1

I am tasked with the initial draft of an IT disaster recovery plan for my organization. My predecessor never started one so now I am the lucky fellow to tackle this project.

My experience in working with a disaster recovery plan is '0'. (Don't get me wrong, I relish the opportunity.)

There are many supplementary documentation that I feel needs to be included in the disaster recovery plan. Instead of copy/pasting the documents inside one giant Word document or keeping a directory with supplementary documentation, I was thinking of implementing a personal wiki (the wiki will be offline). Benefits I feel this will add are::

  • continual iterative process of keeping the document up to date by not having to worry about a formal linear structure of a Word document
  • linking the relevant supplementary documentation within the wiki as attachments
  • ease searching for proper reactions to disasters since the wiki indexes the content
  • leveraging a wiki's capability to convey a "many to many" relationship of systems, divisions, and resources

I am also planning on printing out the all-inclusive disaster recovery plan to be put inside a binder.

Is is a bad idea to implement a wiki for disaster recovery, or would it be a good idea? What are your ideas on implementing a personal wiki software for disaster recovery plans?

Like I mentioned, this is new territory so any feedback is appreciated!

schroeder
  • 123,438
  • 55
  • 284
  • 319
I2thesecond
  • 11
  • 1

2 Answers2

2

Any documentation software will work just fine, even a bare web page can do what you hope a wiki could.

But, there is one aspect that you need to keep in mind: an authoritative version. Having a wiki means interative versioning, but that's also its weakness. How can the organization have faith that in the middle of a disaster that they are using the tested, approved, and safe version of the plan? What if a disaster occurs while you are in the middle of updating the wiki? What if an attacker maliciously updates the plan to his advantage and then triggers a disaster?

Depending on how you implement it, you need to make sure that only the official version of the plan is available. That's certainly possible, but you need to make sure that you implement the wiki in a way that accounts for that.

schroeder
  • 123,438
  • 55
  • 284
  • 319
0

I would suggest having a living document - probably a wiki, a page, etc. If you have the people, a separate hardcopy edition that includes all disaster scenarios described and mitigation techniques. Another monkey wrench would be the implausible scenario that the living document gets overwritten just before an incident. You could plan for everything but money and time will be the limiting factor.

I'd like to see a disaster plan where it includes sudden submergence through natural disasters and the contingency plan that comes with that particular nugget.

munchkin
  • 393
  • 1
  • 5