Disaster Recovery Templates

To develop a workable IT Disaster Recovery Plan companies must take a look at all applications and systems that they utilize.  Many applications and systems interface with one another providing critical data that is needed for the next downstream system.  Zombie Data has several templates that assist a company in this process.  We provide these templates to our client companies and offer resources to work with them in this process.  By dropping applications into various categories (Example: A = Recover ASAP, B = Recover within 72 hours, C = Recover within 7 days) companies can make logical decisions about the requirements of their IT infrastructure.

Applications

How to break up the applications in various categories?  Within any company there are applications that are CRITICAL to the continued operations of the company.  These applications are generally required to continue the main processes that keep the company functional.  Secondarily there are applications that assist with the everyday working of the company but without which the company can still provide their basic products and services.  E-mail, Fax Systems, etc. generally fit into this category - communications that are nice to have but companies can still function without them.  Third there are applications that are used by non-critical areas of the business (Marketing or CRM systems, etc.) which are nice to have up and running but certainly can wait until the smoke clears.

Interfaces

This is where things get interesting.  After the first round of categorizations is completed, additional analysis will need to be made.  If an application in Category B actually feeds data or information in a time critical manner to an application in Category A then the application will need to escalated to Category A.  These decisions need to be made with a degree of discretion as firms don't need to unnecessarily inflate the number of applications and servers that will be in Category A. 

There is no one set of Categories and Recovery Times that are correct for every sized business.  The Recovery Time required for each category is generally different for different types of companies.  Some e-Businesses need to have a 2 hour recovery time for Category A.  For other companies, such as a storefront or manufacturing company, perhaps a 12 or 24 hour recovery time is adequate for Category A. 

Zombie Data resources are extremely experienced in assisting clients with developing a working Disaster Recovery plan for their IT organization.  Let us help your organization.