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Welcome to this new edition of the SOLIDWORKS Support Monthly News, co-authored by members of the SOLIDWORKS Technical Support teams worldwide.

Key Areas to Consider When Designing a Disaster Recovery Plan for a Business IT Infrastructure

By Tim Kwong

Restoring data and applications on other servers are routine tasks that most companies can perform in a matter of minutes or hours. But what happens when it is not possible to obtain the necessary hardware, infrastructure, and personnel to restore the data and applications? Trying to come up and execute a recovery plan after disaster hits can seriously affect the health of a company and the ability to stay in business. The survival of company is dependent on how fast it can bounce back from a disaster.

All companies need to plan, invest, and implement a disaster recovery strategy for their business-critical data and applications. Below highlights key areas that should be considered when formulating a disaster recovery and response plan.

Key Areas:

• Upper Management: Must have full support and commitment from upper management or owner. It is difficult for any individual or IT department to successfully accomplish this critical and often forgotten aspect of business operation, especially for small businesses.
• Stakeholders: Identify internal departments and data needed to get the company going after a disaster strikes. Engage with the department stakeholders and understand what they are the critical elements for them to have the business running.
• Existing Plans: Collect and review any existing recovery plans. If plans exist, they may be able to just update and merge them.
• Risk Assessment: Understand current operation which includes facility, infrastructure, and key components of the business.
• Facility: Consider building location and accessibility. It is possible the building is not accessible or destroyed.
• Infrastructure and Hardware: Understand utility and network/Internet availability and options to switch to secondary sources such as co-hosting location or branch office. Ensure standby hardware has the capacity to handle the workload.
• Key Personnel: Create an emergency response team. The team will responsible for executing the plan when called upon.
• Training: Determine and provide the training needed for the response team. Also, there is a need to cross-train people on different areas so there is built-in redundancy in the team.
• Resources: Ensure the response team has the proper resources to execute the plan.
• Testing: Periodic testing ensure everyone knows their responsibility when the disaster hits.