Cover Your Assets: Disaster Recovery 101

Cole LakesSpiceworks Support Engineer

Former IT Admin

Business Continuity Plan

• Overarching plan to cover entire business

• Includes:– Preventive measures– Detective measures– Corrective measures

What Is Considered a “Disaster?”Disaster [dih-zas-ter, -zah-ster]

nounAnything that interrupts business continuity and

normal operations, be it environmental disaster or human (PEBKAC) error.

Potential Disasters

• Common disasters– Power/UPS failure– Natural Disasters– User Error

• Less Common disasters– Disgruntled user – Equipment malfunctions– Software bugs– Diggers cut phone/Internet

• How do you communicate this to employees?

Prepping the plan

• Not just an IT function

• Important to keep services online, not just servers

• Services to cover defined by Business Owners

Fun fact: Of companies that had a major loss of business data, 43% never reopen, 51% close within two years, and only 6% will survive long-term.

What Should It Cover?• Identify Potential Disasters

– What are the dangers in your location? Business?

• List in order of risk, impact, probability, potential cost– Dept. deadlines affect priority

Who Should Be Involved?

• All Department heads– Discuss each dept.’s mission critical services

• Compliance officer(s)– Make sure DR plan

meets guidelines (DPA, FIA, SOX, Etc.)

• Business Owners– Bigwigs and

checkbook holders

Decision maker

Departmental Disaster Definitions• Different for every

department– Development’s source

code

– Sales/Marketing’s contacts or emails

• Not just digital info– What about physical HR

and Tax forms?

Protecting the Business

• What happens if you’re hit by a bus?

– Call Tree

– Job Responsibilities

– Info Locations

– Owners of each segment

Back That Asset Up

• Location consideration– Local vs. Cloud

• Cost consideration– Can we afford it all?

• Size consideration– Disk space requirements?– Takes time to backup

• Automation

• How often?

Location, Location, Location• Local or Colocation

– How far away?

– Stable power grid?

– Backup generators?

– Natural disaster proof?

– Remote support?

– Stable connection between sites?

Location, Location, Location (cont.)• Cloud/Third party

– Security• Is data protected?

– Backup process• Incremental/Delta/Block

– Restore Process• Quick? Easy? Good.

– Provider• Rackspace, AppAssure, Amazon, Dropbox, Azure, etc.• Do your due diligence - still not 100% disaster proof

Talking Numbers

• How large is the budget?– DR generally 2-4% of overall

budget

• Does budget cover it all?

• Are there (cheaper) alternatives?

• Cost per dept.?

Testing

• A plan is only good if it works– Test, then test again

– Test each phase separately

– Make sure each phase is feasible in timeframe given

Finding Help

• Disaster Recovery Planning group– http://community.spiceworks.com/group/show/218

Questions? Queries? Comments?