DISASTER RECOVERY
As more and more business processes become dependent on information systems, a paper-based business continuity plan (BCP) becomes less and less feasible for many organizations. It becomes evident very quickly that certain mission-critical systems must be part of a BCP.
To address this need, it it very important for an organization to engage in Disaster Recovery Planning activities that can address the business requirements while minimizing the costs associated with a disaster recovery infrastructure. Proper DR Planning will balance the functional requirements of the business unit while addressing the budgetary impact different technologies will introduce.
To properly address the needs of an organization, it is important to understand the differences between Disaster Recovery, High Availability and Fault Tolerant objectives. It is equally important to understand how each of these technologies are related to system availability and the cost of such a solution.
The chart to the right contains an axis for System Availability or Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and an axis for Data Loss or Recovery Point Objective (RPO).
By plotting these objectives it becomes much easier to identify where the associated infrastructure costs are being introduced to a proposed infrastructure.
It is important to understand how dramatically costs can increase when moving into the top right quadrant. Costs that can generally only be justified for the most time-critical systems that can tolerate absolutely no data loss.
These systems do exist in many industries but there are many creative techniques that can be used to minimize the costs associated with such extreme requirements.
Panthera Consulting can help to identify the best way your organization can meet or exceed recovery objectives while still containing costs wherever possible.
Disaster Recovery Auditing
While many organizations have highly skilled individuals developing disaster recovery plans and implementing disaster recovery systems, it is often desirable to have another organization validate the work that has been performed. This audit process is designed to address the situation where key personnel may not be available during a disaster. By having a person unfamiliar with the architecture review the DR processes, key gaps can often be identified that may have been overlooked by normal staff.
In the event that personnel loss has occurred as a result of a disaster, plans which have had outside validation have a much better chance for success when using replacement personnel.
Disaster Recovery Testing
As with Disaster Recovery Auditing, DR Testing can significantly benefit from the use of staff who are unfamiliar with the application infrastructure. By using 3rd party test participants, DR Plans and DR Processes can be quickly optimized for use by non-core staff.
Panthera Consulting is comfortable working in a variety of DR Auditing and Testing arrangements that specifically address the needs of your organization.
