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When it comes to disaster recovery planning, the people you have on the ground and behind the scenes are as important as the plan itself. Backup and disaster recovery after an emergency depends on a highly focused, accurate, and lightning-fast response. For this reason, your disaster recovery team needs to be ready to implement all the steps required for your organization to be functional as soon as possible.
Partnering with an expert in disaster recovery services is the best way to create the most effective team possible. Experienced disaster recovery service providers like DartPoints know the intricate procedures for establishing an airtight BCDR plan. They can also help identify gaps or missing links that could lead to larger issues, regardless of when or how a disaster strikes.
However, even before you connect with a disaster recovery as a service expert, there are steps you can take toward forming and training your disaster recovery team, as well as mapping out your overall disaster recovery plan.
What is a disaster recovery team?
A disaster recovery team is responsible for creating, testing, and maintaining an organization’s in-depth disaster recovery plan, and implementing all its aspects if an emergency arises.
The optimal disaster recovery team members and their roles
A disaster recovery team should essentially be multi-faceted and include multiple, diverse specialists from both your organization and your disaster recovery as a service provider.
These individual roles can (and should) include the following.
Disaster Recovery Team Leader
The team leader has the most critical role in disaster recovery and backup operations and oversees coordinating all efforts to recover critical systems, maintain operations, and communicate with other team members and the public.
While the plan is being developed, they are typically the point person for prioritization. In other words, they will take the lead when it comes to identifying the critical systems and data that need to be protected. They will also take the initiative to bring the system back online when a disaster strikes, as well as determine what steps need to be taken, and in what order.
An executive manager (or other decision-maker in an organization) can tackle this role with behind-the-scenes assistance from a disaster recovery services provider. The outsourced disaster recovery team of experts augments the team leader’s planning and decisions. In addition, they can also ensure that the coordinated recovery efforts are quickly executed to perfection, if (or when) they are needed.
Note that a deputy team leader or an assistant team leader should also be enlisted if the primary leader is unavailable during the recovery process.
Communications Specialist
When an organization faces a disaster, whether it’s a natural disaster like a hurricane or tornado, or manmade, like a data breach or cyberattack, the impact is widespread. These events affect the organization, many people, and other businesses.
This essentially includes employees, but it also includes consumers, business partners, and any organization or individual connected to a business’s operations and supply chain.
As such, there should be a point person to manage all communications and keep all parties affected up to date on what’s happening and what comes next. This position entails formulating varying responses based on the disaster and the people affected. It is also important to establish multiple means of communication, in case some systems – like emails or phone lines – are impacted.
IT Expert and Coordinator
The IT expert and coordinator role is critical, and this person will be responsible for getting all systems back online, retrieving crucial data and backups, and ensuring that all of an organization’s IT infrastructure is as secure and continually operational. This team member will work closely with the disaster recovery services provider on a routine basis as disaster recovery plans are developed and maintained, and proactive backup initiatives are constantly happening behind the scenes.
Business continuity expert
One of the primary goals of disaster recovery planning is ensuring business continuity because downtime can result in substantial financial and reputational loss. This team member should have expertise in IT (or be intricately connected to the disaster recovery services provider). They should also be able think about complex systems of communication, data, and all the internal infrastructure that allows an organization to operate and function day-to-day.
Additional Critical Roles in Disaster Recovery
A strong team has members who focus on other minor roles and tasks. These include proactive team members who check IT systems and infrastructure to look for weak links before a disaster strikes, in order to avoid a worst-case scenario. An organization will also likely want to deploy a statistical specialist to help determine the likelihood of a disaster, and how it may impact its bottom line.
IT, accounting, and communications experts will all be valuable assets if an emergency arises, and the clock is ticking. After a disaster strikes, having additional experts in these fields on hand will also come in handy to assess the effectiveness of the disaster response. These experts will also identify any protection measures to safeguard an organization.
Secure Your Business with a Custom BCDR Plan
Launching a disaster recovery and backup plan is not a simple venture that can be accomplished with one or two in-house team members. Instead, to work, it takes a village of voices and specialists to ensure that there aren’t any holes or missteps that will lead to a higher likelihood of an emergency (like a data breach) or a slowed-down or issue-riddled response.
This is why your disaster recovery planning should start with a conversation with our DartPoints backup and recovery experts.
Disaster Recovery Planning is Effective with our Experts by Your Side
You need an objective team of experts to ensure your disaster recovery plan accounts for all risks and emergencies. Our expert team will help you get your business back up and running as soon as possible.
Start today with a consultation to learn more about protecting your business. Together, we can craft and execute a backup and disaster recovery plan to ensure peace of mind and uninterrupted business continuity, no matter how and when disaster strikes.
Contact us today to get started on securing your business’s future.