What's the best way to create and maintain network disaster recovery and backup plans?

1 Assess your network risks

The first step to create a network disaster recovery and backup plan is to identify and evaluate the potential risks that could affect your network's availability, performance, and security. You should consider both internal and external factors, such as hardware failures, software bugs, configuration errors, malicious attacks, environmental hazards, and compliance requirements. You should also estimate the impact and likelihood of each risk, and prioritize them according to their severity and urgency.

2 Define your recovery objectives

The next step is to define your recovery objectives, which are the metrics that determine how quickly and effectively you can restore your network after a disaster. The two main recovery objectives are the recovery point objective (RPO) and the recovery time objective (RTO). The RPO is the maximum amount of data loss that you can tolerate, measured in time. The RTO is the maximum amount of downtime that you can afford, measured in time. Your recovery objectives should reflect your network's criticality and service level agreements (SLAs).

3 Choose your backup and recovery methods

The third step is to choose the backup and recovery methods that best suit your network's characteristics, resources, and budget. There are different types of backup and recovery methods, such as full, incremental, differential, or synthetic backups, and local, remote, or cloud-based recovery. You should consider the advantages and disadvantages of each method, such as the storage space, bandwidth, cost, speed, reliability, and security. You should also align your backup and recovery methods with your recovery objectives and risk assessment.

4 Document and test your plan

The fourth step is to document and test your plan, which are crucial for ensuring its effectiveness and accuracy. You should document your plan in a clear and detailed way, covering all the aspects of your backup and recovery process, such as the roles and responsibilities, the procedures and instructions, the tools and equipment, the schedules and frequencies, and the contact information and escalation paths. You should also test your plan regularly and realistically, simulating different scenarios and measuring the results against your recovery objectives and expectations.

5 Monitor and update your plan

The final step is to monitor and update your plan, which are essential for keeping it relevant and functional. You should monitor your plan's performance and outcomes, using tools and metrics that track your backup and recovery activities, such as the backup success rate, the backup size, the backup duration, the recovery success rate, the recovery duration, and the recovery quality. You should also update your plan whenever there are changes or improvements in your network's environment, technology, or business needs.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?