Data Planning
Data Backup Planning

According to Nelson (2011), Data Backup Planning (DBP) refers to the resultant effect of
copying and archiving data files as well as information folders for future retrieval if the original
data is a loss. Data backup plan is an appropriate approach of encouraging security and safety of
the organizational data or system information. The loss of data is influenced by various aspects
such as computer viruses, hardware malfunctioning, the corruption of files, theft or flood. For
instance, in a business organization, the data involved include companies, customers and
financial information. Therefore, a data backup plan is a strategy employed by an organization to
ensure that even though the data is lost, it can be accessible to aid in the management and
running of the businesses.
Kottomtharayil, R., CommVault Systems Inc, (2014) suggests that in the implementation
of the data backup plan, there are several elements that ought to be considered to be critical parts
of the data backup programs/plan. These elements include:
a. The data to be backed up
These include the files and folders that are being backed-up. The files and folders that
backed-up are those that contain information that is not easily replaceable. Examples of such
non-replaceable data include word documents, financial databases, spreadsheets and personal
data like picture files and emails.
b. Methods of compression
One can apply the Best method compression because it ensures that the Zipped files and
folders are as small as possible. For files and folders that aren’t easily compressed such as music,
video and install files, the user ought to opt for Super-fast and No compression methods.

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c. The Rate of Running Backups
The rate at which an organization runs the backup greatly rely on the frequency of the
data changes. Business data whose frequency of change is high demands backups on a daily or
hourly basis. On the other hand, data that changes after some days might be backed up on a
weekly or monthly basis. However, for some of the data, the backup operation can be conducted
anytime changes are made. WinZip Backups facilitate the programed backups since it allows to
structure the backups to activate automatically as programmed.
d. Media and the Storage of the Data
The conventional storage media used include local hard drive, optical discs such as
DVDs, Blu-ray discs and CDs, and flash drives. The most appropriate practice for storage of the
data backups is on-site for accessibility and off-site in case of a tragedy like fire.

Disaster Recovery Planning

A Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) refers to the procedure of structuring a document and
systematic approaches of countering a disastrous event such as fire, flood or hurricane in an
organization (Sahebjamnia, Torabi & Mansouri, 2015). The document along with the approaches
describe how to resume to work immediately or shortly after a disaster attack. The DRP is a
section of the organization's continuity design that is mainly applied in the organizations
depending on the information technology (IT) infrastructure to influence the business
functionality (Snedaker, 2013). The basic concept is building a plan with the Disaster Recovery
Planning allowing the organizational department of IT to recover substantial information and
system applicability that helps the companies as well as organizations to operate.
Some of the critical elements needed in the construction of the Disaster Recovery Plan
include the proposal about the application of the DRP to attain the support from the top

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management team. The Business Impact Analysis (BIA) is another demanded element that
determines the business roles and responsibilities and IT components that assists in the detection
of the disaster. Another essential aspect of the Disaster Recovery Plan is distance. A DRP site
that is proximal to the center of the primary data is more ideal when it comes to the cost-
efficiency, bandwidth, testing as well as convenience (Snedaker, 2013).
Business Continuity Planning

Burns & Ventures (2012) defines Business Continuity Planning (BCP) as the
establishment of an approach by identifying the business threats as well as risks experienced in a
company with the aim of ensuring the safety of the personnel and the assists. The concept of
Business Continuity Planning entails the identification and categorization of the potential threats,
discovering how such business risks affect the business production/operations, setting up safety
procedures, diagnosing the mitigation strategies and reviewing the procedures periodically to
ensure that is updated. BCP is an approach assumed by an organization to make sure that
organizational processes are operational at the time of disaster or emergency (Burns & Ventures,
2012). Therefore, Business Continuity Planning is the procedure followed by a business
organization to establish threat prevention programs along with the recovery approach to counter
the company's operational threats.
Some of the critical elements of Business Continuity Planning include business impact
analysis (BIA) based on the two values; the Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and Recovery Time
Objective (RTO). Another element of this plan is a threat, and risk analysis (TRA) that involves
the identification of the potential organizational risks like fire, flood, earthquake, cyber-attack,
and war then provide possible mitigation approaches. The other elements include the impact

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scenarios, recovery prerequisite, solution design, the implementation and maintenance of the
business continuity planning (Nicoll & Owens, 2013).
In conclusion, the above-discussed planning approaches, data backup plan, disaster
recovery plan, and the business continuity plan are interrelated aspects of planning in any
organization. The three are involved in the identification of the potential organization data risks
such as loss through theft (data backup plan), loss through natural disasters (disaster recovery
plan and recovery of the prevention of the data loss (business continuity plan). Therefore, these
planning models are complementary frameworks that are applied in an organization to ensure the
safety of the data and the following result of business organization.

References

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Burns, B., & Ventures, A. (2012). Business Continuity Planning.
Kottomtharayil, R., CommVault Systems Inc, (2014). Data protection scheduling, such as
providing a flexible backup window in a data protection system. U.S. Patent 8,769,048.
Nelson, S. (2011). Pro data backup and recovery. Apress.
Nicoll, S. R., & Owens, R. W. (2013). Emergency response & business continuity: The next
generation in planning. Professional Safety, 58(9), 50.
Sahebjamnia, N., Torabi, S. A., & Mansouri, S. A. (2015). Integrated business continuity and
disaster recovery planning: Towards organizational resilience. European Journal of
Operational Research, 242(1), 261-273.
Snedaker, S. (2013). Business continuity and disaster recovery planning for IT professionals.
Newnes.