IT Disaster Recovery Planning For Dummies®

Chapter 16. Ten Essentials for Disaster Planning Success

You need to understand many factors that lead to a successful project and disaster recovery plan before you begin a DR project. I start with executive sponsorship, which is probably the most vital factor. Then I cover other up-front formalities so your organization can understand the level of effort you need from the DR planning team to complete a successful DR project.

Executive Sponsorship

As go its leaders, so goes the organization.

An organization undertakes disaster recovery planning because company shareholders want the organization to survive through difficult times, including disasters that threaten its very existence. A DR project needs executive sponsorship in two key areas:

• Prioritization of key subject matter experts: Disaster recovery planning requires the best and brightest minds in the organization. You need the employees who are the most familiar with business operations to perform the Business Impact Analysis and risk analysis, as well as develop disaster recovery procedures. They also need to perform walkthroughs, simulations, and parallel/cutover testing.

  Without executive sponsorship, these individuals are pulled in too many directions at the same time, which can threaten to stall the entire effort.

• Spending priorities: You need executive sponsorship to ensure that you can improve IT systems to support established Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs). You may need significant investments ...