1 of 3. Data Center & Network Services. Cloud Services. Managed Services. PARTNER LOGO HERE. DR Preparedness Checklist. You know that disaster ...
DR Preparedness Checklist
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Protect Your Critical IT Assets Are You Ready? Plan ahead to minimize IT downtime. It’s essential for keeping your business up and running — and for your peace of mind.
Do you really need another list to tell you how to plan for DR? Are planning checklists even worthwhile? When it comes to DR planning, the answer is yes and yes.
You know that disaster recovery (DR) planning is essential. You may even have a DR plan in place. But is that plan complete? Is it current? Has your plan — and its various components — been tested to identify gaps or issues so corrective actions can be taken? Are you testing frequently enough to account for changes in personnel, vendors, equipment and other factors?
DR Preparedness Checklist There is no such thing as over-preparing for a disaster — or for recovering from
Use the listed items as appropriate. Chances are that during the review process
one. Given that disasters — whether manmade or natural — are unpredictable,
you’ll encounter issues that you hadn’t thought to address. Make sure to add
it can be difficult to fully plan for their occurrence. That’s why planning for the
them to this checklist (blank rows are included), so you can then address them
recovery of your operations is so important.
in your DR plan.
Don’t underestimate the importance of regularly testing your DR plan. It is essential
In addition, do not neglect DR plan testing. A DR plan is only as good as the last
to identifying potential issues or gaps so you can take corrective action now. Make
test, and it’s the lessons learned during testing that enable recovery success in
sure you set the right expectations for testing success. DR plan testing can be deemed
an actual disaster scenario.
successful even if your DR plan or a specific solution fails because the purpose of testing is to identify weaknesses during testing rather than in an actual disaster. Whether you have a DR plan in place or are in the process of putting one together, you can use the following checklist as a “double check” on what your plan includes, where gaps may exist and what course of action needs to be taken. It can also help with documenting the status of future planning efforts. Keep in mind that every organization is different, so this list may not completely cover all the issues relevant to your organization.
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DR Preparedness Checklist Planning Issue/Component
Fully Addressed
Needs Development
Not Addressed
Comments/ Questions
Plan Revision #, Section Name and Page Number
Do you have an internal communication plan? Do you have an external communication plan (customers, partners and vendors)? Are layers of contingencies such as IT and/ or manual workarounds documented? Have you identified the key systems, data and/or applications that are critical for keeping your business operating? Have you determined which systems must be recovered first? Have you identified your user role priorities and determined how and when each user group will be granted system access? Does the DR plan require an alternate site for recovery? Has the alternate site (if applicable) been procured and prepared? Does the DR plan specify the level of service to be provided while in recovery mode? (will you be in a degraded level of performance) Does the DR plan include predetermined contracts to recover facilities and/or rebuild plans for critical computing equipment and business area workstations? Are the operational procedures documented in a way that will allow recovery to be achieved in a timely and orderly way? Does the DR plan identify the hardware and software critical to recover the mission-critical business operations and/ or functions? Does the DR plan identify necessary support equipment to recover the missioncritical business operations or functions? Do you have uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) for critical systems? Do you have a back-up generator? If so, how much time can it run supporting critical systems, technical staff and business area workstations? Do you have a hot/warm/cold site vendor on contract? If so, does the vendor have UPS and generator back-up? Are additional or new backup or recovery services needed? Are you employing cloud-based recovery? Are all appropriate personnel aware of how cloud-based recovery works? Is a current copy of the DR plan maintained off-site?
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DR Preparedness Checklist Planning Issue/Component
Fully Addressed
Needs Development
Not Addressed
Comments/ Questions
Plan Revision #, Section Name and Page Number
When was the off-site copy last updated? Is there an audit trail of the changes made to the DR plan? Do all employees responsible for the execution of the DR plan receive training? Are all critical or important data required to support the business being backedup? If so, how often? Are training and testing plans included? Do the training and testing plans list exercise types, sequence and frequency? Have you established clear and realistic expectations for your DR plan testing outcomes? If you have a DR plan in place, has it been tested within the last 12 months and were any corrective actions documented, followed through on and incorporated into an updated plan? How often and what method(s) are used to test the DR plan? Is the team responsible for testing documented in the plan? Does the testing plan include a report for corrective action?
For additional resources to help with your DR planning, check out the following information from Peak 10:
Let Peak 10 help you minimize downtime and data loss.
eBook: Disaster Recovery – The Plan That Makes You Ready eBook: The ABCs of Disaster Recovery – A Glossary of Terms White Paper: Ready for Disaster the HIPAA-compliant Way
You can contact us for a free consultation with a Peak 10
Data Sheet: The Peak 10 Recovery Cloud
Solution Engineer at (866) 473-2510. www.peak10.com
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