Free DR/BC Planning Templates from SearchDisasterRecovery

[Pages:29]Free DR/BC Planning Templates from

Check out our best resources on disaster recovery and business continuity templates that will help make your

disaster recovery planning process easier.

Contents

Introduction: Using Business Continuity Templates for Disaster Recovery

Business Impact Analysis (BIA) Template

IT Disaster Recovery (DR) Plan Template

A Disaster Recovery Budget Template

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Testing Template

Data Center Disaster Recovery Plan Template

Disaster Recovery Facilities Assessment Template

IT Risk Assessment Template

Contents Introduction: Using Business Continuity Templates for Disaster Recovery ..............................................................................................Page 2 Business Impact Analysis (BIA) Template.......................................Page 4 IT Disaster Recovery (DR) Plan Template.......................................Page 7 A Disaster Recovery Budget Template..........................................Page 11 Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Testing Template...........Page 11 Data Center Disaster Recovery Plan Template..............................Page 15 Disaster Recovery Facilities Assessment Template........................Page 20 IT Risk Assessment Template....................................................Page 22

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Contents

Introduction: Using Business Continuity Templates for Disaster Recovery

Business Impact Analysis (BIA) Template

IT Disaster Recovery (DR) Plan Template

A Disaster Recovery Budget Template

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Testing Template

Data Center Disaster Recovery Plan Template

Disaster Recovery Facilities Assessment Template

IT Risk Assessment Template

Getting Started: Using Business Continuity Templates for Disaster Recovery

When it comes to formulating and documenting business continuity (BC) and disaster recovery (DR) plans, it's necessary to expend a significant amount of time and effort. One potential way to ease this burden is to acquire document templates to help guide you through this process, which provide ready-made formats, layouts and containers for the various types of information you'll need to assemble and record during that process.

Business continuity templates can help for everything from risk assessment - where they'll help you catalog and evaluate assets, assign values, calculate exposure factors and single loss expectancies, determine annual rates of exposure and annualized loss expectancies -- to mapping out the details needed in disaster recovery plans -- such as key contacts information, stepby-step service resumption activities, delivery and recovery from off-site backups and more.

As you work through business continuity templates, however, don't forget to think outside the box. That is, you'll want to make sure you've covered everything that's relevant to your organization's disaster recovery or business continuity efforts, rather than just following somebody's blueprint unthinkingly. That's why a good shakedown from a recovery practice drill is so important to vetting all such plans, whether they derive from a template or not.

There are countless commercial sources for ready-to-use disaster recovery and business continuity templates, which will cost you anywhere from $100 to $400 and up. Here are some popular items in this category:

The Disaster Recovery Shop -- The Disaster Recovery Toolkit: Various questionnaires for contingency and disaster recovery plans, dependency analysis documents, frameworks and checklists for DRP, and a business impact analysis (BIA) questionnaire, along with RTF and PDF source documents (templates).

Disaster Recovery Guide - BCP Generator tool: includes a how-to manual and a complete set of MS Word templates ($199)

Express BCP - Business Continuity Plan package: includes a Microsoft Word template, a learning guide, and 12 months of postpurchase support from expert DR/BC planning consultants

Specialty training and consulting companies, such as Supremus Group and others, also offer a broad range of templates for everything from BIA, to data backup and application recovery plans, to full-fledged disaster recovery and

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Contents

Introduction: Using Business Continuity Templates for Disaster Recovery

Business Impact Analysis (BIA) Template

IT Disaster Recovery (DR) Plan Template

A Disaster Recovery Budget Template

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Testing Template

Data Center Disaster Recovery Plan Template

Disaster Recovery Facilities Assessment Template

IT Risk Assessment Template

business continuity planning tools and templates, priced from under $100 to a complete kit for $1,200.

Another viable source for disaster recovery and business continuity templates and models comes from trade books devoted to that subject matter. A great many of these are available at prices that range from under $20 and seldom top $100. Some examples include:

IT Disaster Recovery Planning For Dummies, by Peter Gregory and Philip Jan Rothstein, Wiley, December 26, 2007, ISBN-13: 9780470039731, $19.97 (Amazon).

High Availability and Disaster Recovery: Concepts, Design, Implementation, by Klaus Schmidt, Springer, July 11, 2006, ISBN-13: 978-3540244608, $55.96 (Amazon)

The Disaster Recovery Handbook: A Step-by-Step Plan to Ensure Business Continuity and Protect Vital Operations, by Michael Wallace and Lawrence Webber, AMACOM, ISBN-13: 9780814472408, $34.02 (Amazon).

