Key Components of a Disaster Recovery Plan

In an independent study commissioned by Arcserve, 95% of responding IT decision-makers said their company has a disaster recovery plan. This is good news, but in the same poll, 76% of these IT leaders reported that they still experienced critical data loss. This underscores a crucial point: having a disaster recovery plan is just the first step. The real challenge lies in developing a comprehensive, regularly updated plan that effectively minimizes data loss, shortens recovery time, and safeguards business continuity.

A solid disaster recovery strategy involves more than simple data backups. It requires a detailed, multi-layered approach covering everything from asset inventories and risk assessments to clear communication protocols and role assignments. Below, we outline the essential components of an IT disaster recovery plan, designed to strengthen your organization’s resilience and ensure faster recovery from unexpected crises.

What is Disaster Recovery and Why is it Important?

A disaster can strike at any time, without warning. And with today’s interconnected supply chain, even a crisis across the globe could mean serious trouble for you and your business.

Because of this, disaster recovery and backup plans are now a crucial component of any business operation. In business terms, this kind of recovery refers to a step-by-step process a company will use to regain its access to data, applications, and other IT resources after a disruptive event. 

Disruptions – whether caused by human error, natural disaster, or a cyberattack – can result in massive financial losses for your organization. Gartner actually estimates that the cost per minute of IT downtime is around $5,600, with another study showing that 43% of small businesses close permanently after a disaster due to inadequate planning.

So having a strict and reliable disaster recovery plan in place is key to avoiding these major losses and the risk of permanently closing your doors. This plan will include outlining what data is imperative to your daily operations, defining roles and responsibilities for your employees and coworkers, and having clear goals for your data backups and recovery strategies.

We will cover important tips for all of these steps below. 

Disaster Recovery Roles and Responsibilities

In 2017, a catastrophic power outage in Atlanta shut down Delta Airlines. But an updated disaster recovery plan allowed them to recover operations in just 11 hours – compared to August 2016 when a data center outage kept down business operations for about a week, costing them about $150 million.

Because of this updated plan, 90% of Delta’s Atlanta flights were still able to arrive on time. 

Delta attributed the quick recovery to their “irregular operations” team tasked with coordinating responses to disruptive events. 

This is even more impressive when you hear that 71% of CEOs and board members do not expect their organization to fully recover within an hour of a disaster, with only 17% expecting the recovery to take one day. 

This just goes to show that In the face of an unexpected disaster, making sure your coworkers and/or employees know how to respond properly is key to a successful recovery plan and restoring your critical data.

By effectively assigning roles to clarify a coworker’s responsibility during an unexpected disaster, you will help ensure efficiency and reduce confusion when your data and business are suddenly at risk.

Here are some example disaster recovery roles you can assign to create an effective disaster recovery team and help alleviate friction during critical disaster recoveries:

• Recovery Team Leader:  This is often a CIO, a senior IT manager, or another executive team member. This leader will supervise the team, coordinate efforts, and ensure a strong Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR) plan is implemented effectively. 
• Crisis Management Coordinator: This role oversees data recovery management and initiating recovery procedures when a disaster occurs, ensuring a quick response.
• Business Continuity Specialist: Responsible for strategies to maintain or quickly restore operations during a disaster. This member ensures the DR plan supports overall business needs.
• Communications Lead: This role will handle the dissemination of all updates, keeping all stakeholders informed of the progress of the disaster recovery team.
• Impact and Recovery Advisors: Typically covered by several employees, each advisor will specialize in areas like networkers, servers, storage, or databases, assessing damage and planning repairs in each domain when a disaster strikes.
• IT Application Monitor: Focuses on continuous monitoring of technology to detect potential disasters early and ensures all systems components work seamlessly post-recovery.

The IT recovery team typically includes senior IT staff, external partners, and business leaders. TechTarget highlights that effective planning means including both internal and external expertise.

Key Components of an IT Disaster Recovery Plan

Now with your recovery roles developed and assigned, you can start building out your disaster recovery plan. Regular and well-maintained data backup will always be a pillar of your disaster strategy, but there are many more strategies needed to get your business back online.

Below we have listed out what we believe to be the most important steps to ensuring the safe recovery of your data, with some helpful tips on what to look for during each.

