Best Practices for Disaster Recovery Planning

Posted on by uplatzblog

Best Practices for Disaster Recovery Planning

  • 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.