Disaster recovery, also known as DR, refers to the methods that organizations use to regain access to their IT infrastructure and retain its functionality when any disaster strikes, such as natural calamities, cyber attacks etc. There are a variety of methods for disaster recovery, which can form a disaster recovery plan. A disaster recovery plan consists of a structured approach of documentation and it enables organizations to recover from the aftermath of untoward situations and aids them in resuming work without losing their valuable time and productivity. Disaster recovery is essential for ensuring data safety, resolving issues related to data loss, recovering system functionality, and for maintaining business continuity. It aims at minimizing the effects of disasters and enables organizations to quickly resume the operation of their mission-critical functions.
Some of the types of disasters that an organization needs to remain prepared for, include disasters that affect its site (data center, buildings, campuses, etc.) city, region, nation and even multinational disasters along with application failure and communication failure.
Disaster recovery acts by replicating data and maintaining that data in an off-premises location. It also replicates computer processing. In the event that the functioning of servers is impaired because of a natural disaster or a cyber attack or equipment failure, its data can be recovered from that off-premises location where the data’s backup is maintained safely. Organizations have the option to transfer their computer processing to a remote location for continuing operations.
Certain factors should be considered by organizations when deciding upon the most effective disaster recovery strategy. These factors include but are not limited to, the organization’s budget, insurance coverage, technology, suppliers, data, resources and compliance requirements.
Benefits of Disaster Recovery
The main benefits that can be reaped from an effective and reliable disaster recovery plan are mentioned below.
Limits losses
Drastically reduces restore times
Significantly lowers RTO (Recovery Time Objective) and RPO (Recovery Point Objective)
Ensures that an organization’s reputation doesn’t get tarnished
Minimizes the interruption in critical processes
Safeguards business operations
Resumption of operation happens in a controlled manner through a well-defined process
Little to no impact on performance
The ability to monitor, control and customize one’s disaster recovery solutions
Various Types of DR
There are various types of disaster recovery solutions that an organization can choose from and implement. Since each organization is different, it needs to take stock of its budget, resources and other factors prior to determining the most effective disaster recovery solution.
The main types of DR include the following or a combination of the following-
Backup- Backup is one of the simplest ways to ensure disaster recovery. In it, data is stored off site or on a removable drive. It is not an ideal option for DR because backing up data aids very insignificantly in business continuity as there is no backup of the IT infrastructure.
Backup as a Service (BaaS) - In Backup as a Service, a third party provider delivers the service of backing up an organization’s data. It doesn’t backup the organization’s IT infrastructure.
Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) – DRaaS is essentially a service model for cloud computing, which enables an organization to back up its data as well as its IT infrastructure in the cloud computing environment of a third party. It delivers all the disaster recovery orchestration through a SaaS solution for regaining access to and the functionality of the IT infrastructure, post a disaster.
Hot Site- A Hot Site DR involves a backup site that is fully functional and which already has critical data mirrored to it. An identical facility is created in a remote location in a Hot Site DR plan. It offers an ideal DR site, despite being challenging to attain.
Cold Site- Cold Site DR is similar to Hot Site DR but it provides lesser functionality at a lesser cost. It is one of the simplest types of DRs. A cold site has elements that provide power and networking capability along with cooling but it does not include servers and storage. Before using it, backup data needs to be sent to the site along with certain hardware, which are required to be installed. Unlike hot sites, cold sites are not actively ready.
Data Center Disaster Recovery- In this type of DR, the DR plan takes into account not only the computing facility but also the site/building and the tools within the building.
Virtualization- Virtualization does away with the need for reconstructing a physical server, when there is a disaster. It enables the attainment of the targeted RTO easily by ensuring that a virtual server is placed in reserve capacity on the cloud.
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