Disaster Recovery
There are numerous reasons why a computerized network can fail – power failures, natural and man-made disasters, even malware can take out an entire network. What is your company plan for business continuity?
Network disaster recovery planning provides guidelines for restoring network services and normal business operations following a disaster. Is your company prepared? Loss of revenue, employee productivity and overall “down time” can be “Huge” if your network is not restored in a timely manner.
First step is to get an evaluation done which will be used to create a Disaster Recovery plan of action. Based on this evaluation and your current Network configuration, recommendations might include Backup Solutions and Virtualization.
The minimum requirements will be Data which is either backed up to a NAS or Tape device where it can be stored off-site in a secure location. Your network infrastructure should be in a “Virtualized” environment if not already. Microsoft HyperV and VMware are currently leading the market in this technology.
There are other important advantages other than Disaster Recovery which makes this Virtualization Solution attractive:
- Hardware Consolidation
- Higher Availability And Uptime
- Improved Management
- Faster To Build And Deploy New Servers
- Considerable Cost Savings
- Reduced Power Consumption
Once in a Virtual Environment you can leverage the ability to “Replicate” your Entire Network in the “Cloud”, providing a duplicate Network at another off-site location.
Some Tips
- Devise a disaster recovery plan: Seems obvious but most companies do not have one in place
- Test disaster recovery plan: Whatever plan your company has implemented ensure that it is tested on a yearly basis.
- Perform off-site data back-up and storage: Do not store critical data “in house”
- Perform data restoration tests: Ensure your data can be restored, especially if using a tape back-up for data storage.
- Back-up laptops and desktops: Important data can exist on devices other that File Servers, ensure that any sensitive data on laptops and desktops are also backed up.