What is IT Disaster Recovery?

IT Disaster Recovery is the application of policies, tools and methodology to resume normal operations following a natural or human-induced disaster by regaining access to data, software applications, hardware devices, networks and connectivity. Disaster recovery plan focus on IT systems that support the business-critical functions.

Cyber Disaster Recovery Plan

Disaster recovery plan is a set of rules and procedures to prepare the organization to quickly and effectively recover in the event of a disaster by restoring the data and critical applications. The disaster recovery plan also defines the response action during the outage.

Why become an IT Disaster Recovery Specialist?

IT disaster recovery and business continuity (DR & BC) are intricately linked practices that sustain an organization’s capacity to remain operational after an unpleasant event. Considering the increasing dependency of organizations on information technology to run their operations, disaster recovery efforts focus on IT, and business continuity planning embodies the entire organization.

Disruption isn’t merely an inconvenience for your consumers. Ransomware attacks and even natural disasters such as floods, fire hazards among others, can damage your corporate brand, accumulate financial losses, and in worst-case scenarios, it can permanently shut down your business.

Having an effective cyber attack recovery plan and constantly conducting DR testing is essential for managed service providers. Having a disaster recovery specialist ensures that you learn about weaknesses within your cybersecurity landscape.

What does a Cyber Disaster Recovery Specialist do?

The job of an IT disaster recovery specialist falls under the wider career category of Business Continuity Planners. IT disaster recovery specialists design contingency plans, while disaster recovery engineers execute them.

Nevertheless, your primary responsibility as a disaster recovery specialist is to protect businesses by designing and updating technical DR & BC plans. They work alongside the information technology professionals in an organization to recognize resources required for recovery and also increase the understanding of interdependent programs.

Likewise, Disaster recovery specialists table their recovery plans to the organization’s business and information technology executives to obtain approval. They provide DR BC training for staff members and also update disaster recovery plans.

Disaster recovery job market and potential salary

According to LinkedIn (as of August 2020) there are over 20,000 disaster recovery jobs available across the world. At the same time, the salary of an IT disaster recovery professional can vary widely depending on several significant factors such as education, additional skills, certifications, location, and work experience. With the availability of more online disaster recovery training, you can improve your earnings.

According to PayScale.com, the average Disaster Recovery Specialist salary is 80,000 USD. At the same time, Salary.com suggests that the average salary for a Disaster Recovery Manager in the United States is 131,338 USD.

How to become an IT disaster recovery specialist?

Skills required

Risk Assessment

Ability to conduct risk assessment by Identify operational risk issues and assign risk ratings.

Risk Management

Developing, maintaining, and ensuring adherence to enterprise-wide operational risk frameworks, risk policies, and risk management procedures.

Risk Coverage

Identifying and providing appropriate operational risk coverage for the organizations in scope and their risk-taking activities

Business Impact Analysis

Predicts the impact of cyber disaster on business function and gather information needed to develop recovery strategies.

Control Review

Develop, implement, and support an effective control review and challenge process to provide transparency, accountability and escalation of control effectiveness.

Data Backup and Recover

Ability to create and review system recovery, data backup and data recovery strategies

Business Continuity Planning and Management

Drive Business Continuity Management initiatives across various departments and maintain BCM related documentation like policy, plan, recovery, etc. Manage and implement business continuity plan using BCP program management tools and process.

Review, Testing and Training

Review and test the business continuity management process periodically. Conduct trainings for BCP awareness for employees to monitor status and defining the roles and responsibilities of the critical staff.

Certifications – Gateway to become a Certified Disaster Recovery Engineer

Certifications validate your skills and certify your expertise in any profession. The Cyber Disaster Recovery Certification such as EDRP gives recognition to your competence and demonstrates your commitment to the cybersecurity disaster recovery position.

Source: eccouncil.org