Many organisations have a disaster recovery plan. Far fewer have proven that it works. When a real incident strikes, such as ransomware, a data centre failure or a corrupted database, an untested plan often fails at the first step.
Start with recovery objectives
For each critical system, agree two numbers with the business: the recovery time objective (RTO), how long the service can be down, and the recovery point objective (RPO), how much data you can afford to lose. These drive every design decision and every cost.
Design DR to meet them
A four-hour RTO for a core database may need replication with Oracle Data Guard or SQL Server Always On. A 24-hour RTO for a file server might be met with Veeam replication or Azure Site Recovery. Match the technology to the objective, not the other way round.
Write runbooks people can follow
Recovery happens under pressure, often at night. Runbooks should be step-by-step, list who does what, and include the commands, credentials vault locations and checks needed to confirm each step.
Test, time and improve
Run a DR drill at least once a year for each critical system. Time every step, compare the result with your RTO and RPO, and fix what slowed you down. A timed drill report is also strong evidence for auditors and regulators.
InfraWorks designs, hosts and tests disaster recovery for organisations in Mauritius and overseas. Learn more about our disaster recovery and business continuity services.