Discovery Methodology for IT Disaster Recovery

7 Steps to Avoid a Faulty DR Plan

An effective IT discovery provides an organization insight into their IT landscape and helps ensure their DR program functions correctly, minimizing costly risks and ensuring business continuity.

The white paper, Discovery Methodology for IT Disaster Recovery, outlines the seven key steps required to complete a thorough discovery.

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Discovery is demanding, and organizations often execute it haphazardly, costing time, money, and customer goodwill when a disruptive event occurs.”

7 discovery steps described in IT disaster recovery white paper detailing our methodology — Seven steps to IT Disaster Recovery Discovery

Key Challenges

Seldom-used applications, unknown file-transfer dependencies, and IT services with single points of failure can easily be overlooked, resulting in missed dependencies.

Auto-discovery tools often overlook key dependencies. While auto discovery tools are recommended during the discovery process, auto discovery alone will not give you a complete view of the IT environment.

Existing documentation is often incomplete. If applications are not entered into the CMDB, they will go undetected.

of companies that suffer a data center outage lose multiple critical applications.

Recommendations

Run auto discovery for an extended period, even on the weekends. The typical data collection process runs 2-3 weeks.

Distribute questionnaires. Infrastructure owners know their systems inside and out. A questionnaire could reveal unique details about your IT environment that wouldn’t be revealed through auto discovery.

Consolidating inventory reduces the scope of recovery and uncovers hidden costs. Monthly savings can run between 5%-15%.