Does your business have a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP)? If you are asking yourself what a DRP is, then chances are you need to keep reading…

A Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) is a pre-designed systemised document to ensure that access and functionality to your IT infrastructure is restored in the event of a disaster. The main objective of a DRP is to get your system back up and running as quickly as possible with minimised data loss.

So, what types of threats could you plan for? There are obvious natural disasters of course, but a threat could come by way of system failure (similar to what Optus experienced recently), an intentional cyber attack (unfortunately this is becoming increasingly familiar) or human error.

Different types of disasters could include:

• Natural disasters (fire, flood, cyclone, drought, storm)
• Major health and biosecurity events (pandemic, epidemic, pest and animal disease outbreak)
• IT Threat (cyber attack, malware, Ransomware, data centre disaster)
• Emergency (criminal incident, transport disaster, workplace accidents, loss of power and communication, system failures)
• Human (negative reputation incident, human error, staffing incident)

When disaster strikes, it is usually without warning, therefore, a DRP will need to be set up prior. Unless you have your crystal ball handy, we suggest that you start making arrangements to complete your own DRP immediately. To ensure that you have everything covered in your DRP, we have created a checklist for you, check it out here.

Our intention is not to scare you or make you anxious about areas of our life that we can not control, rather we prefer to direct you to what you can control, and a DRP is a great tool to have in your tool belt.

We at Lux, believe that Managed Private cloud-based solutions are the way of the future. Not only do they safeguard your business against physical disasters damaging your information hubs, like a server being damaged in a fire or flood. Managed Private Cloud-based solutions enable you to enjoy flexibility when it comes to your work environment without compromising on efficiencies and systems. Access to central documents and workplace programs is possible regardless of your geographical location. Should a disaster occur, a swift, nimble response is critical to reduce data loss and, maintain productivity and customer service and minimise deputation damage which could lead to a downturn in customers and revenue.

Here are some steps we suggest you can take as part of setting up your DRP.

• Keep an accurate inventory of your hardware and software
• Ensure that your systems are secure
• Run regular backup checks (set these in your calendar as a monthly reminder)