7 Best practices for disaster recovery testing

Many organizations understand the importance of implementing a disaster recovery plan to protect against data loss or the destruction of IT infrastructure. A properly formulated plan defines the processes and procedures to follow in the event of a disaster.

However, we assume too often that our recovery plans are effective without having tested them thoroughly — or at all. To gauge the effectiveness and robustness of these plans and determine whether we can really execute them, we must test them extensively.

7 Best practices for disaster recovery testing

The value of disaster recovery testing is in its feedback, which enables us to amend our plans to meet our recovery objectives best. It gives us the confidence that our disaster recovery plans can guarantee the restoration of operations during or after a disaster.

However, we won’t achieve considerable confidence without taking a comprehensive approach through each testing component. So let’s look at some best practices for disaster recovery testing to ensure that we’ve covered all the bases.

1. Test many scenarios

2. Test regularly

3. Document everything

4. Keep everyone updated

5. Define metrics

6. Evaluate the results

7. Test your disaster recovery plan

1. Test many scenarios

There are many scenarios to consider in a disaster recovery plan. Therefore, it is vital to test as many different disaster scenarios as possible. These can include equipment failures, malware/ransom attacks, costly human error, natural disasters, or loss of staff/personnel.

2. Test regularly

IT systems are dynamic. A single successful test does not guarantee a subsequent one. Therefore, it is crucial to perform disaster recovery testing regularly to keep pace with system updates and evolution.

Testing frequency will differ for each organization, depending on business requirements, customers’ needs, and the organization’s time and resources. An example schedule may include smaller tests that we can run throughout the year and a comprehensive test that we perform once or twice annually. Defining and enforcing a testing schedule that remains consistent with our business needs is also essential.

3. Document everything

Document everything about the tests — from the initial plan to the methodology used to the detailed test results. These records should include successes, failures, timestamps, and impromptu changes made during testing. Additionally, we should detail what we did correctly and where we fell short as a reference for future tests.

We can use this data to assess and improve the robustness of the disaster recovery process. Moreover, these reports can help to ensure that new staff members involved in disaster recovery can access a detailed timeline of how procedures change or evolve.

4. Keep everyone updated

We must ensure that all staff and stakeholders thoroughly understand the processes. They should be kept aware of any changes affecting the disaster recovery plan, including changes to  the testing processes, and receive all updated reports and documentation related to the plan.

5. Define metrics

Without disaster recovery metrics, we cannot accurately judge our plans’ successes or failures. Defining these metrics helps us to formulate tangible goals for different areas of our business, ensuring an accurate picture of how each operation weathers the disaster.

While each organization will need varying metrics, there are two principal goals we should include. The recovery time objective (RTO) is the allowable time that a service can remain offline. The recovery point objective (RPO) determines how frequently we should back up our systems to prevent data loss. To establish this metric, we can evaluate how outdated data can be before recovering it becomes too costly or resource-intensive.

6. Evaluate the results

Finally, we need to conduct a risk assessment based on the results of our testing. Disaster recovery testing reveals risk factors in our recovery plan that threaten the functioning or reputation of our business. Moreover, risk assessment is an opportunity to analyze and evaluate uncovered risks to formulate a mitigation plan.

7. Test your disaster recovery plan

While creating a disaster recovery plan is critical, its usefulness is meaningless if we don’t test its merit. A disaster recovery plan ensures that an organization remains afloat during or after a disaster, and this plan can’t remain static. Performing frequent, well-documented testing helps us identify gaps in our disaster recovery plan so we can adapt and refine it before disaster strikes.

Maintaining an effective disaster recovery plan hinges on how thorough the plan is. It’s vital to test regularly to ensure that our plan evolves with any changes within the business. Think of testing not as a one-time event but as a cycle: test, update, and retest. The more we test our disaster recovery plan, the more we know that it will be reliable and effective long-term.