Find and Fix Errors

Frighteningly a very high percentage of business around the world are only a very short step away from total data loss even though they believe they are all ok. A principal culprit here is un-validated tape back ups. Simply put many companies go through a tape backup procedure but in the event of a problem it is only then that they realise the company back up has failed

Through some basic steps, businesses can better protect themselves against catastrophic data loss, these steps include:

• Why do I need a Disaster Recovery (DR) plan?
• Defining and planning
• Implementation
• Testing

There are numerous disasters that could befall any business at any time in reality, and most of these will be unforeseen, the UK has in recent times suffered from unprecedented floods and in the US ice storms and power failures are the most recent issues, all the more reason for ensuring you have a disaster recovery plan of some description ready to roll out.

The first thing you need to do is understand what is important to your business. Identify those systems that are critical to the running of your business, be it an email server, bespoke financial package or other data, building a continuity plan will help you recover these systems in the most cost effective, efficient way possible.

Another important aspect of your plan should be that the business downtime should be a short as possible, an hour lost in a small business with a few employees can be manageable but if you have hundreds of employees then even an hour downtime is equivalent to weeks of lost work cumilitavely.

Have your data backed up securely offsite, even in the event of a total loss of premises your data can be available in a different location with minimal fuss. Traditional tape backups although adequate if set up correctly can and do fail recovery is a lengthy process even for a single file. Other technologies such as data replication and remote offsite backup are more efficient, simpler and more reliable.

Every company will have different requirements so it is always worthwhile to have internal discussions to ascertain each departments principal requirements. Once this is done requirements can be broken down into manageable portions and sections to ensure nothing critical is missed from the plan or overlooked during your internal assessments.

And last but not least test test test! Sadly numerous stories abound of companies that have set up a DR plan of sorts then simply assumed it would work. You need to ensure your plan is robust and tested on a regular basis to ensure key personnel are practiced in its implementation.

Disaster Recovery planning and remote data backup protocols should be in place for every business that has critical business data and systems. Don’t wait until it is to late and disaster has already struck.

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