The school of hard knocks isn’t the way to learn how to set up a disaster recovery plan. In fact, it shouldn’t be a learning process at all because if it fails, there may not be a second time around to learn from your mistakes. It’s imperative to get it right the first time. How is this possible? Get input from experts about your disaster recovery plan. Failing to do this could result in a flawed plan that may let you down in a time of need. Here are three mistakes commonly found in flawed plans:
A Recovery Point Objective That’s Too Large
When a disaster causes data loss, you will rely on data backups saved at previous points in time. The further in the past the backup was made, the more data you’ve lost. Too many people underestimate the business damage caused by using data that’s a day old. The damage is especially acute during peak times of the year when a 24 hour period accounts for a lot of business. If disaster strikes at such a time when your business must operate at peak efficiency, how much data can you afford to lose?
Failing to Plan for a Broad Range of Disasters
It’s always the problem that you fail to plan for that does you in. If you’re in a hurricane zone, you’ve likely planned for the problems this type of weather event can cause. On the other hand, cyber attacks, hardware failures, software failures, and network outages can be costly as well. Human error is often overlooked, yet is a common reason for data loss. A rushed employee or a new hire could accidentally delete critical files or physically damage a server or storage device.
Failing to Keep the Disaster Recovery Plan Current
Disaster recovery is often regarded as a one-time chore to quickly get out of the way because more pressing business concerns demand one’s attention. When treated that way, recovery plans are usually shelved and forgotten. When your business changes, evolves, or scales, updates to your recovery plan must reflect this. An important application upgrade that’s not incorporated into the plan, or employee turnover that causes your organization to lose people tasked with implementing the disaster plan can weaken or nullify its effectiveness.
Contact us today to learn how your business can benefit from WHOA.com’s fully managed disaster recovery as a service.