Disaster Recovery is the process of planning for the possibility of a major system failure and the recovery from such an event. Such an event may involve a major component failure or the complete destruction of the data center housing the assets. Recovery may be partial recovery, recovery of the whole system in a capacity limited, or complete recovery at full capacity at an alternate site.
Customers may rely on the system as part of their business operations and downtime will impact their ability to conduct business, therefore, impacting the company’s revenue. They need to be assured that there is a plan to recover the system, in a timely manner.
They may ask for a copy of the Disaster Recovery Plan, which should include the Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and Recovery Time Objective (RTO). This information will tell them how much data may be lost and how long the business will be interrupted. Additionally, they may request to see the results or report from disaster recovery exercises, whether full recovery exercises or tabletop exercises. These reports will give an indication of the ability to meet the objectives in the Disaster Recovery Plan.