Fine-Tuning Your Disaster
Recovery Plan for 2017

Developing a disaster recovery plan is necessary for any business hoping to maintain seamless information access. It’s also hard work. As a result, many companies view the process as a one-time exercise. But in order for your disaster recovery plan to be effective, it needs an annual check-up. Here are several ways to fine-tune your disaster recovery plan for 2017.

Safeguarding Backup Data

Start fine-tuning your disaster recovery plan by protecting your backup data. Storing tapes on-site won’t do you any good if the hardware and systems at your facility are out of commission. With a media storage service your backup media is transferred to a climate-controlled media vault on a scheduled basis. The vault protects your IT system backups with the following technology:

• Heat resistant panels
• Self-contained climate-controlled monitoring
• Class 125, 2-hour rated fire protection
• Non water-based fire suppression
• Controlled and monitored access

Should your business experience unexpected data loss, screened data protection professionals immediately retrieve your tapes and deliver them to your designated hot site.

Hardcopy Protection

When fine-tuning your disaster recovery plan, don’t forget about paper documents and files; they’re just as valuable as your digital data and equally susceptible to disaster. Unfortunately, for many organizations protecting hard copy information is an afterthought. Don’t be one of them. Follow disaster recovery best practices by storing vital business records off-site. These records may include:

• contracts
• tax files
• employee records
• marketing and sales documents

Make sure the storage facility protects your records from fire and water damage. Besides being built to withstand natural disasters, it should feature flood sensors and fire detection and suppression technology.

Verify that your records storage provider offers an inventory management system. Seamless document access minimizes downtime during disasters. With barcode tracking you can retrieve documents quickly to further support your disaster recovery plan.

Testing and Verification

Your job doesn’t end after your disaster recovery plan is updated. Your revised strategy may not be as effective two years from now. Technology and staff may change and your information management needs can grow. As a result, fine tuning your disaster recovery plan should be an ongoing process.

At least once a year, schedule testing of your plan to make sure implemented processes really work. Verify your entire system from failure through recovery so you’re not caught off guard during an actual outage. Doing so will help your business respond effectively to unexpected crises.

With 2017 quickly approaching, there’s no better time than now to fine-tune your disaster recovery plan.

River Mill Data Management provides records storage, data protection and NAID AAA-Certified shredding and destruction services to businesses in Central and South Georgia, as well as select counties in eastern Alabama. For more information, please contact us by phone or complete the form on this page.