Most of these books feature companion websites, or include CDs, where you can obtain ready-to-use DR and/or business continuity planning templates and other documents of various kinds. Dozens of other titles in this area are available, many likewise equipped, as a quick search at Inc. will reveal.

There are large numbers of free disaster recovery and business continuity templates available, though these aren't generally as user-friendly or terribly supportive of import to word processing or spreadsheet programs. Here's a sampling:

IBM Corp. iSeries Information Center "Disaster Recovery Plan": a detailed and voluminous Web form that provides guidance, questionnaires and data-acquisition forms to help you acquire and organize business continuity/disaster recovery planning information.

Business continuity/disaster recovery consulting firm Mt Xia offers a surprisingly comprehensive and detailed DR plan template in HTML form.

Though gathering data for and crafting a disaster recovery or business continuity plan may seem like a daunting task, this is well-trodden ground. In addition to the available information and guidance on such plans, you'll find ample sources for business continuity templates to gather your thoughts and data to aid in this task with minimal of frustration.

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Contents

Introduction: Using Business Continuity Templates for Disaster Recovery

Business Impact Analysis (BIA) Template

IT Disaster Recovery (DR) Plan Template

A Disaster Recovery Budget Template

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Testing Template

Data Center Disaster Recovery Plan Template

Disaster Recovery Facilities Assessment Template

IT Risk Assessment Template

Using a Business Impact Analysis (BIA) Template: A BIA Template and Guide

A business impact analysis (BIA) is a key part of the business continuity process that analyzes mission-critical business functions, and identifies and quantifies the impact a loss of those functions (e.g., operational, financial) may have on the organization.

has created a free downloadable business impact analysis template to assist you in your business continuity planning. Download and print out our template, and then read the step-by-step guide below to create a successful business impact analysis.

FREE DOWNLOAD: Business Impact Analysis Template

PREPARING A BUSINESS IMPACT ANALYSIS

Once risks to an organization have been identified -- usually through a risk analysis -- the next step in a business impact analysis is to determine how the identified risks affect specific business operations. Let's assume that if all business functions are performing normally, the organization ought to be fully viable, competitive and financially solid. If an incident -- internal or external -negatively affects business operations, the organization could be compromised.

Business impact analyses help business continuity/disaster recovery professionals identify business priorities and validate or modify them for plan development. Questionnaires must be formulated for pre-interview data gathering and/or in-person interviews. People with in-depth knowledge of and experience with the business functions being analyzed are ideal candidates for BIA interviews. In some cases it may be possible to organize interview questions into an automated survey (an example of which is BIA Professional, from SunGard Availability Services), in which the results can be captured and summarized.

Often it is useful to include an incident description for interviewees to use when answering the questions. An example of such a situation is:

The business unit's portion of the building is completely destroyed; All records, data files, technology, supplies, and other support

systems are lost; Some key personnel may not be available;

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Contents

Introduction: Using Business Continuity Templates for Disaster Recovery

Business Impact Analysis (BIA) Template

IT Disaster Recovery (DR) Plan Template

A Disaster Recovery Budget Template

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Testing Template

Data Center Disaster Recovery Plan Template

Disaster Recovery Facilities Assessment Template

IT Risk Assessment Template

Primary business processes will be affected immediately and for at least 30 days;

The disaster occurs during a peak processing period for the business unit.

Incident descriptions help frame the interviewee's response so it can be in alignment with specific risks and threats.

Ultimately, the BIA's purpose is to identify, prioritize and document the relative importance of various business processes conducted by business units.

TIPS FOR PERFORMING A BUSINESS IMPACT ANALYSIS

Keep in mind the following key tips when performing a business impact analysis:

1. Get the support of senior management. Given the nature of BIAs, and the time needed for research, be sure to obtain senior management support so that your project goals can be achieved

2. Take the business impact analysis process seriously. Although the BIA can take a great deal of time for data gathering and analysis, its value can be essential as you develop plans. BIAs do not have to be dozens of pages long. They simply need the right information, and that information should be current and accurate.

3. There are no formal BIA standards. Despite many business continuity standards available in the U.S., no formal standards exist for BIAs.

4. Keep it simple. Gathering the right information is critical; the associated template provides a baseline for information to be gathered. If a one-page business impact analysis summary provides the relevant information, versus one with dozens of pages, it can be perfectly acceptable

5. Review results with business units. Once the plan is complete, review the findings with business units leaders to make sure your assumptions arte correct

6. Be flexible. The suggested template in this article may be too complex for some organizations; feel free to modify it as you see fit to accomplish your goals.

