All too often, backup scheduling occurs as an afterthought—part of the list of items after setting up a new system. The backup should be an integral part of a complete recovery plan. A recovery plan should be in place before you physically install new computers or devices. Planning ahead for recovery protects your organization from unexpected interruptions that may impact critical business functions. Here are some industry best practices that will help keep your Windows environment and all the data it contains available to users:

• Ensure that you know which business functions are critical to your organization. These are the functions you must ensure do not permanently cease due to interruptions or disasters.

• Develop a plan to continue all critical business functions. This business continuity plan should cover all aspects of your organization to ensure your organization can resume operation after an interruption.

• Define recovery time objectives for each critical resource. Identify resources required for the recovery process. You’ll need to identify which parts of your recovery plan are sequential and which ones you can work on simultaneously. For example, assume you have eight servers you need to recover. Each server has an RTO of 4 hours. If only one person is working on the recovery plan, it is unlikely all eight servers will be operational within the RTO. You’ll likely need more people working to recover the servers.

• Develop a backup plan for each resource that minimizes the impact on performance while keeping secondary copies of data as up to date as possible. Explore various options, including alternate sites and virtualization.

• Automate as many backup operations as possible. Create logs and reports that make problems with backup operations easy to recognize.

• Verify all backup operations. A secondary copy of data with errors may be no better than damaged primary copy data.

• Document all backup and recovery procedures. Train all primary and backup personnel on all procedures.

• Test all recovery procedures rigorously. Conduct at least one full interruption recovery test each year. A full interruption test is one that actually interrupts normal operation to test the full recovery process. This type of test is the only way to fully test your recovery plan.

• Review your complete recovery plan quarterly (or more frequently), and adjust for any infrastructure changes.

These best practices provide a solid foundation for creating a secure recovery plan for your organization’s IT assets.