What is Disaster Recovery? Do You Need It For Your Organization?

What is disaster recovery?

What steps will your company take if hit by an earthquake?
What about a power outage that leads to the loss of all your important data?
Do you have relevant backup and recovery plans in place for such events?

If you do not have satisfactory answers to these questions, this blog is for you.

We discuss what is disaster recovery and why it is important for all businesses. What disaster recovery plans to have in place, how to regularly maintain and upgrade those plans, and more.

What is a Disaster?

A disaster is any unforeseen event that can put your e+nterprise at risk by interfering with operations. Disasters can be natural like flooding and earthquakes, or man-made disasters such as power outages.

Not every disaster threatens human lives. Disasters can also data loss, equipment loss, and more.

There are many ways your company can face a disaster such as financial frauds or power outages leading to loss of data. One more example of this is a cyber-attack. It can wreak havoc on your business, even though your IT infrastructure remains physically untouched.

What is Disaster Recovery?

Disaster Recovery(DR) is the system of anticipating and addressing technology-related disasters by an enterprise.

As discussed above a company can face various unforeseen disasters. Disaster recovery includes a company’s procedures and policies to recover quickly from such events.

Disaster recovery means taking data backups, prioritizing assets and departments, and ensuring everyone are clear about their responsibilities during such events.

What Is Disaster Recovery Planning?

If you want your enterprise to respond very quickly to a disaster and take immediate action to resume operations then you must consider a disaster recovery plan (DR plan).

Normally a DR plan includes:

  • Maximum allowed usage time of critical IT assets.
  • Tools or technologies used for recovery purposes.
  • The contact information and communication procedure of the DR team.
  • Emergency procedures to be carried out by staff during disaster times.

How Does Disaster Recovery Work?

The main function of disaster recovery is to get the software applications up and running as quickly as possible. The longer it takes to recover business operations, the more it affects your brand, your reputation, customer trust, and lost revenue.

As a business owner, it is important to understand how disaster recovery works and how to make your own disaster recovery plan.

Here are the 3 main factors of disaster recovery-

1. Prevention

Businesses need to plan to make all key systems very reliable and secure to reduce the likelihood of technology-related disasters. The prevention applies only to network problems, security risks, and man-made errors as humans cannot control a natural disaster.

For example, all new configuration files that are checked by system testing software have the potential to prevent configuration mistakes and failures.

2. Anticipation

Anticipation is the ability to predict possible future disasters. Knowing the consequences of possible disasters and planning appropriate DR procedures.

Disaster Anticipation provides you with knowledge from previous situations and analysis to plan for future disastrous events. For example, to anticipate future hardware failure of on-premises devices, it is often necessary to back up all critical business data to the cloud.

3. Mitigation

Disaster mitigation is the process of responding to a disaster scenario. The main purpose of a mitigation strategy is to reduce the negative impact on normal business procedures. The following disaster mitigation steps are followed by stakeholders in event of a disaster-

  • Updating disaster recovery documentation.
  • DR testing is being conducted.
  • The manual operating procedure is identified in event of an outage.
  • Disaster recovery strategy being coordinated with corresponding personnel.

Benefits Of Having A Disaster Recovery Plan For Your Business

Disaster recovery planning is crucial for many reasons. Having a well-tested DR plan has many benefits such as –

  1. It minimizes interruptions to daily business operations
  2. It ensures smooth and quick restoration of your services
  3. DR planning minimizes the economic impact due to the disaster
  4. Helps establish alternative means of operation in advance
  5. You have trained personnel who are well-versed with emergency procedures
  6. Increases customer trust and loyalty because of your quick response
  7. Enhance brand image, trust, and confidence with your partners, suppliers, and competitors

So these were the advantages of having a good DR strategy for your business. Additionally, there are various ways to plan and prepare for such unexpected disasters.

Conclusion

Any business might experience data loss, a natural disaster, a power outage, or other disturbances. Business leaders should take preemptive steps in anticipation of such disasters. Disaster recovery ensures that there is minimal loss and disruption due to such disasters.

Want help with DR planning?

Let’s talk. WPG offers the best-in-class disaster recovery services to businesses and organizations. Contact us today for a free consultation session.

Hitesh Patel
Hitesh Patel
Hitesh Patel is an engineer turned business owner of WPG Consulting. He is a techie enthusiast who believes in finding creative IT solutions to solve consumer problems.

IT Services You Can Count on WPG Consulting​

Managed IT Services

Cyber Security

Cloud Computing

Project Management

Disaster Recovery Planning

VoIP Services

IT Engineering

Strategic IT Consulting

Desktop IT Support

Software & eCommerce Development

READY TO TAKE THE NEXT STEP ? FILL OUT THE FORM ON THE RIGHT.

Discover how can WPG Consulting help you?