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.
A pandemic or other major event can affect staff availability. A plan for such an event can help mitigate the impact of the event. The plan needs to lay out how to respond to such an event. Are you an information organization, can workers work from home? Are you a products based organization, can you add multiple shifts to the warehouse with smaller crews to increase social distancing? Are you a service based organization, is there a means of effective personal protective equipment (PPE) or barriers? The Pandemic Outbreak plan needs to address the needs of your organization and provide answers on how your organization can continue to serve its customers or clients.
Pandemics do happen, such as the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Pandemics are not the apocalypse as often portrayed in the movies. Organizations need a plan to continue to operate during the pandemic. Other organizations depend on your organization as part of their business process, and if your organization closes or fails completely during a pandemic, it may have a major impact on their organization.
It is expected that your organization has a pandemic response plan that addresses the unique needs of your organization in order to continue operating during the pandemic. It should address how to continue or change business processes, how to communicate information to your workers, and how to deal with your business partners that may or may not be prepared and able to continue their operations.