Disaster Recovery Plan. Secure Your Infrastructure

Specialists from our company, who have extensive experience in this field, are discussing quite important and relevant topics for modern business as part of a Research and Development (R&D) project. This article, inspired by the insights from Vitaly Skuratovich, Deputy DevOps Practice Lead for Technology, and Alexander Simonov, Deputy DevOps Practice Lead, from their “WHOIS DevOps Tech Talks”, aims to unravel the complexities of DRP in safeguarding IT infrastructure.

Introduction

In the ever-evolving realm of cloud computing, the resilience of systems and applications is not just a necessity but a cornerstone of modern DevOps practices. The ability to swiftly recover from unforeseen disasters - whether caused by natural calamities, technical failures, or cyber threats - is imperative in maintaining business continuity and safeguarding digital assets.

What is DRP?

A Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) is a recorded policy and/or process that is designed to assist an organization in executing recovery processes in response to a disaster to protect business IT infrastructure and more generally promote recovery.

Every situation is unique and there is no single correct way to develop a disaster recovery plan. However, there are three principal goals of disaster recovery that form the core of most DRPs:

• prevention, including proper backups, generators, and surge protectors.
• detection of new potential threats, a natural byproduct of routine inspections
• correction, which might include holding a “lessons learned” brainstorming session and securing proper insurance policies

Benefits of a disaster recovery plan

The implementation of a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) is a fundamental component of a robust IT strategy, providing a multitude of benefits that extend beyond the mere protection of data. Here is an elucidation of the key advantages:

1. Business Continuity: The primary benefit of a DRP is the assurance of business continuity. By enabling rapid restoration of services following a disruption, a DRP minimizes downtime and maintains the flow of business operations, preserving revenue streams and customer trust.
2. Data Protection: A DRP ensures that critical data is backed up and can be restored swiftly. This is particularly crucial in an era where data is not only vital to business operations but also subject to stringent regulatory requirements.
3. Risk Mitigation: A well-crafted DRP reduces the risk associated with data breaches, system outages, and other IT-related risks. It also provides a clear plan to mitigate the impact of such risks should they materialize.
4. Cost Savings: While setting up a DRP requires upfront investment, the cost of executing a DRP during a disaster is significantly less than the cost associated with ad-hoc recovery efforts. This is because a DRP includes predefined cost-effective recovery solutions.
5. Employee Productivity: By minimizing downtime, a DRP ensures that employees remain productive following an IT disruption. This contributes to overall organizational efficiency and morale.
6. Reputation Management: Quick and effective recovery from disasters reflects positively on a company’s reputation, demonstrating preparedness and reliability to stakeholders and the public.

DRP. Beginning

1. Assemble Plan: The first step in DRP is to create a comprehensive plan. This involves defining the DRP’s structure, objectives, and the detailed processes that will be followed during a disaster.
2. Identify Scope: Next, the scope of the DRP must be clearly identified. This means determining which business areas, applications, and services are critical and need to be included in the disaster recovery efforts.
3. Appoint Emergency Contacts: Establishing a chain of communication is essential. This step involves appointing key personnel who will serve as emergency contacts during a disaster.
4. Designate Disaster Recovery Team: A specialized team responsible for executing the DRP is designated. This team will have predefined roles and responsibilities and should be trained to respond efficiently in the event of a disaster.
5. Assign Roles & Responsibilities: Each member of the disaster recovery team should have specific roles and responsibilities. Clear assignment of these ensures that all aspects of the DRP are managed by competent individuals.
6. Restore Technology Functionality: This step focuses on the restoration of IT functions. It covers the procedures to recover IT systems, applications, and data to resume business operations.
7. Data & Back Ups Location: It is critical to have secure and accessible backup locations. This step involves identifying where backups are stored and how they can be accessed and used during a disaster.
8. Testing & Maintenance: Finally, regular testing and maintenance of the DRP are essential to ensure its effectiveness. This involves conducting drills, updating the plan as necessary, and re-evaluating the scope periodically.

