Modeen Malick, Principal Systems Engineer at Commvault

It is not a revelation that in today's data-driven world, where information is the lifeblood of businesses, the significance of a robust disaster recovery plan has never been greater. 

With the spectre of natural disasters, technical glitches, human errors, data breaches, and ransomware attacks constantly looming, the ability to shield and rapidly restore data with minimal disruption has become a critical imperative. 

However, there are some important considerations if you want your business to reach a state of recovery readiness.

Crafting a resilient strategy

To achieve recovery readiness for organisations, there are five essential foundation steps to follow:

1. Create a disaster recovery plan: Establishing a well-defined disaster recovery strategy forms the cornerstone for swiftly restoring regular operations in the aftermath of a crisis.
2. Protect: Strengthen resiliency and security by implementing multiple layers of infrastructure protection and controls. This involves employing advanced tools, adhering to policies, and following guidelines to bolster overall preparedness.
3. Monitor your environment: Exercise intelligent data management through a unified interface to ensure continuous data availability and uninterrupted business processes, both within on-premises and cloud environments.
4. Restore your data: Execute rapid data restoration using a secure and uncorrupted data copy. This ensures a prompt return to standard business functions while minimizing disruption.
5. Test your plan: Regularly assess and validate your recovery plan's effectiveness to ensure alignment with defined Service Level Agreements (SLAs) for critical data and applications. This ongoing verification guarantees a high level of readiness and responsiveness.

Harnessing technology for defence

At the heart of modern disaster recovery solutions lies cutting-edge technology, with Artificial Intelligence (AI) taking centre stage. 

This advanced AI-driven technology assumes a pivotal role in deciphering the vast volume of data generated from a myriad of interactions, backups, and restoration processes.

Through its intricate analysis, the software extracts valuable performance insights and identifies emerging trends, subsequently enabling the automation and optimisation of critical IT processes. 

Leveraging the power of AI, the placement of data is seamlessly automated in precise accordance with established SLAs and consumption patterns. This synergistic approach not only enhances storage efficiency but also bolsters the safeguarding of sensitive data, underscoring its indispensable value in today's intricate digital landscape.

The arsenal of proactive measures also encompasses formidable tools such as active defence technology and cyber deception strategies. These innovative tactics provide businesses with invaluable time to fortify their defences by deftly redirecting potential attackers towards decoy assets, effectively diffusing threats. 

Complementing this protection architecture is the implementation of malware scans across backup content files, introducing an additional layer of robust preventative security. 

This comprehensive amalgamation of cutting-edge AI technology and proactive defence mechanisms serves to elevate the resilience of disaster recovery solutions, rendering them exceptionally adaptable and potent in countering the evolving array of modern cyber challenges.

Trust in cloud-based recovery

In the sphere of cloud-based disaster recovery, meticulous planning is the cornerstone of success. Immovability stands as a cornerstone principle, fortified by an array of security controls, encryption protocols, and native ransomware protection mechanisms. 

However, the true star in this domain is offsite data replication, which introduces extra layers of protection beyond the innate cyber resilience controls. 

Through strategic partnerships with major cloud storage providers, this approach gains further traction. Storage-level immutability is invoked, effectively locking data storage containers from any tampering or deletion within a carefully defined immutability window.

Adapting and staying prepared

Navigating the unpredictable waters of disaster recovery demands a continuous commitment to maintaining and testing recovery plans. Guided by a comprehensive four-step framework, this process includes stakeholder identification, critical asset comprehension, tabletop exercises, and post-mortem analysis. 

This cycle of iteration makes sure that tactics are improved over time and readiness is steadily strengthened. It fosters a continual process of flexibility and attentiveness, enabling organizations to develop in tandem with new dangers and difficulties.

In the ever-changing landscape

As the digital landscape continues to evolve, data protection and recovery are intrinsically linked to cutting-edge technology. A comprehensive strategy, characterised by simplicity, adaptability, and cost-effectiveness, emerges as a rallying call for organisations to safeguard their most precious asset which is data. 

In an era where the digital horizon is constantly reshaped by emerging threats, this counsel urges organisations to stand steadfast – to confront adversities, champion resilience, and preserve the very essence of our digital age.