Tuesday, June 11, 2013

IT Disaster Recovery Quick Start Guide

If you've ever spent a few days in the hope of recovering nerves vital data, you know that if your technology is not available, your business is going to him. Flood, fire, from a computer virus in just spilled coffee on the server -. You need a plan to get you up and running again without problems and minimize downtime
good data recovery plan can save you thousands of dollars in lost productivity, lost revenue and expensive last-minute information on recovery. It is the best insurance you this, if a disaster occurs, your business is protected may have. The action plan will help you keep your data safe and ready for any kind of office technology failures or disasters. Follow these five easy steps to your own IT data disaster recovery and continuity plan to create. This is a great start, to ensure that your critical data is protected, come wind, rain, fire -. Or double espresso Step 1: Determine your priorities To get started, you need the key business functions, including critical equipment, leading to identify your business. One step back and ask yourself: If you were forced to do business with limited equipment, minimal staff and less-than-perfect conditions, if you really need to to get your business going? Start an inventory of "must haves". It is generally divided into three main categories: information Mission Critical: Many customer-oriented activities such as payroll and accounting software, e-mail drop, invoice customers, contracts and files for the current project in this category. This is information that your company can not live without, even for a few days. Important to your day-to-day business requires this information in continuous data protection with zero loss and zero downtime critical business information. The loss of data is not put business. Business is no more difficult running your company. Information such as the department database and second software often fall into this category. A day or two without business critical information does not take commissions, but may affect your ability to service customers very seriously Operationally Important Information: Operationally important information and equipment includes items such as novelty files, file servers or printers. The articles in this category usually easy to replace or infrequently accessed, they can. Lower priority for recovery of data Remember that just because the data is rarely accessed, does not mean it is not important. Historical information and support for things like tax returns, personnel files and medical records can be accessed only rarely, but this information is quite important in an audit or litigation
Step 2. Develop recovery timeline, the acceptable level of Data Loss well If you are the business functions and information you need to keep your business running are met, it is time to figure out how long you can go without him. This section of your data recovery plan should address two important issues:
Recovery Time Objective (RTO): RTO is the amount of time you can work without your information . RTO can falls somewhere between a few minutes up to several days, depending on the nature of the failure data. For example, your RTO more time on data after the storm than to recover from a computer virus. RTO also related to the priority information: mission-critical data, for example, is always shorter RTO as business critical or important operational data Object Recovery Point (RPO) is the number of RPO. the minutes, hours, days and weeks that amount of information that can make your company lose. For example, if your business generates a large paper trail before the data can not be entered again lost data very difficult. If you data directly to the computer (paperless), it is impossible to recover the lost data. Since there is no loss of data is acceptable in this situation you have a reliable hard drive or remote backup system with continuous data protection. It is important to note also bound RPO industry and government regulatory requirements such as those associated with Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPPA
Step 3. Consider the possibilities Define your RTO and RPO for any data loss situation. Different scenarios result in different recovery time. For example, it may take a few days to relax after a building fire that requires the implementation of a comprehensive disaster recovery plan that includes a new position, leadership, and phone service set up. Compared to a server failure, which often means a few minutes to an hour of downtime, your RTO and RPO considerably longer for disaster. The most common types of data loss situations are:
human error, such as data deletion or data entry error file corruption, viruses such as storage loss raid controller failure error server, including computer failures, error or theft disasters, such as fires, floods and hurricanes
simple chart adjust your RPO and RTO times for all business functions and data by priority for each class or kind of disaster. When you have completed this step, you will analyze and prioritize business needs of your organization and established a timetable for the recovery of critical business processes for each type of disaster. With information, now is the time to write a plan.
Step 4: Take Action, Make a plan You know what's important. You understand how long you can go without critical business processes and how long it is to get it back if your office is hit by a hurricane or a company-wide computer virus. Now is the time to take the information in your data recovery plan official. A great stimulus package should be step by step instructions for recovery of your critical information and business after a disaster. Of course, this plan will depend on your company's needs, specific needs of your company's systems and information priorities. As you write your recovery plan, it is important to look at your current data backup and recovery procedures. Most companies use tape, disk-to-disk remote backup service, or a combination of the three. Your action plan should be specific to the type of data storage method you use, including instructions for the task:
How often must each set of information which is undoubtedly the computer system back up , including backup for the complete system or data only, for each server dokumentierenWie often re getestetDie as the generation of data stored for each computer and data information needed for recovery of virtual servers, and separate servers, including hardware ÄnderungenNur for backup data - finding media with operating systems, programs, passwords and licenses key contact record primary and secondary responsible for the information again
If you have a tape-based system, to save your data, your plan should also note:
How often and how far side rotated off-site tape drive, cleaning procedures and expectations life of regular media disk replacement protocol for emergency tape from the remote site recovery Weekly Tape Measurement and Information System Restore Keep at least 20 tape backup rotation Safe area data is fully encrypted before it is tape written by save the band from 41 to 89 degrees with 20-60 percent RH
Check your schedule rotation tape and your business the exposure to loss of business. For example, if you rotate the tapes off-site every Friday, you're in danger of losing 7 business days. The cost of rebuilding this information after a seven-day loss was devastating. On the other hand, if you rotate the tapes off-site every day, you are in danger of losing just one day's worth of information, which is usually a best-case scenario for the tape -based backup system. Recovering even a day may be too expensive for some companies, but it may be acceptable for others.
Step 5: Identify the players (and the Benchwarmers) If you have a plan, you need a reliable team, the steps in the event of a disaster. Your IT manager restore your server after a disaster? Your remote backup service provider? A combination of both? In addition, you need to name the alternative for players. In case of a major disaster, like a tornado or a flood, some of your emergency team members unavailable or unable to reach your site. Appointment of members and alternates for key to exercise your DR plan assures that someone is ready to take your business running. Make sure the managed backup service providers have DR plans as well. Aside from the fact that with your data recovery plan, have your Emergency Response Team:
Current emergency contact information for all employees, especially alternate team members - whether this information is found only on the site, it can not be used when they are most needed contact information for your company building and managing critical suppliers, such as remote backup provider or your computer dealer for a list of possible the successor or replacement page where team members can not your investment skills in preparation If you have a solid plan, you need to try, to edit, rewrite and update your business plan quarterly data recovery. The right managed backup provider save your disaster plan and documented in their CRM system. You should also participate in all of your disaster recovery training. During a disaster, loss of information, and system failures can not be completely prevented, their effects with a little planning and preparation can been minimized.