IT disaster is not a very common term. Still, the concept is very common and has been dealt with by IT solutions professionals and managed IT service providers for many years. 

Nowadays, the term IT disaster is synonymous with data loss and data breach. However, any kind of mishap that leads to serious problems in the IT infrastructure, software, or data are counted as an IT disaster. This can be natural disasters or man-made disasters.

Objectives of the IT Disaster Recovery Plan

IT disaster recovery is more than just an action plan or a standard operating procedure that is implemented after a disaster. If you are planning for IT disaster recovery, you should keep in mind these four objectives.

• Safe working
• Data protection
• Maximum uptime
• Consistency 

Safe Working

With or without IT integration, a safe work environment is everyone’s right. With the installation of IT infrastructure, you can reduce certain industrial hazards otherwise caused by human negligence, for sure. However, the installation also introduces some additional threats such as electrical hazards, data breaches, data loss, cyber-attacks, and even small-scale physical damage. 

Your plan should take all these into consideration. Then only you can ensure there is a safe working environment even with an IT infrastructure installed. 

Data Protection

Risks related to data are arguably the biggest threat to an IT infrastructure. No matter whether it is a complete loss or losing it in the wrong hands, both are equally disastrous for a data handling system. Especially since the modern world is going in the direction of data-driven decision making including targeted marketing decisions. 

Indeed, all IT systems come out of the box with a certain amount of protection against data threats. However, there should be well-defined action procedures to defend against any kind of data loss in good IT disaster recovery planning. 

Maximum Uptime

Downtimes are a nightmare for any operation. Be it in the production sector or service sector, With or without IT integration, the statement holds true. Especially in IT-integrated systems, uptime is the key factor customers look for. 

If IT integration is helping you to achieve an uninterrupted or close to uninterrupted running of operations, that is an achievement. Ensuring this with well-defined downtime policies is also counted as a part of IT disaster recovery planning.  

Consistency

Uptime is just a factor among many performance indicators of an IT-integrated system. All other performance indicators should be maintained at a consistent level. Even with superior performance at times, inconsistency can turn disastrous for you. 

While planning for IT disaster recovery, policies related to maintaining the consistency of performance indicators should be in place. Also, there should be backup plans according to the industry for which the plan is applied. 

Steps of IT Disaster Recovery Planning

IT disaster recovery is not done in a single shot. Neither can you plan it after the disaster. You need a proactive and forecast approach to have an effective IT disaster recovery to be executed. This involves several steps. 

• Identification of elements with probable threats
• Risk analysis
• Plan for recovery
• Ensure Feasibility & workability
• Quick response

Identification

Carefully list and classify the IT elements in your system. This is necessary to look for the areas where probable threats can arise. This listing of threats should consider all the factors we discussed in the previous section. Identifying the threats and recording them properly will help you to ensure all other steps are done without any missing links. 

Analysis

The list thus prepared will contain all the major and minor threats. Some of them will be more critical than others. Some of them will have more probability of occurring. Considering all these, there should be a thorough analysis done on the listed threats. After this, the threats are classified according to their severity, scale, and probability of occurrence. 

Recovery Plan

Now you have a categorized list of threats. The next step is to plan for the prevention and recovery of the listed threats. There may be more than one option for each of the threats, both for prevention as well as recovery. However, choosing the best one from that is done after the last step. 

Feasibility & Workability

Once the recovery plans are ready, you need to work out the feasibility and workability of those. Then, the most feasible and workable ones should be selected for each IT disaster. These selected plans should be listed and recorded properly. This record is to be shared with the concerned personnel. 

Act Quick

As in any other disaster, acting quickly is necessary for most IT disasters. If you have opted for managed IT services, they should take care of the IT disaster. However, there should be a well-defined communication channel that the managed IT solution provider can act accordingly. 

Relevance of IT Disaster Recovery in Dubai

Dubai is an IT-driven city. Almost every business here is backed by IT. But, when it comes to IT disaster recovery plans, I doubt how developed the city marketplace is. 

If you are running a business in Dubai, you will already be in an IT grid. However, if your IT disaster recovery plans are not in place, it can create huge irreparable damage. You need to make sure your IT service provider is capable of setting up a well-defined IT disaster recovery plan. 

The Role of Managed IT Services in IT Disaster Recovery

Exploring the Significance of Managed IT Services, including IT AMC Services, Provided by Datawave in IT Disaster Recovery, Dubai. Partnering with a managed IT services provider like Datawave is the best way to tackle any probable IT disaster in the future. Having an experienced team to handle the IT side of the business including the IT disaster recovery can ensure worry-free functioning of the entire system.