Building Your IT Disaster Recovery and Resiliency Management Program

Congratulations if you are reading this blog - I supposed you are an Information Technology (IT) professional, either appointed to manage or be part of the team implementing and maintaining the IT Disaster Recovery (IT DR) Program. 

As this page can be pretty long, do select to read the relevant topics from the "Table of Contents" found on the left column of this page. 

Click on the "Blended Learning DRP-5000" icon to learn more about our IT disaster recovery certification program to be offered globally via online facilitated learning.

• Do you have an existing IT DR framework and policy? Is IT DR part of your IT Policy? IT Security Policy? You may find some of these terms in BCM Institute BCMpedia.
• Do you know who should be members of your IT DR team?
• What is your roles in cyber security incidents?
  Start with the Cyber Security Glossary
  

One of the critical steps for the IT DR journey is to “speak the same lingo.”  Hence, it is important that an organization establish its definition of a “disaster” when embarking on IT DR and the many terms that are used during the implementation and management of this IT DR program.  In our context, the alignment and correct understanding of each IT DR terminology are critical.

What Is A Disaster?

A Disaster is a sudden, unplanned event that causes significant damage or severe loss to an organization. It results in an organization failing to provide critical business functions for some predetermined minimum period.

In the context of an IT Disaster, it denies organization access to "IT" people, "IT" processes and "IT" infrastructure.

• What Are the Key Terminology You Need to Know for Business Continuity Management (BCM) and IT Disaster Recovery (DR)? 
  Starting with "Six Key Terms Synonymous to "Disruption" You Need to Know for BCM?"
  These terms apply to IT DR too mainly when it disrupts the IT systems and infrastructure.
  
• What Exactly is IT Disaster Recovery?
• What Are the Key Terminology You Need to Know for IT Disaster Recovery (IT DR)? 

There are several essential concepts that professionals will need to know.  It includes:

• Deployment of cloud strategy
• Appropriate selection of backup and duplication strategies
• Data protection strategies
• Raising awareness and gaining management support

It would be useful for you as the appointed IT DR person to start by gathering information from articles, case studies and analyzes of recent IT crises or disaster affecting organization's IT system and infrastructure both inside and external to your industry. The key is to identify best-practice recommendations and any common pitfalls.

Read some of the IT DR articles that is available of our LinkedIn Showcase (IT Disaster Recovery).

Globally or wherever is your home location, these IT DR training (with professional certification) can be made available if you would like your team to be trained (in-house) via online videoconferencing training supported by toolkits and tutorials.

If you have the need for IT DR competency training, you may want to take a look at the BCM Institute's series of specialized IT DR courses (See the three previewed courses below).  The quick question is "Do I have the necessary skillset and know-how to do this job?" "What do I not know"? or "How Do I Start My IT DR Learning Journey?"

The key focus of the course is to adopt comprehensive training on how to assess, analyse, develop, implement, test, and maintain an IT Disaster Recovery Plan for both building resilience and resuming and recovering your IT and telecommunications systems and infrastructure in the event of a disaster or business disruption. The training provides a step-by-step planning methodology to ensure a reliable and effective IT disaster recovery plan consistent with the industry's standards and best practices.

The institute has competency-based training that leads to professional certification in IT DR.  You may want to review the following IT DR training courses (with professional certification) to determine and upgrade the relevancy to your roles and knowledge.

For those who are experience and are seeking to progress in your career, it is timely that you review and develop your own learning road map that will accelerate both your knowledge, skill set and most important, your career.

If you are an IT professionals or assigned with the IT DR role, the institute recommends that you should try to gain as much knowledge as possible before embarking on the IT DR implementation.

Here are some of the related courses to be considered.  
Take stock by reviewing "What is My IT DR Competency Level?".  You need to know where you are "Know-Do-Manage"and where you aspire to reach or is required by the current IT DR role.  You may want to review the table below showing "What Types of Competency and Level of Course to Attend?"

IT DR Certification provides you with the necessary verification that you have the knowledge and also the necessary experience to implement or manage the IT DR program.

The three levels of IT DR certification are as shown below.  The types of the certification include DR Certified Planner (DRCP), DR Certified Specialist (DRCS) and DR Certified Expert(DRCE).

To elaborate on the requirement to attain your certification, you can find more information on the BCM institute's IT DR Certification webpage or read more on "How to Obtain Your IT Disaster Recovery Certification?"

Another specialized BCM book called "A Manager’s Guide to Business Continuity Management for Cyber Security Incident Response."  You may want to get a  copy of this book from the BCM Institute's store.

In view of the increased cyber security incident, both IT DR and BCM professionals must continue to upgrade their competency to meet these growing threats to organisational resilience.

This book will guide organisations to effectively manage cyber security incidents closely operating with BCM practices. Clear descriptions are provided on how the BCM team can incorporate cyber security incident response (CIR) into the BCM planning methodology processes. The book explains how cyber security incident response involves and integrates with all components within the organisation and its relation to terminologies such as crisis communication (CC), crisis management (CM) and IT disaster recovery (IT DR).

ISBN: 978-981-11-4158-4

Do take note that Singaporeans and Singapore Permanent Residents (PR) can opt to attend BCM Institute's DRP-5000 and can seek funding from the government when attending the IT disaster recovery courses in Singapore. 

If you have any questions, please feel free to write to us: