Small Businesses Disaster recovery
In this era of automation disaster recovery is gaining increasing significance Since all the business have adopted computer technology and rely on the computers memory to run their businesses any attack on the machine can adversely affect a company s business Disaster recovery is equally important for small businesses that run on laptops and personal computers
Imagine you are on your way to win over a client by showing him an exclusive presentation that you have made for him and the laptop looses the valuable data The consequences can be terrible and entail significant losses for the company Therefore big or small all the businesses must have adequate disaster recovery mechanism in place To ensure the security of all your valuable data seek for professional help You can avail the services of a reputed data recovery expert immediately after automating your systems and procedures Do not wait until a disaster actually occurs because there are chances that you may never be able to recover that data Data recovery services are extremely popular in all the cities and across all business categories hence you will easily find a data recovery expert for your company You can also locate such providers on the Internet and in the yellow pages
Choose the Right Data Recovery Expert Data recovery experts are easily found in all the business spheres The challenge is however to trace the right one from the kitty You can begin the work of finding the best data recovery expert by asking people around Check with your colleagues to find who their data recovery services provider is If you have already short listed some experts the next step is to check their experience in the field Prefer to choose a service provider who has a minimum five years experience in the line Also find out his record of accomplishment for performance
After checking all the necessary details about the service provider personally meet him You have to feel comfortable talking to the service provider otherwise you may have problems sharing highly sensitive information with him Feeling the positive vibes during the meeting is important Find Out the Charges of the Service Provider Do not hesitate in asking the service provider about how much he would charge you for providing various services related to financial management Generally such professionals have a fixed fee if the service provider you are interviewing beats around the bushes while discussing his compensation there are chances that he is a fake or a new entrant in the financial services industry Go for long term contracts with these service providers as the discounts are based on the duration on the contract Check the terms and conditions of the agreement before signing For many businesses and their managers disaster recovery planning never cross their minds businesses carry out their usual day to day activity unaware of what could happen if disaster struck but there are some fundamentals that you should consider The first of which is a disaster recover plan
The disaster recovery plan should describe how your business will cope in the case of an emergency what actions will be undertaken and who will co ordinate them But what things should go into a plan In our checklist below we describe some of the things to consider In today s world businesses are beginning to demand more from their information systems At the same time the outer limit of technology is being stretched to its limit to meet this demand This in turn puts a greater responsibility on the service Organisation with the kind of daunting challenge that it faces A standard reactive service does not solve the situation with solutions that it can present To handle the situation a more pro active approach should be adopted to run mission critical operation in today s heterogeneous client server networks
If enterprise applications are not planned taking into consideration all aspects of data loss this can cripple the enterprise all together A system downtime can cost the enterprise tens of thousands of dollars per minute and considering the days it takes for recovery the loss could be well imagined Selecting implementing and maintaining a data disaster recovery infrastructure is a challenging job If you find that it is making you taking chances there are such services available who are professionally experienced equipped with high availability technology and proven best practices in such disaster management
To understand a recovery process you should first understand your current state find out ways mitigating the risks and last of all make a thorough plan of recovery You should use available tools to audit your infrastructure risks and identify the danger in the process prioritising the system restorations You shall need to make sure that you have with you the experience in the team looking after the aspect of data loss and disaster recovery and building up test procedures for various disaster scenarios The strategy of data or disaster recovery should be where all such disasters are withstood with a well chalked out plan Such recovery operations are generally transferred to a remote service centre or a facility to have the enterprise back on the rail within the recovery time objective and the objective targets
For quite some years professionals in Information and Technology took disaster recovery to be the simple data recovery process of data files in case of a computer or disk failure Things are different today with increasing complexity in data handling and management data losses are termed as disasters to any enterprise functioning Today s concept demands the constant availability of the complex data and the notion of the data being made available within a short period of time if there should be that unfortunate data loss or disaster
Disaster is not just a serious loss of data a dead hard drive or a power loss through human error or through malicious software Instead a disaster could mean complete loss of communication through out the network including serious data losses through out the enterprise To handle such situations disaster recovery mandates are necessary that insist on instant recovery
The impact on user is an important factor when the implementation of high reliability disaster recovery system is being considered and implemented In the event of the initiation of a recovery process the user should continue to be connected to data as the disaster recovery process takes over The process of disaster recovery should be totally transparent to the user This is mostly with the instance when the source and the location of the data changes take place when the data disaster recovery process is in process Therefore user functions should go on uninterrupted and such should be for both the internal and external users for example the users who are accessing the web servers or your VPN servers The user function should be a continued process without having to shut down and restart the system
There are some basic requirements needed to be considered while you are planning and designing data recovery procedures for your site The general guidelines of these requirements include the following You need to make sure that the sites have top level of support from the hardware and software vendors For any mission critical applications it is mandatory to use uninterrupted power supply
