Disaster Recovery Planning

Disaster Recovery Plnning and Business Continuity are now globally recognsed as vital activities for any business. However, the creation and maintenance of a suitable and water-tight disaster recovery plan is a complex process and involves a series of strict steps.

There are many factors to consider when developing a business disaster recovery plan. Key staff members should be assigned the responsibility for the intricate planning for recovery from the natural and human incidents.

It can be a daunting task as the life of your business will depend on it someday, but Titan can take part of that responsibility away and work together with your business to develop a water-tight disaster recovery plan, document it and if necessary implement it.

Using our vast and credible experience we have outlined the following tips which we should always be included in your strategy.

Titan Network Services Ltd | Disaster Recovery Titan's Top 10 Tips

Document Everything
Make sure that the whole recovery process to get you up and running again is documented, and includes the locations of system recovery discs/licenses.

Admin / User Passwords
Store your system passwords in at least two separate secure locations. With only one of which is in the same building as your IT equipment. At least two staff have should have access to them.

Notification
Where possible establish an automated system to notify critical staff of disaster by text, email or phone. These staff should be thoroughly trained so that they can perform basic disaster recovery/back-up tasks unsupervised? (perhaps)

Practice Makes Perfect
Practice your disaster recovery every 6 months. This not only hones your disaster recovery team's skills but it will also familiarize new staff with the procedure, and ensures that your disaster recovery strategy is kept up to date by revealing any issues with new equipment or software.

Data Backup
No matter how good your disaster recovery plan, it cannot recover data if you neglect to back it up. Make sure there is a routine for backing up data regularly, and ensure it is done. Using at least Raid Level 5 (Raid Level 10 if the budget allows) to ensure data duplication ensures fault tolerance.

Hot Swappable Drives
Arrange to have spare hot hard disk drives already in the system, or at least physically available in the same room as your storage system.

UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply)
Get yourself the best, longest-life, most uninterruptible power supply you can afford. Then get an additional battery back-up for your more redundancy to go with it.

Theft / Malice
Don't neglect to protect yourself from random theft, vandalism and employee malice, they can be just as disastrous as anything else. At the very least ensure that the door to your data/server room is locked, day and night. Only key staff having access.

Antivirus / SPYWARE Protection
Ensure all servers and network nodes are protected with up to date antvirus and spyware protection. There is no point restoring a virus!

Remote Offices
Incase of serious disaster (Fire, Terrorist Attack, Flooding etc)
Offsite office space can be provided to allow a standby office of any size including IT hardware (Servers, Printers, Workstations etc), Internet Connection and a Telephone system. The disaster recover process can be performed onsite whilst phone calls are diverted etc.



Once you have developed, tested and perfected your disaster recovery plan it must be kept up to date at all times.

We often see the best of disaster recovery plans fair simply because they are years out of date. New staff, new equipment and changes to the network must be fully documented, to avoid a catastrophy at a catastrophic moment. A designated staff member should be appointed the responsibility for keeping the disaster recovery plan updated and maintained.

---