A disaster recovery plan is a business’ way of ensuring that their IT infrastructure is maintained in the event of a disaster. It is a well-documented, step-by-step plan that details how the business will run in the event of a man-made or natural disaster. Coming up with a solid disaster recovery plan is vital to your business. Use a disaster recovery test to test your plan to make sure it works.
Types of disaster recovery plan tests
There are several types of disaster recovery tests:
- Tabletop- Individuals run through a recovery plan on paper to ensure that their staff understands the wireless procedure.
- Simulation- Employees run through a disaster to test the disaster plan.
- Parallel test- Employees test the recovery systems while primary systems carry the full production workload.
- Cut-over test- Recovery systems carry the full production workload.
Make sure that you involve your employees in all disaster recovery tests. Human error can easily throw off the best disaster recovery plan, so having your well-trained employees will help guarantee its success.
Design
Before you begin, make sure to consider how long it has been since you have tested your critical applications and any changes that have occurred in your IT infrastructure. If you are in a regulated industry, make sure your plan is in line with industry regulations so you are not penalized. Here are some questions to consider:
- Who will be participating in the test and what will their responsibilities be?
- What are you testing for? How will the results be measured?
- How will the test results be used to improve your disaster recovery plan?
- Are there any constraints on the test, such as time and funding?
Goals
It is also important to make sure that you have clear goals in mind when planning your disaster recovery test. An obvious goal is to see if you can successfully implement your recovery plan in a real-life situation. You could also try to uncover problems in your current plan or use a test to train your IT department. Finally, you can see how long it takes for you to recover from a disaster and to what degree your recovery is successful.
Frequency
In a recent survey, researchers found that only 44% of businesses had a disaster recovery plan in place and, of those, only 31% ran tests at least once a year. The nature of your business will determine the number of times you run through your disaster recovery plan. Those with more advanced technology will have to run their disaster recovery plan more often. You will also have to test more often if you have to meet industry compliance standards. Generally, you should run tests at least once a year. The more tests you do, the more prepared your staff will be in case of a new disaster.
Make a disaster recovery plan with the professionals
Schedule a free IT analysis for your business from Infinity. We’ll look at your systems and networks and can give you pointers on creating a plan that works for your business. At Infinity, we help small businesses every day with their backup and disaster recovery. Trust your business with us to make sure your data stays safe no matter what.