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What is Disaster Recovery?

Disaster recovery is the process of recovering data and resuming business operations ensuring high availability and minimal service interruption in the event of a system failure or a disaster. It focuses on restoring platform services and infrastructure critical to business operations.

Objectives​

The primary objectives of disaster recovery are:

  • Recovery Time Objective (RTO): The maximum acceptable time that the platform can be offline.
  • Recovery Point Objective (RPO): The maximum acceptable amount of data loss measured in time.
  • Service Level Agreement (SLA): The agreed level of service performance and availability, post-disaster.

Scope​

Covers all platform components including hardware, software, network configurations, and data storage solutions. This policy is applicable to all system outages, whether due to natural disasters, hardware failures, or security breaches.

Disaster Recovery Strategy​

  1. Risk Assessment and Management:

    • Identify potential threats and vulnerabilities.
    • Implement measures to minimize risks, such as redundant systems and robust data backup solutions.

  2. Data Backup and Storage:

    • Regularly back up all critical data.
    • Use a combination of on-site and off-site storage solutions to ensure data availability and integrity.

  3. Infrastructure Redundancy:

    • Deploy critical components in a highly available configuration across multiple geographically dispersed data centers.
    • Use load balancers and failover mechanisms to manage traffic and minimize service disruption.

  4. Disaster Recovery Sites:

    • Maintain fully operational, mirrored recovery sites to enable quick switch-over in case the primary site fails.
    • Regularly test the readiness of the DR sites.

  5. Incident Response Plan:

    • Develop and maintain an incident response plan detailing the immediate steps to take following a disaster.
    • Include contact lists, roles, responsibilities, and procedural steps.

  6. Recovery Procedures:

    • Document and routinely update detailed step-by-step recovery procedures.
    • Automate recovery processes where possible to reduce the RTO.

  7. Testing and Drills:

    • Conduct regular DR exercises and update recovery plans based on the findings.
    • Simulate different types of disasters to ensure that the plan is effective under various scenarios.

  8. Communication Plan:

    • Establish a communication plan that includes notification of impacted parties and regular updates during the recovery process.
    • Use multiple communication channels to ensure message delivery.

  9. Training:

    • Provide ongoing training for all relevant staff on DR procedures and their specific roles.
    • Ensure that new team members are trained and familiar with the DR plans.

Post-Disaster Review​

  • Debrief: Conduct a debriefing session to discuss what went well and what could be improved.
  • Lessons Learned: Document lessons learned and integrate these into the DR plan.
  • Report: Prepare a detailed report on the disaster, the response, its effectiveness, and any recommended changes to prevent future occurrences.

Conclusion​

This disaster recovery documentation ensures that platform engineering maintains its ability to operate and recover swiftly from any disruption. Continuous improvement through regular testing and updates is crucial to the effectiveness of the disaster recovery plan.