How do you assess and prioritize the risks and impacts of a database disaster on your business?

1 Assess the risks

The first step in creating a database disaster recovery plan is to identify and assess the potential risks and impacts of a database disaster on your business. You need to consider the likelihood and severity of different scenarios, such as data loss, data corruption, data breach, data unavailability, or data inconsistency. You also need to evaluate the impact of these scenarios on your business operations, reputation, revenue, compliance, and customer satisfaction. By assessing the risks, you can prioritize the most critical databases and the most urgent recovery objectives.

3 Choose the strategy

The third step in creating a database disaster recovery plan is to choose the best strategy for achieving your recovery objectives. There are different types of database disaster recovery strategies, such as backup and restore, replication, mirroring, clustering, or cloud-based solutions. Each strategy has its own advantages and disadvantages, depending on the cost, complexity, performance, availability, and scalability. You need to weigh the pros and cons of each strategy and select the one that suits your needs and budget.

4 Implement the plan

The fourth step in creating a database disaster recovery plan is to implement the chosen strategy and test it regularly. You need to ensure that your backup and recovery systems are reliable, secure, and up to date. You also need to document your plan and procedures, and train your staff on how to execute them in case of a disaster. You should also conduct periodic drills and simulations to verify that your plan works as expected and to identify and fix any issues or gaps.

5 Monitor and update

The fifth step in creating a database disaster recovery plan is to monitor and update your plan and strategy as your business and environment change. You need to keep track of the performance and availability of your databases, as well as any new threats or vulnerabilities that may affect them. You also need to review and revise your plan and strategy based on the feedback and lessons learned from your tests and drills, or from any actual disasters that may occur. By monitoring and updating your plan and strategy, you can ensure that they remain effective and relevant.