A Disaster Recovery Plan document is in place to ensure the organization has a comprehensive plan in place to recover the application or system in the event of a disaster or disruption, minimizing downtime and data loss.
The following sections should be part of a disaster recovery document.
- Document Information. This section provides essential details about the document, including its purpose, assumptions made during its creation, roles and responsibilities of involved parties, items required for completion, and any related policies or frameworks.
- Introduction offers context for the disaster recovery plan. It may include information about the application or system owner, subject matter experts (SMEs), suppliers, a list of assets involved, dependencies with other applications or systems, and any prerequisites necessary for the plan’s implementation.
- RTO, RPO, and RTC outlines the Recovery Time Objective (RTO), Recovery Point Objective (RPO), and Recovery Time Capability (RTC) for the application or system, defining the maximum acceptable downtime, data loss, and recovery capability.
- Threat Scenarios identifies potential threat scenarios that could disrupt the application or system’s normal operation, including natural disasters, cyber-attacks, hardware failures, etc.
- Detailed Technical Recovery: Describes the technical procedures and steps involved in recovering the application or system after a disaster or disruption, including backup and restoration processes, failover mechanisms, and recovery strategies.
- Post Recovery Validation Tests: Outlines tests to be conducted after the recovery to ensure the system’s functionality and integrity.
- Return to BAU Operation: Describes the process of returning the application or system to normal Business As Usual (BAU) operations post-recovery.
- Appendices. Additional information or supporting materials may be included. In this case, Appendix A likely contains architecture and design diagrams relevant to the application or system’s recovery process.
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