Disaster recovery continues to be an area of high risk and high cost
A recent survey by Janco Associates showed that organizations of all sizes considered that the loss of IT systems was the threat most likely to have an impact on costs and revenue and that it is the most commonly experienced disruption. The regulated nature of the IT environment, combined with the statutory obligations of clients’ data protection, means that having a disaster recovery system in place is essential. Until now, enterprises of all sizes have faced enormous costs and inflexible regimes to implement effective IT disaster recovery provisions. Many have therefore been forced to settle for a mere plan of action or ineffective options, which may in reality, do little to reduce their risks. So what are the options for protecting critical IT systems for your firm? Have a backup Most organizations take backups, but it is the barest minimum requirement for protecting your firm from a disaster. Backups are for getting you out of a hole when you accidentally delete/lose/corrupt data on your working machines. If you lose those machines completely then the backup will only help once you have replaced and rebuilt your systems. In addition, replacing and rebuilding is not as simple as it sounds and can take a long time before you have working systems again. CIOs should also know that taking a backup is not the same as having a good working backup. Backup processes have a reputation for letting enterprises down when they need them most. If the recovery plan in based on backups only, CIOs should check regularly that backups are actually working and understand that they have only covered the first step and plan to be without working systems for typically around 3 to 7 days). Also, remember that if you want to guard against a disaster that physically destroys your machines, then your backups need to be off-site - well out of harm’s way.
