Disaster Recovery Solutions
Ensuring that data is adequately protected and can be recovered in a timely manner after data loss occurs is of paramount importance to business continuity in advance of an actual disaster. Data loss can occur in any number of ways including human error, a computer virus, hardware or system failure, software corruption, theft, or a natural disaster.
Small and medium-sized businesses located in Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia with limited IT staff are particularly vulnerable. It is therefore extremely important to have a plan documented and to periodically test the plan to ensure that it meets the needs of the business. The plan should detail the customer’s data assets and document how each asset is backed up and restored. It should also include policies regarding media storage, media rotation, and security, as well as procedures for natural disasters. Planning should be a regular activity for businesses of all sizes. However, many small and medium-sized businesses are not adequately prepared to handle data loss today.
- 93% of companies that lost their data center for ten days or more as a result of a disaster filed for bankruptcy within one year of the disaster. 50% of businesses that found themselves without data management for this same time period filed for bankruptcy immediately
- 30% of companies report that they still do not have a business continuity program in place and two in three companies feel that their data backup and DR plans have significant vulnerabilities Furthermore, only 59% of companies polled test their data backup and storage systems at least once a quarter. Conducting a regular external audit of backup and restore systems is far from a common practice – only 32% report conducting an external audit
- 30% of all businesses that have a major fire go out of business within a year. 70% fail within five years
- Computer virus attacks cost businesses an estimated $55 billion in damages in 2006
Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP)
For organizations that do not have a DRP in place a complete plan needs to be documented:
- Organizations are often unfamiliar with how to cost effectively match data protection requirements with technology. Assistance with evaluating data loss risks and recommending appropriate protection strategies is a key component of a DRP.
- The outcome of the planning phase should be accurately documented to enable your organization to respond to disasters in a timely and competent manner. Documentation should include an inventory of data assets, backup technologies in use, backup and restore processes for various levels of data loss, and off-site storage and security policies. The DRP will also include recommendations for the technology and processes that need to be implemented to ensure your organization is ready for any disaster.
Disaster Recovery Audit (DRA)
Customers that have an existing DRP in place need to test that plan on a regular basis to ensure the business can survive a disaster in its current state. An audit should include a specific checklist of tasks that will be independently performed and/or verified in conjunction with on-site staff. This checklist should, at a minimum, include the following:
- Verify that backup tapes for the past two weeks can be restored to a test server and that mission-critical and organization-critical data is valid
- Review procedures for natural disasters that may occur locally including fire, flood, earthquake, lightning strikes, or other potential causes of complete data loss
- Verify that core application data (e.g. e-mail, calendaring, and database) can be restored
- Review backup practices and confirm that data loss windows are appropriate. For example, transaction logs backed up during the day can be appended to the last full backup to minimize daily data loss
- Review policies for off-site storage of backup media including security access.
Online Backup with SysArc DataVaulting
This solution provides businesses with near real-time backups that also includes seamless off-site data storage along with multi-year archiving and fast server virtualization capabilities. There are advanced restoration options like file and folder level restorations, with Exchange message and mailbox recovery and bare metal restorations to dissimilar hardware. Within hours, the unique Gateway device can also be configured to function as a virtual server if needed. This solution will replace management intensive, error-prone tape backups while providing much more..
Data Center Co-location
Co-locate your business critical equipment in a secure, state-of-the-art data center that connects directly to a Tier 1, IP network. From extensive power back up systems to complete fire detection and suppression plans, the facility is constructed to ensure the safety and security of your equipment.
Server & Desktop Virtualization
Virtualization is a method of running multiple independent virtual operating systems on a single physical computer. It is a way of maximizing physical resources to maximize the investment in hardware. Since Moore's law has accurately predicted the exponential growth of computing power and hardware requirements for the most part have not changed to accomplish the same computing tasks, it is now feasible to turn a very inexpensive 1U dual-socket dual-core commodity server into eight or even 16 virtual servers that run 16 virtual operating systems. Virtualization technology is a way of achieving higher server density. However, it does not actually increase total computing power; it decreases it slightly because of overhead. But since a modern $3,000 2-socket 4-core server is more powerful than a $30,000 8-socket 8-core server was four years ago, we can exploit this newly found hardware power by increasing the number of logical operating systems it hosts. This slashes the majority of hardware acquisition and maintenance costs that can result in significant savings for any company or organization..
