Understanding Disaster Recovery

Under the CISSP Security Certification Guidelines disaster recovery falls under business continuity.  It is a continuity risk with security implications to ensure that data flow is not compromised or interrupted.

Having a proper disaster recovery plan in place is an important asset in the valuation of a business.

We are experts in implementation of disaster recovery equipment using software such as Symantec Backup Exec 11d, Yosemite, Symantec Net Backup, Acronis, NovaStor, BrightStor ARCserver backup from Computer Associates and Overland Data Storage Resource Manager.

You need your environment and data to be secure and reliable.

Building the Solution

1. Disaster Recovery Planning
   Write a plan that reflects using the current or to be implemented equipment with detailed instructions on how to use it.
   
   
2. Business Continuity Planning
   Create written plan including the DR plan with additions regarding equipment needed such as software and the actual human resources who will fill a particular role.
   
   
3. Disaster Recovery Implementation
   
   1. Consult
   2. Evaluate
   3. Recommend
   4. Procure
   5. Implement
   6. Test
   
   
4. Disaster Recovery
   Technicians respond to the disaster and utilize any all tactics and equipment to bring the environment back to its previous state.

Disaster Recovery Terminology

Continuity: The ability of an organization to continue to function even after a disastrous event, accomplished through the deployment of redundant hardware and software, the use of fault tolerant systems, as well as a solid backup and recovery strategy.  Often times to have real business continuity HA (High Availability) equipment is necessary.

High Availability: A continuously available computer system is characterized as having essentially no downtime in any given year.  A system with 99.999% availability experiences only about five minutes of downtime annually.  In contrast, a high availability system is defined as having 99.9% uptime, which translates into a few hours of planned or unplanned downtime per year.

Disaster Recovery: The ability to recover from the loss of a complete site, whether due to natural disaster or malicious intent.  Disaster recovery strategies include replication and backup/restore.

Disaster Recovery Planning: The technological aspect of business continuity planning.  The advance planning and preparations which are necessary to minimize loss and ensure continuity of the critical business functions of an organization in the event of disaster.

Similar Terms: Contingency planning; business resumption planning; corporate contingency planning; business interruption planning; disaster preparedness.