Practical Disaster Recovery for SaaS

When you hear SOC 2 compliance you take a deep breath and you feel like it’s yet another utterly useless stuff for your company needs to adhere. But I will show you the practical aspect which will help you to scale your business and improve your overall security.

One of the most valuable aspects of SOC 2 is the Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP)—not just a policy for auditors but a critical strategy for protecting your business from financial and reputational harm when things go south.

The DRP aligns with key SOC 2 controls:

• A1.2 Backup and Recovery

• A1.3 Recovery Testing

(Pro Tip: Need an overview of all SOC 2 controls? Grab the SOC 2 Compliance Checklist here.)

Why does disaster recovery matter? Well, it’s simple: If you don’t have customers, a service outage is just a hiccup. But for a growing SaaS business, downtime can mean unhappy users, lost revenue, and a tarnished reputation.

In this newsletter, I’ll break down a practical DRP approach tailored for SaaS founders—so you can not only meet compliance requirements but also build a more resilient business. Here are the key elements of Your Disaster Recovery Plan:

1) Define RTO and RPO for Each Service

• RTO (Recovery Time Objective): Maximum acceptable downtime for each service.

• RPO (Recovery Point Objective): Maximum acceptable data loss time frame.

Example: For a billing service, your RTO might be 1 hour, and RPO could be 5 minutes. For a less critical service, like a reporting tool, RTO might stretch to 24 hours.

2) Step-by-Step Recovery Plan (aka Playbook)

Create a detailed recovery guide tailored to different disaster types (e.g., cyberattack, hardware failure, natural disaster).

• Be specific enough that anyone on your team can follow the steps without guesswork.

• Remember: This isn’t for auditors; it’s your go-to manual in a crisis.

3) Emergency Contacts

• Team Leads: List of employees responsible for each critical service, with their roles and contact information.

• Point of Contact: One person in charge of coordinating the recovery and troubleshooting any issues with the disaster recovery plan.

• Vendors and Third Parties: Contact details for software vendors, third-party services, and disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) providers, including steps to activate their services.

4) Access and Security Information

• Passwords and Access Keys: Securely store critical passwords, access rights, and configuration details required for recovery.

• Authorization List: Names and roles of team members who have the necessary permissions to access systems and data during recovery.

5) Facilities and Emergency Response

• Property Management: Contact information for facility owners and property managers. For example you have onsite servers and you cannot enter the office in the middle of the night…

• Emergency Responders: Fire, police, or medical contacts for handling disasters like fires or flooding.

6) IT Infrastructure Details

• IT Setup Overview: If you use a physical data center, include a simple diagram of your IT infrastructure, showing where key servers and recovery sites are located.

• Virtualization Details: If your business relies on virtual machines (VMs), outline where they are stored and the basic steps for recovering them.

+1) Practice with Fire Drills!

A recovery plan isn’t worth the paper it’s written on unless you test it. Simulate disasters to reveal gaps and refine your plan. For example, test restoring backups to confirm data integrity and recovery timelines. Regular drills help your team stay prepared and avoid surprises when disaster strikes.

Quick Summary

1. Assess the Situation: Identify the disaster and impacted services.

2. Notify the Team: Contact key personnel and stakeholders.

3. Activate the Plan: Follow the recovery playbook.

4. Communicate Status: Keep internal and external stakeholders updated.

5. Verify Recovery: Ensure all services are restored.

6. Post-Recovery Review: Document lessons learned and update the plan.

7. Test Regularly: Without testing, your recovery plan is just wishful thinking.

Conclusion

Disaster Recovery is about preparation, not perfection. A tested, working DRP ensures that your SaaS can withstand the unexpected, protect its reputation, and continue delivering value to your customers. By defining clear objectives, documenting detailed processes, and running regular drills, you can turn a compliance requirement into a strategic advantage.

Until next time,

Adam