Why is a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) essential?
Business continuity is critical for any company, whatever its size and wherever its data is hosted. The risks are more diverse, such as cyber-attacks, system failures or any other situation that disrupts the normal operations of IT infrastructures, whether hosted in a data center or not. The DRP is a defensive bulwark for any company's digital resilience. It's not just a technical formality, it's an anti-incident shield that can potentially immobilize a company's operations.
How to understand a Disaster Recovery Plan
What is a Disaster Recovery Plan?
The Disaster Recovery Plan, better known by its acronym DRP, is essential for a hosting and data center operator like UltraEdge, as it is the ultimate guarantee of our ability to provide our customers with environments offering continuity of service. The DRP includes all the technical and organizational procedures required to restore the information system in the case of a critical incident.
UltraEdge data centers host mission-critical services for corporate customers, government agencies, hospitals, cloud operators and more. An uncontrolled interruption of service can lead to considerable financial, legal, data or image losses.
The IT disaster recovery plan usually takes the form of a detailed document that maps the technical architecture, identifies critical components, and standardizes procedures for switching to backup environments. It is a living instrument that must constantly evolve to reflect IT system transformations and changing business needs, such as IoT and AI.
Main PRA objectives
The primary objective of a DRP is to ensure the continuous operation of an organization after a disruptive event. This means minimizing interruptions - one minute's downtime can potentially represent very substantial financial losses - maintaining the confidence of UltraEdge's customers and partners, as well as preserving our reputation, and also penalties if stipulated in the contract. The Disaster Recovery Plan includes a targeted response to each objective of IT managers and executives.
The DRP establishes precise procedures that reduce this period of vulnerability to an absolute minimum.
Preserving data integrity is the second major objective. Over and above the technical availability of systems, the quality and consistency of the information recovered determines the company's real ability to carry on business as usual.
The DRP helps to establish a relationship of trust between the customer and the hosting provider or service provider or data center.
At UltraEdge, the robustness, viability and test frequency we provide are additional arguments in increasingly competitive environments.
Lastly, with the complexity of data and the ever-increasing evolution of demand, regulatory requirements are becoming ever more stringent. A DRP is not just best practice, but a legal obligation subject to frequent checks to ensure compliance with ISO 27001 / ISO 22301 (standards for business continuity management systems).
Trigger scenarios
In the operation of a data center like those managed by UltraEdge, every situation is likely to affect the viability of the infrastructure. As a leader in data hosting, we need to anticipate, analyze and prioritize prevalence and potential impacts with scenarios.
We can cite the most frequent scenario of cyber-attacks: they are the most worrying threat. With the growth of AI, more sophisticated threats are being observed. Ransomware, or denial-of-service attacks, can paralyze entire sectors of the infrastructure.
According to a study published in 2023 by the European Union agency ENISA, a range of high-impact trends will be observed by 2030:
- Growing popularity of "everything as a service" (XaaS), both in terms of demand and supply.
- AI-based systems are increasingly deployed with cognitive biases or issues with impacts on inclusivity, safety, ethics, privacy, reliability and explainability.
- As vehicles become increasingly connected to each other and to the outside world, they are less and less dependent on human intervention.
Nevertheless, human error remains a major source of incidents. Accidental deletion of data, insecure or insecure passwords, or even unfortunate manipulations can affect the integrity of the information system.
The DRP must therefore include anti-intrusion and detection mechanisms, with corrective procedures adapted to the various scenarios.
How to structure an effective DRP
At UltraEdge, we have identified a number of factors that need to be taken into account to ensure an effective DRP:
• Service mapping.
As a responsible hosting provider, UltraEdge has given itself the means to control its environments and the ongoing status of its services.
• Business Impact Analysis (BIA).
Highly critical when hosting a wide variety of data.
• Definition of RTO and RPO.
These two parameters ensure resilience and enable our customers to adapt their services to the hosting solutions they offer.
• Procedures for failover and restoration of systems and data to a backup site.
UltraEdge's network of data centers enables us to meet our customers' failover and restore needs with regularly updated procedures.
With our data centers equipped with latest-generation infrastructures (N+1, 2N, etc.) that meet resilience requirements, we aim to meet our customers' needs even better by offering them disaster recovery sites adapted to their requirements.
Risk identification & prioritization
Step 1: carry out an in-depth risk analysis of the company's IT ecosystem.
This involves identifying potential threats and gauging their impact on the most critical activities. To do this, IT managers work closely with business managers to understand the critical or non-critical nature of each element in the value chain.
Step 2: prioritize according to strategic importance, and allocate appropriate resources accordingly. Typically, an online payment or instantaneous transfer for a banking service requires almost immediate recovery, whereas this will not be the case for a reporting tool.
