I have been tasked with leading a project regarding updating a old and somewhat onesided disaster recovery plan. For now we're just looking at getting the IT side of DR sorted out. The last time they did this they set their scope by making up a single disaster (the data center flooded) and planning for it to the exclusion of all other disaster types. I would like to take a more well rounded approach. I know this is a solved problem, other organizations have written DR plans.
Our plan is to take our IT DR plan and go forward with it and say "Hey, this is what we want in a DR plan for IT, does it mesh with what the rest of the University is doing? Are there restored service priorties you'd like changed?" We have a pretty good idea what the rest of the plan is and we're expecting this to go over well.
What I am looking for is guidance on how to scope a DR plan and what questions I should be thinking about. Do you have favorite resources, books, training that are related to DR plan development?
Answer
An excellent source of information is Disaster Recovery Journal (about).
Community resources available include the current draft of their Generally Accepted Practices (GAP) document, which provides an excellent outline of the process and deliverables that constitute a solid business continuity plan and process. Also available are several white papers covering various DR/BC topics.
The process seems daunting, but if approached systematically with a good outline of where you would like to end up (like the DRJ GAP document), you can ensure that you optimize the time invested and maximize the value of the end product.
I find their quarterly publication to be interesting and informative as well (subscribe).
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