The Ultimate Disaster Recovery Checklist

No matter the industry, a period of downtime can spell disaster for a business. Whether caused by cyber attacks, natural disasters or human error, disruptions can result in significant financial loss, reputational damage and customer dissatisfaction.

A well-structured disaster recovery checklist is essential to prepare your organization to bounce back quickly and minimize operational impact while protecting sensitive data.

Here’s a comprehensive guide to building your DR checklist.

Read: The 6 Types of Disaster Recovery Plan Solutions

1. Risk Assessment and Business Impact Analysis

Before creating a disaster recovery plan (DRP), understand what you’re protecting against, as every disaster is different:

• Identify potential threats: List all possible disasters, from natural disasters like floods and fires to cyber attacks, power failures and system crashes. Determine how likely each threat is to occur.
• Evaluate the impact: For each threat, analyze its potential impact on your business operations, including financial loss, reputational damage and legal penalties. Is the issue local to one machine or your entire system?
• Define critical systems: Pinpoint the most vital data, systems and applications that your business can’t function without and rank them by priority.
• Establish recovery objectives: Recovery time objectives (RTO) and recovery point objectives (RPO) set the standard for how quickly you need to recover.

2. Inventory of Assets and Resources

To recover operations, you need to have the necessary equipment and licenses. Create a detailed, regularly updated list of all business assets and resources:

• Hardware: Servers, routers and backup devices.
• Software: ERP, CRM and custom applications.
• Data: Identify locations of all critical data – local, cloud or hybrid.
• People: Emergency contacts, IT staff, vendors and managed service providers (MSP).

3. Backup Strategy

Backups are the cornerstone of disaster recovery, making this the most critical part of your DRP.

Detail your data backup process, including the types of backups (full, incremental or differential), their frequency (daily, weekly or real-time) and where they’re stored (on-site, off-site, cloud or hybrid.

Also provide step-by-step instructions for restoring data and applications from backups. Regularly test backups to ensure they are functioning properly. Never assume a backup is usable until it’s been thoroughly tested and proven reliable.

Read: Safeguard Your Digital World with Data Backups

4. Document and Share the DRP

The DRP should be comprehensive and include detailed recovery steps so everyone knows the exact steps required. Store the plan both digitally and in hard copy, guaranteeing it can be accessed in any situation.

The plan should also highlight the roles and responsibilities of staff during a disaster, so there is no confusion about who does what during a disaster. Include emergency contact information and escalation paths for the recovery effort.

Once you have the DRP created, share it with everyone. Include a protocol for notifying employees about the disaster and what steps to take. Identify communication channels that will work if your main systems go down, including texting, phone lines or websites. Also outline how you’ll communicate with customers, vendors and other stakeholders to ensure consistency and transparency.

5. Testing and Training

DRPs are only effective if they work under pressure and if everyone knows their role. Schedule and conduct regular drills to test the effectiveness of your DRP, including tabletop exercises and live simulations. The goal of these tests is to uncover issues or gaps and update your plan based on lessons learned.

Since your staff are your first line of defense, ensure they understand their roles in different disaster scenarios. Everyone should be thoroughly trained on the recovery protocols and how to communicate with one another. Regular training reduces panic and accelerates response in real situations.

6. Continuous Improvement

Disaster recovery is not a one-and-done process; remember, a stagnant plan is a vulnerable plan. Schedule regular reviews and updates to reflect changes in technology, business processes and personnel. Monitor evolving risks and incorporate trends into the DRP. Also include feedback from tests and training sessions with staff.

Create a Disaster Recovery Checklist with Thriveon

Most companies need help to strategically align technology with their business goals and ensure protection from disasters. That’s why you should partner with Thriveon. Our Fractional CIO offers ongoing IT strategy and consulting with cybersecurity and managed IT services.

Schedule a meeting now for more information.