You need to set up a system more appropriately a monitoring tool to proactively detect problems Your monitoring tool should be capable of event monitoring and problem reporting may be by sending a message to the email inbox of your DBA Additionally the tool needs to monitor space usage and other crucial aspects of data storage in a proactive manner Internet connectivity to your site is a necessity for in case of problems your hardware software vendors or any disaster recovery service agency can remotely access your site and take necessary actions to monitor diagnose and repair the fault Each of your production sites should have the right hardware protection system This may include a hard disk mirroring device implementation of a back up and recovery plan and stocking of enough spare parts to service your hardware when necessary RAID Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks may be one way to make continuous availability of your data building up the capability of fault tolerance implementation However the reliability of this fault tolerance and improvement of data reliability will depend upon the RAID level used Your production site must be kept in such an environment which is hazard free and an environmental audit is done from time to time If you have very large database VLDB you should preferably maintain a test bed and part of the data should be held in the test bed system This would be required when you are performing on site testing and migration planning for future database expansions
Operation logs are ideal for such sites where any kind of physical design operational environmental or scheduled task is logged each time they are performed
1 Analyze your business
What systems can be down for what period of time before serious consequences occur For example if your ERP system goes down and you can t process sales what s the impact With a subjective view you ll probably find that you can manage without some systems for a while perhaps upto a week with other s you ll need them back up again as soon as possible Develop some computer failure procedures to manage your key business activity when IT is unavailable make sure that copies of these processes are included in the plan
2 Identify possible risks
Examples of risks to your business include the loss of IT systems loss of buildings or plant machinery etc Detail some mitigation in your recovery plan For example if you don t have access to your office in the event of a disaster is there other business premises temporary accommodation that you can use If so list appropriate telephone numbers as part of the plan
3 Recovery team
Put together a recovery team with clear lines of authorization who are responsible for co ordinating activity in case of disaster They should be responsible for maintaining your disaster recovery plan and meet on a regular basis to ensure that the plan is still relevant and accurate
4 Backup your IT systems
Ensure that you backup your IT systems at suitably regular intervals and test the recovery process Make sure that any backup tapes CD s are stored off site or in a fire proof safe Make sure the recovery process is documented in your Disaster recovery plan
5 Inventory your key equipment
Keep an inventory of crucial capital equipment and machinery so that it s easily identified and replaceable if needs arise Keep a record of suitable suppliers and contact numbers so that you can use them in an emergency
In this era of automation disaster recovery is gaining increasing significance Since all the business have adopted computer technology and rely on the computers memory to run their businesses any attack on the machine can adversely affect a company s business Disaster recovery is equally important for small businesses that run on laptops and personal computers
Imagine you are on your way to win over a client by showing him an exclusive presentation that you have made for him and the laptop looses the valuable data The consequences can be terrible and entail significant losses for the company Therefore big or small all the businesses must have adequate disaster recovery mechanism in place To ensure the security of all your valuable data seek for professional help You can avail the services of a reputed data recovery expert immediately after automating your systems and procedures Do not wait until a disaster actually occurs because there are chances that you may never be able to recover that data Data recovery services are extremely popular in all the cities and across all business categories hence you will easily find a data recovery expert for your company You can also locate such providers on the Internet and in the yellow pages
Choose the Right Data Recovery Expert Data recovery experts are easily found in all the business spheres The challenge is however to trace the right one from the kitty You can begin the work of finding the best data recovery expert by asking people around Check with your colleagues to find who their data recovery services provider is If you have already short listed some experts the next step is to check their experience in the field Prefer to choose a service provider who has a minimum five years experience in the line Also find out his record of accomplishment for performance
After checking all the necessary details about the service provider personally meet him You have to feel comfortable talking to the service provider otherwise you may have problems sharing highly sensitive information with him Feeling the positive vibes during the meeting is important Find Out the Charges of the Service Provider Do not hesitate in asking the service provider about how much he would charge you for providing various services related to financial management Generally such professionals have a fixed fee if the service provider you are interviewing beats around the bushes while discussing his compensation there are chances that he is a fake or a new entrant in the financial services industry Go for long term contracts with these service providers as the discounts are based on the duration on the contract Check the terms and conditions of the agreement before signing For many businesses and their managers disaster recovery planning never cross their minds businesses carry out their usual day to day activity unaware of what could happen if disaster struck but there are some fundamentals that you should consider The first of which is a disaster recover plan
The disaster recovery plan should describe how your business will cope in the case of an emergency what actions will be undertaken and who will co ordinate them But what things should go into a plan In our checklist below we describe some of the things to consider In today s world businesses are beginning to demand more from their information systems At the same time the outer limit of technology is being stretched to its limit to meet this demand This in turn puts a greater responsibility on the service Organisation with the kind of daunting challenge that it faces A standard reactive service does not solve the situation with solutions that it can present To handle the situation a more pro active approach should be adopted to run mission critical operation in today s heterogeneous client server networks
