Best practices for testing your disaster recovery plan

Testing a disaster recovery plan is critical to any successful business continuity strategy.

Without regular testing, businesses can’t be certain that in the event of an incident all critical files can be recovered, so to help we’ve compiled some useful tips to help ensure that your organisation benefits from disaster recovery planning.

Set goals and objectives

A successful disaster recovery strategy and testing period starts with the planning. Your organisation should put together a document that describes how the test is going to be completed, who is going to implement it and when it’s going to be completed. You should also describe the goals and objectives you aim to achieve from it.

Incorporate and prepare all relevant technology

The above strategy should include details on all the technology that is to be used in the procedure, in order to test the plan. Examples of technology would include network elements, hardware, applications and databases.

By reviewing this within the planning stage, you can ensure that each component is ready for use. Not only does this ensure a successful testing period by helping to avoid unnecessary costs, but it also sparks the question of ‘if it was unavailable, what would happen if sudden invocation was needed?’

Avoid conflicting schedules

DR tests can often take hours, so you need to schedule them as far in advance as possible, giving fair warning to others within your IT department to ensure that similar tests are also not being run at the same time.

Complete a post-test analysis

After completing the test, you should also include a post-test analysis, reflecting what you’ve learnt. These documents will help to highlight any discrepancies in both planning and implementation, while also acting as a knowledge base moving forward.

For more information on how to create and implement an effective disaster recovery plan contact the team on 03453 888 327 or by emailing enquiries@virtualDCS.co.uk