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World Class Operations

Disaster Recovery Planning

Close the gap between your DR capabilities and service continuity requirements.

Common DRP challenges include:

Misalignment with business needs, leading to higher costs or under-provisioning.
Focusing on major disasters, and lacking an appropriate response to less-obvious disasters.
Lack of testing, and therefore lack of confidence in the plan.
No analysis of what’s required to improve recovery times.

Outcome of this workshop:

DR requirements grounded in a business impact analysis.
Incident response procedures for minor to major events.
Gap analysis derived from step-by-step DR walkthrough.
DR technology and process improvement roadmap.

Here's How: 5 Days Custom to you

	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Day 4	Day 5
	DRP Workshop
8 AM	Assess the Current State Identify mission critical applications and current DR challenges. Prioritized list of critical applications. Critical applications and dependencies topology diagrams. Workshop goals/current DR challenges.	Determine Recovery Time Requirements Determine the cost of downtime & corresponding RTOs/RPOs. Strategy for conducting a BIA. Estimated costs of downtime. Recovery objectives (RPOs/RTOs).	Close the Technology Gap Prioritize technology investments required to meet RPOs/RTOs. Risk/impact analysis. DR capability gap analysis. DR technology plan.	Close the Process Gap Modify processes to minimize risk and reduce downtime. Incident response plan. Escalation timeline from event to DR. Process gap analysis.	Validate Technology and Process Changes Use tabletop testing to validate planned technology and process changes. DR technology and process validation. BCP considerations. Action items and scheduled follow-up.
9 AM
10 AM
11 AM
12 PM
1 PM
2 PM
3 PM
4 PM

Disaster Recovery Planning Workshop Primary Deliverables

Communicate your Disaster Recovery Planning to the business with clear visuals

Determine application/system criticality, the business impact of downtime, and corresponding recovery point and recovery time objectives
Document your incident response plan and to monitor the status of each task if the plan is invoked
Determine core technology requirements to help you prioritize what should be done first and create a timeline for implementing changes
Example of severity definitions that include disaster scenarios and escalation times based on system criticality and DR requirements
Collection of the input forms used in this workshop for whiteboard exercises

DR Planning and Monitoring Tool

DR Technology Investments Prioritization Tool

Severity Definitions and Escalation Rules Template

Our Disaster Recovery Planning Executive Advisors

David Piazza Practice Lead David brings over 15 years experience in the technology industry, as both a business leader and a consultant. His background includes developing products and services in the Information Security, HRIS, and IT Services Sectors.

45+ years of IT experience
Industry experience across Devloping, Business Strategy, Security and Consulting.

Karen Ryan Senior Business Transformation Executive Karen has 32 years expertise in developing, and more importantly implementing, business-critical strategies. With extensive experience across multiple industries and particular depth in public sector, her experience also includes the management of large scale business units.

WHY IMPROVE
GET IT DONE IN A WEEK
KEY DELIVERABLES
OUR EXPERTS

Book A Workshop

Our DRP Workshop has one goal: Provide clear, measurable improvements to your current DRP Process.

Each workshop is customized to the existing disaster recovery planning process maturity level and specifics of your company. The first day will involve reviewing the high-level disaster recovery planning process flow to provide context for the workshop.

An overall diagnostic will be performed to identify process gaps and build commitment to the workshop. There will be a scoping discussion before each workshop that results in a customized agenda for the entire workshop.

We use the knowledge of your team and our Experienced Analysts to focus on critical performance issues and find cost-effective, high-impact solutions for quick implementation.

Talk to our Team

Download the Outline

DRP Workshop Outline

Module 1: Assess the Current State
Module 2: Recovery Time Requirements
Module 3: Close the Technology Gap
Module 4: Close the
Process Gap
Module 5: Validate Tech. and Process Changes

Module 1: Assess the Current State

1.1 Identify mission critical business activities and applications	1.2 Identify System Dependencies	1.3 Identify Current DR Capabilities and Challenges

Define criteria for “Mission Critical”	Map mission critical (“Gold”) system dependencies	Understand high availability vs. fast failover vs. restore from backups

Map mission critical business activities	Repeat for a tier 2 (“Silver”) application	Identify organizational DR processes and capabilities

Identify the supporting mission critical applications		Identify DR capabilities for specific mission critical applications

		Identify current DR challenges

Module 2: Determine Recovery Time Requirements

2.1 Understand BIA Goals and Benefits	2.2 Estimate the Business Impact of Downtime	2.3 Define RPOs and RTOs Based on Business Impact

Walk through a BIA example	Determine availability requirements	Understand best practices (e.g., RPO/RTO tiers)

Identify BIA goals and benefits	Estimate costs of downtime (e.g., lost sales, reduced customer confidence, etc.)	Prioritize dependencies that impact data and define RPOs accordingly

Develop a strategy for how to include the executive team in the BIA process	Identify legal/compliance or health/safety impact	Prioritize dependencies based on importance, and define RTOs accordingly

	Compare the BIA for Gold vs. Silver systems, and re-assess criticality	Compare Gold vs. Silver RPOs and RTOs; are they appropriate?

Module 3: Close the Technology Gap

3.1 Use Tabletop Planning to Identify Current DR Gaps	3.2 Identify Risks of Failure in Your Infrastructure	3.3 Create a DR Technology Plan

Review tabletop planning – what is it, and how is it done	Assess risks-of-failure (e.g., identify single points of failure)	Prioritize investments to meet DR gaps and address risk areas

Walk through a DR scenario	Estimate impact of failure (e.g., risk of data loss, or affecting other systems)	Estimate costs

Perform a gap analysis between current and desired RPOs/RTOs	Prioritize risks based on a defined risk tolerance breakpoint	Create an implementation timeline (e.g., a 3-year plan)

Module 4: Close the Process Gap

4.1 Create an Incident Response Plan that Closes Your DR Gaps	4.2 Align Service Management Guidelines with DR Requirements	4.3 Identify Other Process Gaps that Impact Service Continuity

Create a step-by-step plan from assessment to recovery	Bridge the gap between service management and DR for less-obvious disaster scenarios	Minimize risks of downtime by formalizing IT processes

Define criteria and a procedure for restoring normal operations	Update severity definitions and escalation rules to meet DR timeline requirements	Create a plan to address process gaps

Create Emergency Response Teams (ERT)		Focus on usability and maintainability in your process and reference documentation

		Create a formal DRP using Info-Tech’s DRP template (takeaway exercise)

Module 5: Validate Technology and Process Changes

5.1 Use Tabletop Testing to Validate Suggested DR Changes	5.2 Lay the Foundation for Business Continuity Planning	5.3 Workshop Wrap-up

Walk through a DR scenario, assuming process and technology changes have been implemented	Assess existing business continuity capabilities.	Workshop recap and feedback

Perform a gap analysis: are the proposed changes enabling you to meet RPOs/RTOs?	Enable continuity during an IT outage (e.g., modify business processes, etc.)	Assign prioritized action items for process and technology changes

Revise your planned technology and process changes as needed	Identify business continuity risks beyond IT (e.g., suppliers, people, documentation, etc.)	Schedule a 3-month check-in with Info-Tech to review progress and answer follow-up questions

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