USING OUR BUSINESS IMPACT ANALYSIS TEMPLATE

Next, we'll examine the structure and content of the template, indicating key issues to address and activities to perform. This can be easily organized and managed via standard spreadsheets.

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Contents

Introduction: Using Business Continuity Templates for Disaster Recovery

Business Impact Analysis (BIA) Template

IT Disaster Recovery (DR) Plan Template

A Disaster Recovery Budget Template

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Testing Template

Data Center Disaster Recovery Plan Template

Disaster Recovery Facilities Assessment Template

IT Risk Assessment Template

1. Business unit name: Enter the business unit name 2. Head count: Enter the number of full-time staff in the business unit,

optionally, part-time and contractors, if applicable 3. Parent process: Describe the principal activities the unit performs,

e.g., sales, contractor interface, or investor relationship management 4. Priority ranking: Enter a number here for subjective ranking of

process importance 5. Recovery time objective: Enter a time frame, e.g., one hour, one

week in this section; it describes the time a parent process must return to "business almost as usual" following a disruption 6. Recovery point objective: Enter a time frame, e.g., one hour, one day in this section; this is a point in time to which parent process work should be restored following a disruption 7. Parent process depends on: Enter names of organizations and/or processes the parent process depends on for normal operations 8. Parent process required by: Enter names of organizations and/or processes that depend on the parent process for normal operations 9. (Optional) Sub-process: Enter description of supporting activities the unit performs, e.g., sales analysis, financial analysis 10. (Optional) Priority ranking: Enter a number here for subjective ranking of sub-process(es) and their importance to the business unit 11. (Optional) Recovery time objective: Enter a time frame; it describes the time a sub-process must return to "business almost as usual" following a disruption 12. (Optional) Recovery point objective: Enter a time frame; this is a point in time to which sub-process work should be restored following a disruption 13. (Optional) Sub-process depends on: Enter names of organizations and/or processes the sub-process depends on for normal operations 14. (Optional) Sub-process required by: Enter names of organizations and/or processes that depend on the sub-process for normal operations 15. Quantitative impact: Enter a financial amount associated with the parent process, e.g., annual revenue generated by the process 16. Qualitative impact: Enter a non-financial impact to the company, e.g., loss of reputation, loss of customers associated with parent process 17. Time needed to recover staff: Enter the number of staff that need to be back to "business almost as usual" within specific time frames 18. Recovery strategy: Enter specific actions the business unit can take to recover to a "business almost as usual" state, e.g., work from home, relocate to an alternate area, recover to a hot site 19. Technology/Services recovery time: Enter the system and services in each time space that must be recovered within the specific time frame 20. Comments: Self-explanatory

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Contents

Introduction: Using Business Continuity Templates for Disaster Recovery

Business Impact Analysis (BIA) Template

IT Disaster Recovery (DR) Plan Template

A Disaster Recovery Budget Template

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Testing Template

Data Center Disaster Recovery Plan Template

Disaster Recovery Facilities Assessment Template

IT Risk Assessment Template

An excellent way to learn about a business is to conduct a business impact analysis. In addition to identifying recovery priorities and timeframes, conducting a BIA can also identify opportunities for process improvement.

IT Disaster Recovery (DR) Plan Template: A Free Download and Guide

An information technology (IT) disaster recovery (DR) plan provides a structured approach for responding to unplanned incidents that threaten an IT infrastructure, which includes hardware, software, networks, processes and people. Protecting your firm's investment in its technology infrastructure, and protecting your firm's ability to conduct business are the key reasons for implementing an IT disaster recovery plan. 's free downloadable IT disaster recovery template will help facilitate the initiation and completion of an IT DR plan.

In this guide, you will learn everything you need to know about putting together an IT disaster recovery plan. You'll learn step-by-step IT DR plan development and the most important IT disaster recovery planning considerations. Read our guide, then download our IT disaster recovery plan template, which can be printed out and customized for your company's unique needs.

FREE DOWNLOAD: IT Disaster Recovery Template

What is an IT disaster recovery plan?

IT disaster recovery plans provide step-by-step procedures for recovering disrupted systems and networks, and help them resume normal operations. The goal of these processes is to minimize any negative impacts to company operations. The IT disaster recovery process identifies critical IT systems and networks; prioritizes their recovery time objective; and delineates the steps needed to restart, reconfigure, and recover them. A comprehensive IT DR plan also includes all the relevant supplier contacts, sources of expertise for recovering disrupted systems and a logical sequence of action steps to take for a smooth recovery.

Assuming you have completed a risk assessment and have identified potential threats to your IT infrastructure, the next step is to determine which infrastructure elements are most important to the performance of your

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