RPO vs RTO

Understanding the nuances of Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and Recovery Time Objective (RTO) is essential for any robust Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP). These metrics are not just benchmarks but are vital in shaping the strategies that underpin how an organization responds to and recovers from disruptive incidents.

1. Recovery Point Objective (RPO)

Definition and Purpose:

RPO refers to the maximum acceptable amount of data loss measured in time. It’s the age of the files that must be recovered from backup storage for normal operations to resume after a failure. An RPO of four hours, for instance, means that in the event of a disaster, the system should be restored to the state it was in no more than four hours prior to the incident.

Influences on DRP:

The RPO will affect how often data backups are performed. A shorter RPO requires more frequent backups, which in turn can influence the choice of backup technologies and methodologies. For example, a company with a tight RPO might use continuous data protection solutions instead of daily backups.

DevOps Considerations:

In a DevOps context, where continuous integration and delivery are vital, RPOs can dictate the level of investment in data replication and synchronization technologies. This could involve using real-time replication for databases or implementing a more sophisticated version control system that can handle frequent commits.

2. Recovery Time Objective (RTO)

Definition and Purpose:

RTO is the targeted duration of time within which a business process must be restored after a disaster to avoid unacceptable consequences associated with a break in business continuity. If an RTO is set at two hours, then the DRP should be capable of recovering the operational capabilities of the business within this time frame.

Influences on DRP:

RTO influences the DRP’s complexity and urgency. It demands a clear understanding of the critical paths for recovery and often requires a significant investment in redundant systems or high-availability solutions to meet stringent recovery windows.

DevOps Considerations:

For DevOps teams, meeting RTOs typically means automating recovery processes as much as possible. It might involve scripting the redeployment of environments, using infrastructure as code, or employing orchestration tools that can rapidly re-provision resources in the cloud.

Strategies for a Disaster Recovery Plan

In constructing a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP), selecting the right strategies and tools is essential for ensuring rapid and reliable recovery from disruptions.

1. Data Replication: Replication involves duplicating data across multiple locations. For databases, this can be synchronous or asynchronous and ensures data availability and accessibility post-disaster.
2. Backup and Restore: Regular backups are a cornerstone of DRP. Incremental and full backups can be scheduled according to the RPO. Tools like rsync for Linux can facilitate efficient incremental backups.
3. High Availability Setup: This involves designing systems that are inherently resilient to failures, such as setting up active-active or active-passive clusters to ensure continuous service availability.
4. Multi-Site Deployment: Deploying applications across multiple data centers or cloud regions can protect against regional disasters. Kubernetes facilitates this by managing containerized applications across various environments.
5. Failover Processes: Automating failover to a secondary system or location in case the primary system fails is vital. Techniques include DNS failover or virtual IP movement.
6. Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Using IaC for DRP, with tools like Terraform, allows for rapid provisioning of new infrastructure based on pre-defined code templates.

Best Practices for DRP Implementation

Implementing these strategies and tools requires adherence to best practices, such as:

• Regular Testing: Conduct disaster recovery drills to validate the effectiveness of the DRP.
• Version Control: Keep DR scripts and IaC definitions under version control to manage changes and history.
• Documentation: Maintain detailed documentation for the DR process, including roles and responsibilities.
• Compliance and Security: Ensure that DR strategies and tools comply with regulatory requirements and follow security best practices.

Conclusion

The strategic implementation of a Disaster Recovery Plan is not just a theoretical exercise but a practical necessity that underpins the resilience and agility of modern businesses. Our company, under the diligent stewardship of Vitaly Skuratovich and Alexander Simonov, actively embodies the principles and practices of a robust DRP. These experts, with their hands firmly on the pulse of the latest in cloud computing, IT infrastructure, and DevOps methodologies, ensure that the strategies we advocate are not mere abstractions but living processes.
Our company’s engagement with DRP transcends mere compliance or risk management; it is about cultivating a culture of continuous improvement and resilience. In doing so, we aim not just to safeguard our assets but to provide a service that is synonymous with reliability and trust. As we continue to navigate the complexities of the digital landscape, we take pride in our proactive stance towards disaster recovery, recognizing that it is a critical component of our promise to our clients and partners.