Published: 28 February 2020
Summary
Despite advances in IT disaster recovery technology, IT DR remains a common challenge. After reviewing hundreds of well-intended DR documents, we identified areas that are often problematic. I&O leaders should follow these 16 practices to improve their IT DR strategy, documentation and exercises.
Included in Full Research
- Align Program Scope and Recovery Strategy
- No. 1. Align IT DR Management With Business Continuity Management
- No. 2. Define a Clear, High-Level DR Planning Scope
- No. 3. Plan for Loss Categories Rather Than Specific Event Scenarios
- No. 4. Define Criticality Tiers With Standardized RPO and RTO Definitions and Align Them With Recovery Strategies
- Improve DR Documentation of Key Policies, Roles, IT DR Program Processes and Recovery Overview
- No. 5. Develop High-Level IT DR Program Documents
- No. 6. Define IT DR Program Roles and Responsibilities
- No. 7. Plan for Scenarios Where Primary Contacts Are Unavailable
- No. 8. Implement Explicitly Detailed Procedures in the DR Plan
- No. 9. Establish a Recovery Matrix That Aligns Recovery Tiering With Business Functions
- No. 10. Store Documents in a Central Location
- No. 11. Enhance Access Control Management
- No. 12. Centralize Contact Details
- Continuously Exercise and Improve DR Strategies and Plans
- No. 13. Conduct DR Exercising, Not DR Testing
- No. 14. Update Policies and Exercise Cadence
- No. 15. Vary the Scope and Depth of DR Exercising
- No. 16. Plan for DR Strategy and Program Document Updates and Reviews