IT Disaster Recovery Planning

1
IT Disaster Recovery Planning

• Reggie Luther
• TracSoft
• July 18, 2008

2
IT Disaster Recovery Planning
3
IT Disaster Recovery Planning

• Why Have a IT Disaster Recovery Plan
• Goals of a IT Disaster Recovery Plan
• Components of a IT Disaster Recovery Plan
• Backup Media
• Backup Procedures

4
Why Have a Disaster Recovery Plan

• More vital data is being stored in computer
  systems
• Instant access to electronic data has become more
  crucial in day-to-day business
• U.S. businesses lose over 12 billion per year
  because of data loss
• Viruses are more prevalent, more costly, more
  destructive, and caused more real damage to data
  and systems than in the past.

5
Why Have a Disaster Recovery Plan

• 93 of companies that lost their data center for
  10 days or more due to 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.

6
Why Have a Disaster Recovery Plan

• Reasons for data loss
• 40 Hardware Failure
• 29 Human Error
• 13 Software Corruption
• 9 Theft
• 6 Computer Viruses
• 3 Hardware Destruction

7
Why Have a Disaster Recovery Plan

• If your computer(s) died today
• How much data would you lose forever because
  youve never backed it up?
• How long would it take you to get new
  hardware/software into your hands?
• How long would it take you to do all the setup
  you need to get back where you were before the
  crash?

8
Why Have a Disaster Recovery Plan

• DRP is just as important as insurance policy to
  protect business
• Your hard drive WILL crash one day!
• So back it up!

9
Goals of an IT Disaster Plan?

• To minimize interruptions to the normal
  operations of the business
• To minimize the economic impact of the business
• To establish alternative means of operation in
  advance
• To train personnel with emergency procedures
• To provide for smooth and rapid restoration of
  service
• To recover lost data

10
Components of an IT Disaster Recovery plan

• Personnel contact information
• Back up site
• Manual plan
• Hardware inventory
• Software inventory

• Vendors
• Data Backup and recovery procedures
• Disaster Action Checklist
• Test the Plan

11
Components of an IT Disaster Recovery plan

• Personnel contact information
• Who is in charge
• Where is a copy of the DR plan
• Who has what responsibilities
• How to get in contact with everyone involved with
  plan

12
Components of an IT Disaster Recovery plan

• Back up site
• If facility is damaged, where will everyone
  assemble
• How will backup facility be configured
• What supplies and equipment will be needed

13
Components of an IT Disaster Recovery plan

• Manual plan
• How does the business function manually until
  systems are restored
• What are paper backup procedures
• What paper forms are needed
• Processes documented

14
Components of an IT Disaster Recovery plan

• Hardware inventory
• What hardware is used in business
• What are specific specs of hardware
• How can hardware be quickly replaced

15
Components of an IT Disaster Recovery plan

• Software inventory
• What software applications are being used in the
  business
• Are there specific configurations of the software
• How can the software be replace quickly

16
Components of an IT Disaster Recovery plan

• Vendors
• What vendors are needed to replace hardware and
  software
• How to contact them
• Who and how will replacements be purchased

17
Components of an IT Disaster Recovery plan

• Data Backup and recovery procedures
• What procedures were used to backup data
• What procedures are needed to restore data

18
Components of an IT Disaster Recovery plan

• Disaster Action Checklist
• Notify senior management
• Contact and set up disaster recovery team
• Determine degree of disaster
• Implement proper application recovery plan
  dependent on extent of disaster
• Contact backup site and establish schedules
• Contact all other necessary personnel
• Contact vendors
• Notify users of the disruption of service

19
Components of an IT Disaster Recovery plan

• Disaster Action Checklist
• List teams and tasks of each
• Obtain emergency cash and set up transportation
  to and from backup site, if necessary
• Establish user participation plan
• Set up living quarters eat establishments, if
  necessary
• Set up the delivery and the receipt of mail
• Establish emergency office supplies

20
Components of an IT Disaster Recovery plan

• Disaster Action Checklist
• Rent or purchase equipment, as needed
• Determine applications to be run and in what
  sequence
• Identify number of workstations needed
• Check all data being taken to backup site before
  leaving and leave inventory profile at home
  location
• Plan for transportation of any additional items
  needed at backup site

21
Components of an IT Disaster Recovery plan

• Disaster Action Checklist
• Ensure that all personnel involved know their
  tasks
• Notify insurance companies

22
Components of an IT Disaster Recovery plan

• Plan Testing
• Disruptive to the business
• Test plan at least yearly
• Test procedures developed
• Go through as much of the checklist as possible

23
Backup Media

• CDs/DVDs
• Removal disks and tape
• Hard Drive
• Network Attached Storage(NAS)
• On line backup
• Online documents
• Thumb Drive/SD cards
• PDA

24
Backup Media

• CDs/DVDs
• Inexpensive
• Slow for daily backup
• Multiple disks
• Great for long archive time (pictures, music,
  video)

25
Backup Media

• Removal disks and tape
• Rotate multiple copies drives
• Great for keeping versions of backup

26
Backup Media

• Hard Drive
• Great for imaging
• Hard drives not made for a lot of transporting
• Portable hard drive for travel with laptop

27
Backup Media

• Network Attached Storage(NAS)
• Backup multiple computers to single drive
• Can be more expensive
• Tape or removable disk can be attached to NAS

28
Backup Media

• Online backup
• Must have broadband connection
• Initial backup very slow
• Online backup providers
• Mozy
• iDrive

29
Backup Media

• Online documents
• Google Docs
• Office Live
• xDrive

30
Backup Media

• Thumb Drive/SD cards
• Inexpensive
• Great for small data amounts
• Drive sizes are getting smaller and cheaper

31
Backup Media

• PDA Sync
• Email
• Contacts
• Calendar

32
Backup Procedures

• The easier the back procedure is the more likely
  you will do it
• Image hard drive
• Incremental backup
• How often?
• Verify backups
• Keep backups off site

33
Backup Procedures

• The easier the back procedure is the more likely
  you will do it
• Put all data files in My Documents Folder
• Identify applications with data in other folders
• Outlook file
• Bookmarks
• Automate as much as possible

34
Backup Procedures

• Image hard drive
• Exact snap shot of your hard drive
• Imaging software
• Norton Ghost
• Acronis True Image
• Online

35
Backup Procedures

• Incremental backup
• Only saves any new or changed files
• Faster than full backup
• Online
• Backup software
• Windows backup utility
• Norton
• Acronis
• Veritas

36
Backup Procedures

• How often?
• Image monthly or at least quarterly
• Incremental daily

37
Backup Procedures

• Verify backups
• Most backup software can verify backups
• Backups fail
• Backup media fail

38
Backup Procedures

• Keep backups off site
• Take home from office
• Trade backup copies with friend or business
  associate
• Hire service to come and pick up backup
• Keep copy of software CD/DVD/s off site
• Put pictures on DVDs and put in safe deposit box

39
IT Disaster Recovery Planning

• Questions?
• Reggie Luther
• TracSoft
• 706-568-4133
• rluther_at_tracsoft.com
• blog.tracsoft.com