Understand Disaster Recovery

About disaster recovery

What is disaster recovery? - Disaster recovery is a service that allows organisations to continue operating after a disaster or a disruption. The aim is to ensure that key personnel have access to the organisations' computer systems and critical information if the company is affected by some sort of disaster... [Read More]

The future of disaster recovery - The market for disaster recovery services is continuing to grow. Catalysts such as the events of 9/11 and terrorist attacks in the UK make companies increasingly aware of how potentially vulnerable they are... [Read More]

Why disaster recovery? - Disaster recovery is needed for a number of reasons... [Read More]

Types of disaster recovery services - Disaster recovery specialists such as Share have developed methodologies such as the Seven Tiers methodology, to demonstrate ways of recovering computer systems that have been affected by a disaster of problem... [Read More]

Data recovery - Data recovery is a sub-set of disaster recovery. It is a service provided by... [Read More]

What can I expect to gain by implementing a disaster recovery service? - This is a particular conundrum as it may well be that you will never be required to use the disaster recovery service and you hope very much that you will never need to. However, in the event of a catastrophic incident... [Read More]

What type of organisations would benefit from disaster recovery? - All organisations ideally should have some sort of disaster recovery plan. This may be as simple as... [Read More]

Benefits of disaster recovery - Organisations can gain a number of benefits by implementing a disaster recovery plan... [Read More]

Potential pitfalls - Data must be backed up regularly. It should be an automated process otherwise it will be a wasted system... [Read More]

Buying and installing disaster recovery

Six steps to successfully buying a disaster recovery service - In the initial phase, an organisation must identify its needs and ask questions such as... [Read More]

Points to remember when installing a disaster recovery system and plan - There are many types of disaster recovery plans and services. These range from the simplest solution like keeping a backup of data on a single PC, to others which use a service that automatically backs up all information across networks, with a supporting infrastructure to allow full operational capability when disaster strikes... [Read More]

Disaster recovery case studies

Brighton College improves data recoverability - Twenty servers across the campus hold all the college's files and data including student work, databases and all the administrative files and applications needed to keep the college running efficiently. This data was backed up over the network at the end of each day to NAS and then copied onto tape with the cartridges taken off-site for increased security. However, the college’s IT department realised that a tape-based approach took considerable time to actually restore a server to its previously operational state... [Read More - pdf]

Questions and answers

What is a disaster recovery system or plan? - Disaster recovery is a service that allows organisations to continue operating after a disaster or a disruption. The aim is to ensure... [Read More]

Why do I need a disaster recovery system or plan? - Quite simply, if you don't have one it can seriously damage your company's reputation even to the point where it can go out business... [Read More]

What procedures should I put in place? - You will need to ensure that a data retention policy is in place. This needs to be written by HR, IT and legal departments or by a specialist organisation... [Read More]

How will I know what to backup? - Every department will place a 'value' on their information i.e. what should be stored. What is important to one person may not be to someone else. As a result... [Read More]

< Read more questions and answers about disaster recovery.

In summary about disaster recovery

A disaster recovery system or service is a necessary function of a business and of any IT department. The costs for not having a contingency plan in place can be extremely high even to the point where a company can actually go out of business.

There are many types of service and products to help companies to be able to plan and have a system in place that will meet most budgets.

Glossary

Hot-Site - A hot-site is a separate facility that can be used or relocate to in the event that a disaster occurs. This means that all of an organisation's computer systems can be accessed at the hot-site. The hot-site should have a copy of the data and a computer network in place that enables the company to continue operating. The hot-site will also be able to provide telephones, PCs and furniture required to continue operating.