High Availability & Disaster Recovery
Recent disasters constantly remind us about the importance of Business Continuity Planning and Disaster Recovery (BCP/DR). The old saying “hope for the best but plan for the worst” applies now more than ever. Perhaps it is human nature or the speed of business that causes many organizations to fulfill the “hope for the best” part than implement the “plan for the worst” part. For government and businesses entities, not planning can mean the difference between recovering and not recovering from a disaster event.
It is helpful to keep in mind that when devising and ultimately implementing a Business Continuity / Disaster Recovery Plan, focusing upon an exhaustive scenario list of the different types of disasters that could occur and how to deal with each and every one of them, will certainly lead to a project which is too massive to possibly succeed.
We approach BCP/DR by identifying a limited set of scenarios as experience shows that all disasters will result in the loss of one or more of the following three general categories:
• Loss of Utility - Inability to access a resource due to localized power outage, communication failure, a fault in a server, security system, router, mis-configuration, personnel issue, etc.
• Loss of Information - Inability to access a resource or service due to data fault, corruption, virus, partner fault, etc.
• Loss of Access - Inability to access any resources or services (major disaster event)
A good place to start is the Business Impact Analysis (BIA). It is an essential component of an organization's Business Continuity Plan (BCP). The purpose of this task is to identify the organizational implications associated with the of Loss of Utility, Loss of Information , or Loss of Access. It highlights which functions may be interrupted by an outage, and the consequences of such interruptions. The analysis guides the selection of recovery alternatives through the identification of critical elements for each business function. A basic assumption of the BIA is that every component of the organization is reliant upon the continued functioning of every other component, but some components are more critical than others and require a greater allocation of funds in the event of a disaster.
The result of analysis is a business impact analysis report, which describes the potential risks specific to your organization. It identifies the key business issues and justifies the resources needed to execute a plan. In essence, the BIA provides the rationale and cost justification for risk mitigation, response, resumption, recovery and restoration-related decisions.
To learn more about how BCP/DR services, please call us to schedule a free initial consultation.
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“And disasters do happen. Cables are cut, buildings are hit by lightening causing destructive surges or even catastrophic fires. Telecommunications carriers upon which you may rely for internet, third party, or remote office connections have service interruptions. Hurricanes strike causing flood and other damage. No matter how strong you build fault tolerance into your systems, our dear friend Murphy is never too far away." |