1. Inventory All Assets

Taking the time to discover your most crucial assets is always the first step in an effective DRP. Go through all your cloud and physical assets and inventory of all hardware, software, data, and IT services, and make a list of the most crucial to your daily operations. This should include:

• Cataloging each server, device, application, and network configuration
• Include details on where assets are located and how they’re used
• Identify critical assets that need priority in recovery

An accurate inventory will allow you to pinpoint what resources to prioritize, reducing recovery time and mitigating potential.

2. Conduct a Risk Assessment

A valuable risk assessment will help you determine just how at risk of experiencing a disaster your business is. This should include:

Identifying all potential threats: This will include natural disasters like floods and earthquakes, as well as IT risks like authenticating logins and potential misconfigurations

Assess the level of risks: Prioritize each threat as either high, medium, or low impact based on the likelihood of the incident occurring.

Assessing Impact: This will consist of detailing which risks will have the greatest impact on the daily operations of your business.

Conducting a risk assessment can take a variety of tools to get a fair picture of how a disaster may impact you, and through which channel you may be most vulnerable.

If you are interested in learning how your current SaaS apps and browser extensions may be leaving you vulnerable to a data leak or cyber attack, check out Spin.AIs free risk assessment here.

3. Clearly Define Recovery Objectives

This is when you will want to sit down and clearly lay out the desired outcomes and objectives of your recovery. 

The most common objectives are typically:
:

• Create a list of mission-critical operations:  decide which of your applications, data, user access, and equipment are needed to support operations
• Recovery Time Objective (RTO): The maximum allowable time for recovering systems and resuming operations after a disaster.
• Recovery Point Objective (RPO): The acceptable amount of data loss, which determines backup frequency. 
• Meeting service level agreements (SLAs): assess all your SLAs and make sure you can fulfill promises to stakeholders.

With clear RTOs and RPOs, you will help your business prioritize recovery efforts, minimizing the impact on your business.

4. Recovery Strategies and Solutions

Recovery strategies outline the approaches and resources needed to bring operations back online. Some common solutions include:

• Cloud-Based Recovery: Enables rapid data restoration from the cloud.
• Failover Systems: Secondary systems that take over automatically when primary systems fail.
• On-Premises and Offsite Backup: Allows data restoration from on-site or off-site backup locations.

The right strategy will depend on your company’s specific needs, budget, and tolerance for downtime.

5. Establish Data Back-Up Procedures

Reliable data backup procedures ensure that your organization can restore critical information after a disaster. Effective backup practices include:

• Automated, regular backups for all important data.
• Storing backups in multiple locations, including offsite and in the cloud.
• Periodic testing of backups to confirm data integrity.

With a solid backup plan, businesses can quickly recover essential data, ensuring continuity and minimizing downtime.

6. Communication and Notification Procedures

During a disaster, clear communication is essential. Your DR plan should include protocols for:

• Notifying key stakeholders, employees, and customers about the situation.
• Designating individuals responsible for providing updates and instructions.
• Using multiple channels—email, SMS, or collaboration tools—to ensure the message reaches everyone.

A well-coordinated communication approach reduces confusion and keeps everyone informed and calm.

7. Test and Update the Plan

In addition to immediate notifications, a comprehensive DR communication plan covers ongoing updates and post-disaster debriefs. Key elements include:

• Primary Contact List: A list of emergency contacts, including IT team members, executives, and external partners.
• Clear Messaging: Templates and guidelines for communicating with employees, customers, and stakeholders.
• Regular Communication Drills: Periodic tests of your communication plan to improve readiness.

A strong communication plan fosters transparency, builds trust, and ensures that recovery efforts are well-coordinated.

SpinBackUp

Choosing the right disaster recovery solution is essential for minimizing data loss and ensuring business continuity. SpinBackup offers automated cloud-to-cloud backup solutions for popular platforms like Google Workspace and Microsoft 365, featuring:

• Automated Daily Backups: SpinBackup simplifies backup by automating the process and safeguarding critical files.
• Advanced Data Security: SpinBackup employs encryption and cybersecurity features to prevent data breaches and protect your information.
• Quick Recovery Capabilities: SpinBackup’s intuitive interface and rapid recovery options make restoring files fast and easy.

Interested in learning more about how SpinBackup can enhance your IT disaster recovery plan? Schedule a Demo to explore how SpinBackup can help protect your data and streamline recovery processes.