Intelligent CIO North America Issue 29 | Page 45

CIO OPINION prepared , consider these three components that the best DR strategies should incorporate :
1 . Agreement among stakeholders
DR needs for one organization won ’ t necessarily match another ’ s . It ’ s a sad but true fact that not every company can pay what it costs to onboard the best tech on the market to safeguard their IT installation . That said , there ’ s no reason to have your budget allocation be a random guess . Instead , the decision should be guided by how damaging you expect downtime events would be to your teams .
If you think through these two questions , it can help you gain an understanding of what ’ s needed from a cost perspective :
• When a downtime event happens , what are the costs to your company ? This reckoning should include the financial impact that your company suffers from lost revenue , as well as the usability impact on your end-users
• If a catastrophic downtime event occurs , what ’ s the worst possible impact you ’ ll accept ? This is an upsetting question to ponder , but if your company doesn ’ t have an infinite budget , then it ’ s important to consider this . Knowing what you ’ ll accept will help your organization determine the technology it will need to ensure the correct level of disasterpreparedness that all of your stakeholders agree is essential
Once your teams have thoroughly researched and vetted these questions , the next step is to align expectations throughout all levels of your organization . As Gartner states , you must “ ensure that DR planning is done in alignment with Business Continuity management ( not in an IT-only vacuum ).” If you can ensure that all stakeholders have agreed on exactly what your company ’ s unique disaster readiness needs are , then it can make a challenging process more streamlined when it comes to budget allotment and solution identification .
2 . Strong documentation that includes role assignment
When you initially respond to an outage , you don ’ t want to be synthesizing your recovery plan on the fly . Instead , you need to be ready for the moment that you find yourself in a Disaster Recovery situation . The best way to prepare is to create , in advance , a meticulously detailed recovery plan that includes clear role
Companies that want to protect their critical data assets are stuck leveraging a panoply of DR solutions , each with a unique set of management nuances and restrictions .
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