Importance of Backup and Disaster Recovery Plan for Business Continuity

Purpose of Backup and Disaster Recovery Plan
Introduction
The primary purpose of the study made in this research paper on backup and disaster
recovery plan is to analyze the problems that an organization may face when implementing the
backup and disaster recovery plan and also look at the importance of the idea in a company. In
this paper, we discuss various companies that have either failed or succeeded as a result of the
recovery plan. The paper aims at realizing the different measures that a business may take when
faced with an unpredicted technological failure (Ferringer & Mcdonough, 2011). We learn how
different companies may minimize the impacts of a technical failure if or when it occurs.
To have an excellent ensemble of data backup plan, disaster recovery and planning, and
proper business continuity planning, a lot of factors need to be considered. In this paper, I shall
be examining all these factors mentioned above while describing and identifying their elements.
First and foremost data needs to be classified when putting in place a backup strategy, it is
essential to consider that not all available information is deemed to be crucial or has value to a
business. In other to have an efficient approach, data needs to be grouped into various classes in
order of importance to the company.
Another factor that needs to be considered is that once classification of data is achieved,
according to David Brown (2013) it is crucial to develop a recovery point objective (RPO) with a
recovery time objective (RTO) for each data classification, and this will determine frequency,
extent, and method by which data should be backed up. Also, this will help to determine what
data needs to be secured and the importance of such data to the business and how often a restore
command needs to be carried out, or for what duration the data needs to be retained for. As

technology continues to develop and the scope getting broader it is important to remember to
keep secured all business or personal mobile devices connected to an organization, items such as
contacts, e-mails, spreadsheets and other information contained on these devices may create an
imminent danger on the form of vulnerability if policies are not put in place to protect them,
according to David Brown (2013) “No longer does the loss or failure of a device simply mean
that only a couple of phone numbers have to be reentered into the new phone; critical data can be
lost!” An organization needs to develop a strategy to support its method of operation, as various
data sets which it handles may differ, as this will help to determine what needs to be
continuously protected so the business can rationalize between older, less valuable data about the
cost of defending it. Also the organization needs to set up a formidable team that will be charged
with the responsibility of a successful handling of all system processes, once this achieved the
next step will be to secure the data wherever it is situated, which may range from being in the
cloud offsite or on a disc, from those who do not need access to it in a physical and logical way.
It is also recommended that test restores need to be carried out from time to time, as
performing this function will help to determine if the method works well for the business, which
paves the way for the next line of action for process improvement, with this in mind it is
essential to keep track of all activities with a thorough documentation of what was done or
implemented so as to remain in compliance with both internal and external audit requirements.
Backup strategies need to be reviewed from time to time as this will help in minimizing risks, all
unwanted data or obsolete data should be disposed of according to laid out policies.

Methodology
After identifying the topic of discussion in this research paper, the primary purpose and
objective of the article and the central questions that arise from the assessment of the material, it
was now time to take action and collect data. Collection of data is a methodology that is used to
measure, gather and assemble information from different sources to get information of the
intended research topic of a particular project. In our case, the research project topic is backup
and disaster recovery plan (Kaaland & Lokey, 2014). Collection of data enables an individual to
provide answers to questions that may come up from the research. It also helps in the evaluation
of the outcomes of the investigation.
There is two dominant type of data collection which includes primary data collection and
secondary data collection. In this particular research paper, the kind of data collection approach
is the secondary data collection where the researcher does not obtain information first hand, but
on the other hand, the researcher receives information from sources created by other researchers.
Data was collected from articles, journals and other companies’ websites where relevant
information concerning our topic on backup and disaster recovery plan was retrieved. Data from
some of the big companies were also collected where we analyzed some of the failures and
successes of the companies ("Information Technology Disaster Recovery Plan," 2015).
Business continuity planning (BCP) is a plan for how an organization will recover and
restore partially or completely interrupted critical functions within a predetermined time after a
disaster or extended disruption. It is of note that when business is disturbed, it could cost money
a lot of money; this is why a plan or policy needs to be in place as a guide on what needs to be
done in case of an emergency or adverse events. As earlier said, an incident management team
needs to be assembled as soon as an event occurs.