It is in the nature of disasters that one cannot typically prevent them from occurring. Events such as tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, fire, hurricanes, terrorist attacks and cyber attacks may be unavoidable in theory, but preparation and planning can significantly mitigate their effects.

Every disaster recovery plan ought to factor in as many potential disasters as possible, laying out clear tactics to ensure that critical systems are protected and kept working so that revenue loss is kept to a minimum.

What is a Disaster Recovery Plan?

According to IBM, A disaster recovery plan is “a formal document created by an organization that contains detailed instructions on how to respond to unplanned incidents such as natural disasters, power outages, cyber attacks and any other disruptive events.” Such a plan should encompass strategies on minimizing the effects of a disaster so that an organization can continue to operate, or at least resume operations as quickly as possible.

A good disaster recovery plan should include:

• A statement including an overview and objectives of the plan.
• Contact information for all principal disaster recovery personnel.
• Details concerning emergency and routine response actions to implement before, during and after a disaster. Some of these may be uniform across different disaster types, while others will be specific to the threat(s) at hand.
• Details concerning recovery sites, as well as specific information regarding travel and implementation.
• Details about the organization’s critical business assets and systems.
• A current list of all software, user accounts and license keys that will be used during disaster recovery efforts.
• Technical information from third-party vendors on how to recover their systems in the event of a disaster.
• A summary of any insurance coverage affecting hardware and any aspects of the network, and any requisite insurance organization contacts that should be made.
  
  

A comprehensive (and complete) disaster recovery plan should also establish:

The Recovery Point Objective (RPO): This establishes and conveys to disaster recovery personnel the maximum age of files that must be recovered from a backup source for normal operation to resume.

The Recovery Time Objective (RTO): This establishes and conveys to disaster recovery personnel the maximum time the organization has to recover its files and resume normal operations. Yes, this is a deadline which, if not met, could mean trouble for your organization!

Cost-Effective Disaster Recovery in the AWS Cloud

Amazon Web Services (AWS), the premier purveyor of Cloud-based security infrastructure and services, offers CloudEndure Disaster Recovery to protect critical databases, including Oracle, MySQL, and SQL Server, as well as enterprise applications such as SAP.

In addition to natural disasters that can impact organizations, IT disasters like data center failures, server corruptions, or cyber attacks can not only disrupt your business, but also cause data loss, impact your revenue, and damage your reputation. CloudEndure Disaster Recovery minimizes downtime and data loss by providing fast, reliable recovery of physical, virtual, and cloud-based servers into AWS Cloud, including public regions, AWS GovCloud (US), and AWS Outposts.

CloudEndure Disaster Recovery continuously replicates machines (including operating system, system state configuration, databases, applications, and files) into a low-cost staging area in your organization’s AWS account and preferred Region. In the case of a disaster, CloudEndure Disaster Recovery can be instructed to automatically launch thousands of your machines in their fully provisioned state within minutes after a disaster.

The revolutionary aspect of the CloudEndure paradigm is that by replicating machines in a low-cost staging area and having the ability to launch fully-provisioned machines quickly, CloudEndure Disaster Recovery can significantly reduce the cost of your disaster recovery efforts.