Plan disaster recovery

A disaster recovery plan (DRP) is a set of procedures to protect and recover an IT infrastructure in case of a disaster. It contains the procedures to follow before, during and after a disaster. Disasters can be natural, environmental or human-made (intentional or unintentional).

A DRP is essential for continued availability of the ICS, and should cover the following:

• When the DRP should be activated depending upon an event, its duration and its severity.

• Detailed course of action for operating the ICS manually until external connections are secured.

• Personnel responsible for each procedure.

• Processes for securely backing up data and restoring it. This should cover:

  • Requirements for building redundancy.

  • File backup procedures.

  • Frequency of backups.

  • Storage mechanism for full and incremental backups.

  • Safe storage of installation media, license keys and configuration information.

  • List of individuals responsible for performing, testing, maintaining and restoring backups.

• List of personnel with physical and virtual access to the ICS.

• Detailed configuration information about the components of the ICS.

• Schedule for testing the DRP.