Disaster Recovery Plan

Definition

The disaster recovery plan is the disaster recovery work product that documents the plans for recovering from a major natural or man-made disaster occuring to an application, contact center, data center, reuse center, or business enterprise.

Objectives

The typical objectives of the disaster recovery plan are to:

• Document procedures for minimizing the impact of a disaster such as an:
  • Earthquake.
  • Fire.
  • Major storms such as tornados and hurricanes.
  • Power brownouts and blackouts.
  • Sabotage.
  • Hacker attacks.

Benefits

The typical benefits of the disaster recovery plan include:

• Decrease the impact of the disaster on the application, contact center, data center, or business enterprise.
• Decrease recovery times and costs.
• Minimizing endeavor risk due to major disaster.

Contents

The typical contents of the disaster recovery plan include:

• Disaster Threat Analysis:
  • Disaster Scope
  • Incidents Requiring Plan Invocation
  • Natural Disasters:
    • Earthquake.
    • Fire.
    • Major storms (e.g., tornados, hurricanes, ice storms).
    • Flooding (e.g., storm surge, river flood)
  • Man-Made Disasters:
    • Loss of electrical power (e.g., power brownouts and blackouts).
    • Loss of cooling.
    • Loss of network connectivity.
    • Loss of telephone service.
    • Hardware component failure.
    • Failure of physical security.
    • Loss of required staffing (e.g., strike, or sick-out).
    • Evacuation (e.g., hazardous materials, bomb threat)
    • Sabotage.
    • Hacker attack.
    • Terrorist attack.
• Organizational Responsibilities:
  • Key Personnel
  • Emergency Response Team
  • Disaster Recovery Team:
    • Organization and Membership
    • Headquarters
    • Pre-disaster Responsibilities
    • Post-disaster Responsibilities
  • Environments Team
  • Operations Team
  • User Support Team
• Disaster Avoidance
  • Universal Power Supply
  • Fire Suppression Equipment
  • Security Systems
  • Emergency Lighting
  • Hardware Redundancy
• Disaster Preparation:
  • Plan Maintenance
  • Backup Centers Maintenance
  • Training
  • Communication
  • Testing
• Disaster Response
• Disaster Recovery:
  • Emergency and Evacuation Procedures
  • Damage Assessment
  • Communication
  • Contact Center Recovery Strategy
  • Data Center Recovery Strategy:
    • Degraded Operations
    • Facilities Recovery
    • Hardware (Server and Network) Recovery
    • Operating System Recovery
    • Application Recovery
    • Communications Recovery
  • Backup Approach:
    • Hot and Cold Backup
    • Alternate Backup Data Centers
    • Alternate Backup Data Centers
    • Offsite Backup Data Storage
    • Backup Activation
    • Transitioning Back
• Normal Operations Restoration
• Disaster Recovery Checklist
• Appendices:
  • Contact Information:
    • Official Agencies
    • Internal Staff
    • Vendors
  • Major Issues
  • TBDs
  • Assumptions
  • Glossary

Stakeholders

The typical stakeholders of a disaster recovery plan include:

• Producers:
  • Disaster Recovery Team
  • Program Management Team or Project Management Team
  • Requirements Team
  • Architecture Team
  • Environments Team
  • Security Team
  • Software Development Team
  • Database Team
• Evaluators:
  • Deployment Inspection Team
  • Program Manager or Project Manager
  • Technical Leader
  • Customer Representative
• Approvers:
  • Project Manager
  • Technical Leader
  • Customer Representative
• Maintainers:
  • Disaster Recovery Team
  • Program Management Team or Project Management Team
  • Requirements Team
  • Architecture Team
  • Environments Team
  • Security Team
  • Customer Organization
• Users:
  • Project Management Team
  • Project Team
  • Customer Organization
  • Operations Organization
  • Support Organization

Phases

• Business Strategy: Completed
• Business Optimization: Maintained
• Initiation: Not Applicable
• Construction: Not Applicable
• Delivery: Completed
• Usage: Maintained
• Retirment: Archived

Preconditions

An disaster recovery plan can typically be started if the following preconditions hold:

• The disaster recovery team is properly staffed and trained in disaster recovery planning.

Inputs

A disaster recovery plan typically has the following inputs:

• Work Products:
  • Risk Management Plan
  • Safety Risk Analysis Report
  • Security Risk Assessment
  • Application Vision Statement
  • Project Environments Description Document
  • System Requirments Specification
  • System Architecture Document
  • Software Architecture Document
  • Contact Center Architecture Document
  • Data Center Architecture Document
  • Database Design Document
  • Installation Manual
• Stakeholders:
  • Program Management Team or Project Management Team
  • Requirements Team
  • Architecture Team
  • Environments Team
  • Security Team
  • Domain Expert in disaster recovery

Guidelines

• Only include those disasters that have a potential for happening and which would have a major negative impact on the endeavor.
• Ensure consistency with the risk management plan.
• Assumptions may include items like who takes charge when a disaster strikes.

Conventions

Disaster recovery plans are typically constrained by the following conventions:

• Content and Format Standard
• MS Word Template
• XML DTD Template
• Inspection Checklist

Examples

• Generic Disaster Recovery Plan