Business continuity, backup and disaster recovery services for Texas businesses. Plan recovery priorities, protect data and test how critical systems will be restored.
A backup is important, but the business question is larger:
How will the company continue operating when an important system becomes unavailable?
Business continuity and disaster recovery planning address the systems, data, people, vendors and procedures required to restore operations after disruption.
Backup Versus Business Continuity
Backup creates recoverable copies of data.
Disaster recovery focuses on restoring technology after a significant disruption.
Business continuity considers how the organization continues critical operations while recovery is taking place.
These concepts overlap, but they are not identical.
Common Causes of Disruption
Business systems can be affected by:
- Hardware failure
- Ransomware
- Accidental deletion
- Internet outage
- Cloud service outage
- Power failure
- Fire, storm or physical damage
- Software failure
- Human error
- Compromised administrator accounts
Recovery Objectives
Businesses should identify two important concepts.
Recovery Time Objective, or RTO, describes the targeted time to restore a system or business process.
Recovery Point Objective, or RPO, describes how much data loss, measured in time, the organization can tolerate.
Different systems can have different objectives.
Prioritize Critical Systems
A recovery plan should identify which systems are required first.
Examples might include:
- Identity and authentication
- Internet connectivity
- Email and communications
- Accounting
- ERP
- File access
- Production systems
- Customer service systems
- Line-of-business applications
Backup Design
A backup strategy should consider:
- What systems and data are protected
- Backup frequency
- Retention
- Offsite copies
- Administrative security
- Isolation from production systems
- Encryption
- Monitoring
- Restoration procedures
- Testing
CISA ransomware guidance emphasizes maintaining backups and taking steps that prevent attackers from easily reaching backup copies.
Restoration Testing
A backup report that says "successful" confirms that a backup process completed. It does not by itself prove that every application and dependency can be restored within the business's required timeframe.
Organizations should periodically test recovery.
Ransomware Recovery
Ransomware recovery may require more than restoring files.
Organizations may need to:
- Contain compromised devices
- Reset credentials
- Preserve evidence
- Identify the attack path
- Rebuild systems
- Validate that persistence has been removed
- Restore clean data
- Coordinate with insurance and legal counsel
- Meet notification requirements where applicable
Frequently Asked Questions
How often should backups run?
That depends on how much data the business can afford to lose. A system with a four-hour RPO has different requirements from one with a 24-hour RPO.
Are cloud applications automatically backed up?
Cloud providers implement resiliency and retention features, but organizations should evaluate whether those capabilities meet their independent recovery and retention requirements.
How often should disaster recovery be tested?
Testing frequency depends on risk, system criticality and regulatory requirements. Testing should also occur after significant system changes.
Business Continuity Planning From Huff Data Systems
Huff Data Systems helps businesses review backups, recovery requirements and the technology required to support continuity.
Victoria: 361-570-7240 Houston: 713-493-2051