Finally, this prioritization is aligned with strategic objectives and validated by IT management.
Step 3: Assess the financial impact of the recovery plan.
What are the direct costs (data restoration) and indirect costs (loss of sales, contractual penalties, etc.)? All these estimates then justify the amount allocated to each infrastructure safety investment.
Tech architecture and failover points
Tech architecture is a cornerstone of the DRP. It defines backup infrastructures, data replication mechanisms and failover procedures, enabling critical services to be restored on time.
Different architecture models are to be considered, including:
● The cold standby model
This involves rebuilding the entire infrastructure following a disaster, based on the latest backups. However, the recovery time required for this approach is too lengthy, making it incompatible for the most critical applications.
● The warm standby model
This relies on a pre-established, partially configured infra, which has the advantage of being activated rapidly in the event of failure. Data is periodically replicated, limiting the risk of massive loss. This is a good cost-efficiency compromise for many medium-sized applications.
● The hot standby model
This is based on a pre-established, partially configured infra, which has the advantage of being activated rapidly in the event of failure. Data is periodically replicated, limiting the risk of massive loss. This is a good compromise between cost and efficiency for many medium-sized applications. Far more than just expensive, this solution is justified for applications whose downtime would have problematic consequences.
If relevant, a decision can be taken to activate a backup environment, for instance to deal with a potential intrusion on a critical service.
Resilient architecture is a must-have for UltraEdge data centers. A suitably remote backup infrastructure can be protected more effectively against a local disaster, and deliver compliant network performance.
In this context, failover points play a pivotal role in IT disaster recovery planning.
Recovery tests and update frequency
In UltraEdge data centers, there are several levels of testing, depending on the scope and complexity of the test.
A document test reviews the recovery procedure to ensure consistency
A partial restoration test ensures recovery of the most critical elements, such as the DB. Finally, a full test simulates, for example, a complete switchover to the backup environment.
The test frequency depends on the systems involved and the dynamic evolution of the infrastructure. While an annual frequency is the recommended minimum, most applications require more regular checks, on a quarterly or monthly basis. With data center hosting at UltraEdge, we set up an infrastructure which, in addition to DRP, reinforces the disaster recovery capabilities of hosted infrastructures.
A word of caution: any major change in the tech architecture, the deployment of a critical application or a organizational change will result in a revised plan.
PRA or PCA: what's the difference?
Business continuity planning: roles and scope
The Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is a more holistic approach to organizational resilience. Unlike the DRP (Disaster Recovery Plan), it includes all business processes, not just the IT aspects. Maintaining essential business functions in the event of a critical incident, whatever its nature.
The scope of BCP is therefore broader, encompassing all business activities: supply chain, equipment, premises, HR or relations between customers and partners. A wide range of issues are tackled, including remote operations, the temporary or partial relocation of staff, crisis communications and the ongoing management of relations with governments, officials and the media.
BCP governance involves a cross-functional committee with representatives from each department concerned. This committee defines priorities, allocates resources and determines strategic decisions in times of crisis. A BCP manager, often in liaison with the General Manager, coordinates governance and is the person responsible for the key components of the plan.
BCP and DRP: major differences
The DRP focuses specifically on restoration of network infrastructure and IT services, following an incident or disaster. Its more technical scope is fundamental in a context where IT systems dependency is on the rise.
BCP, on the other hand, is much broader in scope, covering all business processes, whatever the resources impacted by the incident. UltraEdge data centers offer environments that facilitate the implementation of BCP - with, for example, active-active redundancy or instant failover between different delocalized centers - enabling customers to better consolidate a sound business continuity policy.
The objectives are different. Where PRA is based on a service recovery approach, PCA is based on continuity, seeking to avoid a break in essential business processes, even if this means adopting a degraded model while relying on modern data center infrastructures.
Without going into too much detail, PRA is based on the two indicators RTO (Reduced Downtime) and RPO (Data Protection or tolerable data loss period), which respectively define the maximum time for service resumption and the "bearable" data loss.
The BCP, on the other hand, measures business impacts, such as the maintenance of minimal service or the integrity of key services or major organizational functions.
Implementing the DRP: What steps to take?
The implementation of a DRP for UltraEdge is a strategic approach designed to guarantee the swift and well-mastered restoration of critical IT services in our data centers after a major incident.
Systems mapping
An effective DRP and its implementation depend on a comprehensive mapping of the information system. Identify all the components involved in the operation of critical services, and map out their interdependencies.
