The ABCs of creating a disaster recovery plan
Editor’s Note: Technology Partners is a regular column written by members of the Information Technology Solution Providers Alliance.
Disaster recovery doesn’t mean just backing up data or systems. A truly comprehensive plan details how your business can recover from the loss of its complete computing infrastructure.
Unfortunately, most small firms simply back up their systems with CDs and DVDs, thinking this will protect them from the loss of critical data. But this small-fry attitude can spell disaster. Because they can become corrupted over time, CDs and DVDs are not reliable for backup. Plus, they make it hard to locate specific information on each disk. Use them for data archiving, but not backup.
To get a sense of how extensive — and expensive — your disaster recovery strategy should be, consider these questions:
What impact would the loss of data have on your business? Would the effects be long- or short-term?
How much revenue would you lose for each hour of downtime?
Can your data be replaced, or is it impossible to reconstruct?
What corporate information needs to be backed up? Create a hierarchy by listing critical data and arranging it in order of importance. Can any old or useless data be excluded?
How much data do you have? Where does it reside?
How often should data be backed up? Do some systems need hourly or daily backups, while others need only weekly or monthly backups?
Like most technology purchases, you should evaluate back-up methods in terms of need vs. cost. For example, tapes are cheap and can hold a great deal of data. Plus, they are convenient. Simply box them up and send them to an off-site storage facility, and your data is covered. Yet tapes can deteriorate rather quickly, putting data integrity at risk. Zip disks are also prone to deterioration and are costly as well. Jukeboxes, too, are better for archiving than backup. While they hold multiple CDs and DVDs and are easily to search, the media can deteriorate over time.
More stable methods of storage tend to cost more. But for a company with large quantities of mission-critical data, these options are well worth the expense. Web-based storage can be economical for small companies. Outsourced data centers provide perhaps the most secure data backup, although you should frequently require proof that backups have been made on schedule.
You should also put strategies in place to ensure your business can stay operational despite external conditions. For example, give key personnel laptop PCs so they can access online backup data and Web-based e-mail systems even if the power is interrupted. Also use a portable hard disk to periodically back up a few local computers, then store it off site. This way, if the office becomes off-limits or non-operational, you can attach the drive to a small network to get some employees up-and-running.
Businesses that rely on their office locations should ensure they have access to an uninterruptible power supply. Critical questions include how long auxiliary generators can run and whether enough fuel is stored for them on-site.
No matter what disaster recovery plan you choose, it must become an everyday part of your company’s life. The plan should be tested at least twice a year, without warning. Plus, critical restore procedures should be tested in real time. Even more important, you should train your staff to perform an IT recovery, even when your firm’s disaster recovery czar is not available.
Many small businesses rely on an outside hosting or data storage provider. If you go this route, be sure to check up on the vendor with surprise visits, says Mitch Gervis, president and CEO for Web hosting company NeoSpire. “Go knock on the door in the middle of the night and see if anyone is there.” Data should not just be backed up regularly. Copies should be available on demand, too.
Above all else, you need to act now. It’s hard to set aside time and money for a “what-if” situation. But if disaster strikes, these systems will be critical to the life of your business.
Van Orden is executive director of the Information Technology Solution Providers Alliance in Dallas, Texas.
