specification and RAID arrays ought to be recorded. Quick recovery aspect
Finally, the plan should include an quick recovery aspect. This is because it may take a while to get new hardware installed, especially if new premises are required. Thus, an ability to access important data as quickly as possible is vital. If the company has multiple sites, then part of this plan should include servers on each site mirroring the data between them. This would allow the recovery to take place more rapidly.