Business organizations deal with data about their finances, employees, and stakeholders. The data need to be secured and recovered after a disaster occurs. Some of the IT disasters an organization can plan against are; communication failure, cyber-attack, application failure, and power outages (Budiman et a., 2020). Therefore, it is crucial for a business organization to have data backup programs, disaster recovery plans, and business continuity plans to shield against and help the organization return to normalcy after a cyber-attack.
A data backup system refers to copying data from its primary source to another secondary location to protect the data in the event of a disaster, malicious activity, or accident. Data is the backbone of business operations; hence, losing data causes massive damage, which disrupts normal business operations. Implementing data backup involves a series of processes and procedures to ensure efficiency. This has been made easier by information technology advancements, which have highly automated the data backup process (Napolitano et al., 2022). The process is programmed, and the procedures involved run themselves. For example, a network backup system transmits data from specific devices on a network to the respective backup servers. Traditional backup systems include tapes, while modern backup trends include Cloud-Cloud data backup and cloud storage.
Data backup and recovery processes should balance the effort, risks and expenses involved. An offsite backup is an element in backup planning because the primary backup system can be compromised. An offsite backup location acts as a secondary contingency source for information. Another element of data backup planning is treating critical business data as a top priority. These include financial files and business contracts, thus, should be regularly backed up and in data-compliant ways (Budiman et al., 2020). Knowing how to access critical data and the time needed to access it is also essential. This helps in planning for minimal disaster impact. Lastly, it is crucial to test backup systems periodically through complete backup verification procedures. Testing of backup systems also involves training employees on how to access and restore backed-up files.
A disaster recovery plan is a structured and documented approach to describe how a business organization quickly resumes its operations after an unplanned disaster. A DRP is aimed at helping an organization resolve its data loss issue and system functionality so that the business operates in the aftermath. DRPS also helps organizations meet business compliance requirements while on the roadmap to recovery (Finucane et al., 2020). The DRP is made of steps to minimize the aftermath effects of an incident through analysis of business processes and the need for continuity. An organization carries out a business impact analysis and risk analysis to identify the objectives of the recovery plan.
Good disaster recovery planning ensures quick handling of incidents and reduces downtime, which minimizes reputational and financial damages from a disaster. The elements of disaster recovery planning start with creating a disaster recovery team responsible for developing, maintaining, and implementing the DRP. Apart from the DRP members, all employees should be informed of the disaster recovery plans and their responsibilities in the event of a disaster (Finucane et al., 2020). Secondly, the DRP team identifies and assesses the disaster risks to the organization. The disasters include both natural and artificial disasters. Risk identification helps the DRP team source strategies and resources for disaster recovery in the shortest time possible. Thirdly, the DRP team evaluates its business operations to determine the operations order of criticality. This will help the team enable the short-term survivability of these operations. After that, the DRP team should identify the data to back up where and how. Lastly, the team must regularly and routinely test and maintain the formulated DRP due to the dynamic nature of data risks and disasters. The routine testing ensures the evaluation and updating of the DRP strategies for effectiveness.
A business continuity plan is used to prevent and help an organization recover from disasters. The BCP ensures that organizational assets and personnel are protected using a disaster and can return to operations afterward. The BCP should be tested regularly to ensure weaknesses in the plan are identified, corrected, or strengthened (Rezaei Soufi et al., 2019). The BCP determines how the identified risks will affect operations and the strategies to implement to mitigate the risks. The plan should also be reviewed and procedures tested regularly to ensure it works and is up to date, owing to the evolving nature of IT disasters. There are crucial BCP elements to be considered to have a solid BCP in place. BCP elements include establishing the BCP committee and conducting a business impact analysis as in DRP. The BCP committee then devises ways to mitigate the identified risks by establishing business continuity strategies. The committee then develops business continuity plans for handling potential disasters (Fani et al., 2019). The development plan includes communicating with the other employees and training and drills.
In conclusion, it is essential to have disaster recovery, business continuity, and a data backup plan in place in all business organizations to protect the business and ensure recovery after a disaster. A good disaster recovery and data backup plan ensure business continuity. However, BCP and DRP differ because DRP focuses more on information technology infrastructure and technology. At the same time, BCP focuses on the whole organization, from the customers to the supply chain department. Also, BCP is focused on cutting losses, while DRP focuses on technological costs and downtime during and after a disaster.
References
Budiman, K., Arini, F. Y., & Sugiharti, E. (2020, June). Disaster recovery planning with distributed replicated block device in synchronized API systems. In Journal of Physics: Conference Series (Vol. 1567, No. 3, p. 032023). IOP Publishing.
Fani, S. V., & Subriadi, A. P. (2019). Business continuity plan: examining of multi-usable framework. Procedia Computer Science, 161, 275-282.
Finucane, M. L., Acosta, J., Wicker, A., & Whipkey, K. (2020). Short-term solutions to a long-term challenge: rethinking disaster recovery planning to reduce vulnerabilities and inequities. International journal of environmental research and public health, 17(2), 482.
Napolitano, C. M., Kern, J. L., & Freund, A. M. (2022). The Backup Planning Scale (BUPS): A Brief, Self-Reported Measure of a Person’s Tendency to Develop, Reserve, and Use Backup Plans. Journal of Personality Assessment, 104(4), 496-508.
Rezaei Soufi, H., Torabi, S. A., & Sahebjamnia, N. (2019). Developing a novel quantitative framework for business continuity planning. International Journal of Production Research, 57(3), 779-800.
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