Disaster Recovery - Step Three

Develop the Plan

The feedback from the business managers will begin to shape our DRP procedures. If, for example, you determine that the company must be up within 48 hours of an incident to stay viable, then you can calculate the amount of time it would take to execute the recovery plan and have the business back up in that timeframe. Hopkins suggests that you have the recovery systems tested, configured, and retested 24 hours prior to launching them. He says the set up takes anywhere from 40 hours to days to complete.

The recovery procedure should be written in a detailed plan or "script." And we will establish a Recovery Team from among our IT staff, your key staff and assign specific recovery duties to each member. The manner in which your team conducts its recovery probably will be no different than its regular production procedures: the chain of command likely won't change and neither will the aspects of the network for which each of our team member is responsible.

Next we will define how to deal with the loss of various aspects of the network (databases, servers, bridges/routers, communications links, etc.) and arrange for repairs or reconstruction and how the data recovery process occurs. The script will also outline priorities for the recovery: What needs to be recovered first? What is the communication procedure for the initial respondents? To complement the script, create a checklist or test procedure to verify that everything is back to normal once repairs and data recovery have taken place.