Best Practices for Disaster Recovery Planning
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As part of the “Best Practices” series by Uplatz
Welcome to the continuity-first edition of the Uplatz Best Practices series — where businesses plan not if disaster strikes, but when.
Today’s focus: Disaster Recovery (DR) Planning — ensuring that your systems, data, and operations can bounce back fast from any disruption.
🌪️ What is Disaster Recovery?
Disaster Recovery refers to the strategies, processes, and tools that help restore IT systems, data, and operations after major incidents — such as cyberattacks, hardware failure, natural disasters, or human error.
DR is part of a broader Business Continuity Plan (BCP) and includes:
- Backup systems
- Failover mechanisms
- Incident response playbooks
- Testing and validation frameworks
✅ Best Practices for Disaster Recovery Planning
Failing to plan = planning to fail. Here’s how to build a rock-solid DR plan that minimizes downtime and data loss:
1. Define Recovery Objectives (RTO & RPO)
📏 RTO (Recovery Time Objective) – Max acceptable downtime
📦 RPO (Recovery Point Objective) – Max acceptable data loss
📊 Tailor RTO/RPO by system criticality (e.g., finance vs. dev)
2. Classify and Prioritize Systems
🧭 Inventory All Applications and Services
🏷️ Rank by Business Impact and Dependencies
⚠️ Focus DR Resources on Tier-1 Systems First
3. Implement Offsite, Automated Backups
📤 Use Encrypted Cloud Backups or Remote Replication
📅 Schedule Daily or Incremental Snapshots
✅ Test Backup Restoration Frequently
4. Choose the Right DR Strategy
🛠️ Backup & Restore (low-cost, slower)
🟡 Pilot Light (minimal infra runs, fast scale-up)
🟢 Warm Standby (scaled-down duplicate infra)
🔁 Active-Active (high-cost, near-instant failover)
5. Document Disaster Recovery Runbooks
📘 Step-by-Step Guides for Failing Over and Restoring Systems
🔧 Include Responsible Teams, Tooling, and Contact Info
🛑 Cover Worst-Case Scenarios: Datacenter Outage, Ransomware, DB Corruption
6. Automate Failover and Orchestration
🤖 Use Cloud Services (AWS Route 53, Azure Site Recovery, GCP DR)
🔄 Auto-Reroute DNS and Rehydrate Systems Based on Health Checks
📦 Script Infrastructure-as-Code (Terraform, CloudFormation) to Speed Recovery
7. Secure Your DR Assets
🔐 Ensure DR Data is Encrypted and Access is Audited
🚪 Restrict Access With MFA and RBAC
📋 Monitor for Unauthorized Modifications to Backups or DR Configs
8. Test DR Plans Regularly
🧪 Run Tabletop Exercises and Full Failover Drills
📉 Measure Time to Recovery and Identify Gaps
📅 Test Quarterly or After Major Infra/Team Changes
9. Keep DR Plans Up to Date
📄 Version-Control All DR Docs and Scripts
🔁 Update Configs, Contacts, and Dependencies Frequently
🛠️ Integrate DR Into Change Management Processes
10. Train Teams for Crisis Response
👥 Run DR Onboarding for New Engineers
📣 Assign DR Champions per Function
📱 Ensure Communication Channels and Escalation Paths Are Well-Known
💡 Bonus Tip by Uplatz
Your DR plan is only as good as your last test.
Build muscle memory now — so you don’t panic during a real disaster.
🔁 Follow Uplatz to get more best practices in upcoming posts:
- Business Continuity Planning (BCP)
- Ransomware Recovery Strategies
- Resilient Cloud Architectures
- Real-Time Replication Tools (e.g., Veeam, Zerto, AWS DMS)
- Air-Gapped and Immutable Backup Techniques
…and more on resilience, compliance, and recovery readiness.