Several technological layers are visible, e.g. physical infrastructure (network, servers and storage), virtualized platforms, data warehouses (data centers), middleware, business applications and external interfaces. Each component must have its own technical documentation, associated configurations and functional prerequisites for backup.
And let's not forget the data flows between components, which reveal sometimes hidden dependencies that can slow down or even annihilate recovery due to lack of anticipation. A detailed diagram explaining critical synchro points is essential to optimize restoration sequences.
Impact assessment in the event of failure
Every DRP is combined with an impact analysis to identify critical activities and their IT requirements. The implications of a service interruption for each critical service are quantified. And it determines restoration priorities and prior justification for investments.
Several dimensions are addressed: financial, operational, regulatory and reputational.
The direct financial impact results from the fall in sales during the interruption, which is significant for time-sensitive revenue-generating services, such as e-commerce payment services, but also IT infrastructures on the hosting side.
The operational impact corresponds to the disorganization of internal processes and the drop in productivity. This generally leads to downtimes in business productivity.
The regulatory impact may involve breaches of legal obligations, leading to sanctions.
Finally, for UltraEdge, the reputation impact, more complex to measure, conditions the trust between the host and the data center operator we are.
Definition of failover and backup procedures
DRP procedures are precise, detailed and operational instructions for :
- Initiate and manage disaster recovery
- Restore critical services hosted by UltraEdge
- Reduce recovery time (RTO) and minimize data loss (RPO)
- Ensure coordination between all stakeholders
The failover and related procedures outline all the steps involved in enabling the dedicated backup environment.
If the component start-up sequence, the checks to be performed at each level and the validation criteria have been satisfied, then the switchover is complete! This implies procedures that are sufficiently well-defined and clear to be understood and implemented by the teams in the case of an incident.
Documentation and maintenance
Documentation must be exhaustive, accessible and frequently updated, particularly to ensure the relevance of the data center recovery plan!
Each type of documentation includes levels adapted to suit different audiences.
For example, strategic documents are intended for management, and set out overall objectives and resource allocation.
Procedures for operational staff are more detailed, and guide technicians in the completion of tasks.
Reflex cards are much more concise, providing key instructions for taking the proper first steps in the face of an emergency.
DRP challenges for data centers
UltraEdge's DRP challenges are strategic, technical, economic and regulatory. A well-engineered DRP helps limit the impact of major incidents on hosted activities, by ensuring speedy, controlled recovery.
Availability and service level agreements (SLAs)
A Service Level Agreement (SLA) defines the relationship between UltraEdge and its customers.
The increased availability of the sites operated by the data centers thus fosters the continuity of hosted digital services.
UltraEdge targets data center availability in excess of 99%, limiting downtime to less than an hour a year. For the most demanding sectors, such as hospital systems or ultra-specialized platforms (e.g. FinTech), downtime of just a few minutes is tolerated.
Redundant architecture is a constant investment for UltraEdge, and above all indispensable to protect us from any downtime.
RTO/RPO reduction
The 2 key indicators RTO (Recovery Time Objective) and RPO (Recovery Point Objective) can be a headache for IT decision-makers and IT managers.
RTO sets out the time needed to restore a service following an incident, and can be optimized using powerful tech levers. For example, virtual infrastructure facilitates inter-site workload mobility, and a rapid failover can take place to overcome any failure.
RPO defines acceptable data loss, and benefits from advanced replication technologies. Synchronous replication ensures that no transaction is lost; each operation is simultaneously validated on the primary and secondary infrastructures.
Asynchronous replication can be more flexible, but requires larger distances between sites to achieve a non-zero RPO. With our data center network in Europe, we can now offer these features to all our customers.
Major interruption: what operational continuity?
In the event of a breakdown or critical interruption, operational continuity involves technical preparation, human organization and tried-and-tested procedures. Even in degraded conditions, the imperative to continue essential services is maintained. The special feature of UltraEdge data centers lies in the infrastructures they feature to ensure high technological availability, in line with the redundancy standards currently in use in the data center market.
Nevertheless, multisite redundancy is a solution for distributing critical infrastructure between data center sites. This limits the potential impact of a local disaster.
How does UltraEdge support the implementation of a disaster recovery plan?
The UltraEdge approach combines technical expertise, state-of-the-art infrastructure and proven methodology. Our dense network of 250 data centers and 7 IX data centers (Aubervilliers, Bordeaux, Courbevoie, Lille, Rennes, Strasbourg and Vénissieux), strategically located throughout France, offers optimum conditions for deploying high-performance recovery architectures.
This means we can support IT players of every size, from SMEs to major corporations, and adapt to their specific requirements.
Our network benefits from optimal connectivity, thus facilitating the implementation of efficient inter-site replication schemes.