If enterprise applications are not planned taking into consideration all aspects of data loss this can cripple the enterprise all together A system downtime can cost the enterprise tens of thousands of dollars per minute and considering the days it takes for recovery the loss could be well imagined Selecting implementing and maintaining a data disaster recovery infrastructure is a challenging job If you find that it is making you taking chances there are such services available who are professionally experienced equipped with high availability technology and proven best practices in such disaster management
To understand a recovery process you should first understand your current state find out ways mitigating the risks and last of all make a thorough plan of recovery You should use available tools to audit your infrastructure risks and identify the danger in the process prioritising the system restorations You shall need to make sure that you have with you the experience in the team looking after the aspect of data loss and disaster recovery and building up test procedures for various disaster scenarios The strategy of data or disaster recovery should be where all such disasters are withstood with a well chalked out plan Such recovery operations are generally transferred to a remote service centre or a facility to have the enterprise back on the rail within the recovery time objective and the objective targets
For quite some years professionals in Information and Technology took disaster recovery to be the simple data recovery process of data files in case of a computer or disk failure Things are different today with increasing complexity in data handling and management data losses are termed as disasters to any enterprise functioning Today s concept demands the constant availability of the complex data and the notion of the data being made available within a short period of time if there should be that unfortunate data loss or disaster
Disaster is not just a serious loss of data a dead hard drive or a power loss through human error or through malicious software Instead a disaster could mean complete loss of communication through out the network including serious data losses through out the enterprise To handle such situations disaster recovery mandates are necessary that insist on instant recovery
The impact on user is an important factor when the implementation of high reliability disaster recovery system is being considered and implemented In the event of the initiation of a recovery process the user should continue to be connected to data as the disaster recovery process takes over The process of disaster recovery should be totally transparent to the user This is mostly with the instance when the source and the location of the data changes take place when the data disaster recovery process is in process Therefore user functions should go on uninterrupted and such should be for both the internal and external users for example the users who are accessing the web servers or your VPN servers The user function should be a continued process without having to shut down and restart the system
There are some basic requirements needed to be considered while you are planning and designing data recovery procedures for your site The general guidelines of these requirements include the following You need to make sure that the sites have top level of support from the hardware and software vendors For any mission critical applications it is mandatory to use uninterrupted power supply
You need to set up a system more appropriately a monitoring tool to proactively detect problems Your monitoring tool should be capable of event monitoring and problem reporting may be by sending a message to the email inbox of your DBA Additionally the tool needs to monitor space usage and other crucial aspects of data storage in a proactive manner Internet connectivity to your site is a necessity for in case of problems your hardware software vendors or any disaster recovery service agency can remotely access your site and take necessary actions to monitor diagnose and repair the fault Each of your production sites should have the right hardware protection system This may include a hard disk mirroring device implementation of a back up and recovery plan and stocking of enough spare parts to service your hardware when necessary RAID Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks may be one way to make continuous availability of your data building up the capability of fault tolerance implementation However the reliability of this fault tolerance and improvement of data reliability will depend upon the RAID level used Your production site must be kept in such an environment which is hazard free and an environmental audit is done from time to time If you have very large database VLDB you should preferably maintain a test bed and part of the data should be held in the test bed system This would be required when you are performing on site testing and migration planning for future database expansions
Operation logs are ideal for such sites where any kind of physical design operational environmental or scheduled task is logged each time they are performed
1 Analyze your business
What systems can be down for what period of time before serious consequences occur For example if your ERP system goes down and you can t process sales what s the impact With a subjective view you ll probably find that you can manage without some systems for a while perhaps upto a week with other s you ll need them back up again as soon as possible Develop some computer failure procedures to manage your key business activity when IT is unavailable make sure that copies of these processes are included in the plan
2 Identify possible risks
Examples of risks to your business include the loss of IT systems loss of buildings or plant machinery etc Detail some mitigation in your recovery plan For example if you don t have access to your office in the event of a disaster is there other business premises temporary accommodation that you can use If so list appropriate telephone numbers as part of the plan
3 Recovery team
Put together a recovery team with clear lines of authorization who are responsible for co ordinating activity in case of disaster They should be responsible for maintaining your disaster recovery plan and meet on a regular basis to ensure that the plan is still relevant and accurate
4 Backup your IT systems
Ensure that you backup your IT systems at suitably regular intervals and test the recovery process Make sure that any backup tapes CD s are stored off site or in a fire proof safe Make sure the recovery process is documented in your Disaster recovery plan
5 Inventory your key equipment
Keep an inventory of crucial capital equipment and machinery so that it s easily identified and replaceable if needs arise Keep a record of suitable suppliers and contact numbers so that you can use them in an emergency
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