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BCP/DRP Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plan
Along with the rapid growth in the quantity and the importance of data handled by an organization, grows the acknowledgment in the organization’s need to prepare a disaster recovery plan.
The plan should give the organization the ability to continue to function on a reasonable level once it suffers from any kind of damage. The plan should encompass the computer systems in particular as well as any other general system.
In addition to the obvious need of any organization to maintain its reputation as an organization able to store sensitive information and supply its customers with an ongoing service, an additional factor which promotes the issue of Business Continuity Plan - BCP has become a new requirement.
The BCP plan
A BCP plan contains several basic phases which should be performed under cooperation with the organizations contact person. An important factor in the successful operation of these stages is the organization’s ability to maintain a level of transparency of the transferred information as well as the information’s reliability and level of detail. These phases are the determining factor for the success of the plan.
The phases in building the plan are:
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Gathering information on the software and hardware systems existing in the organization.
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Mapping the kinds of organizational data according to its importance, sensitivity and required availability.
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Examining the backup process existing in the organization, from backup on storage medium to a full synchronization with an external site.
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Defining the kinds of emergency scenarios which the organization can prepare, from the easy ones to the most serious.
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Writing a file for the Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) which defines the actions needed to be taken in the event of a disaster, who is responsible for what and the way the event will be managed. This plan will outline, in a central and organized manner, the way the organization will function at the time of an emergency event.
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Data analyzing and finding a technological and logistic solution for the organization’s preparations towards an emergency situation according to the emergency regulations outlined by the technical and operational teams, and approved by the organization’s management.
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Setting, installing and operating the technological solution.
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Performance of emergency exercises from time to time, to evaluate the organization’s ability to activate the DRP.
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Ongoing update of the DRP with the installation of every new system, and observing that the survival ability of every new system, which becomes operational in the organization, is checked during the stage of its testing in the checkups array.
Avnet Information Systems, Security & Risk Management supplies a comprehensive solution is this area and has vast experience in planning, developing, supervising and testing the organizational DRP processes and in the setting and maintaining phases required in a variety of organizations in all sectors of the economy.
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