Corporate back-ups

trekrider · Posted: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 07:44:11 Post Subject: Corporate back-ups

OK.....so my place of work is going through some modernizations (at the speed they do things...this will happen sometime in the NEXT century).

I was asked by the IT guy, "If the building burns down.....where can I take the tape back-ups of our data and get the company up and running again?"

My response....."I dono, where?"

Does anybody here deal with something like this?? Where would I look/go to to find someone with answers??

(side note: I have been placed on a "team" to research ways of implementing/integrating our company web site into the AS400 system to allow our partners (Agents/Drivers) to update some daily work functions.)

Hellfire · Rated XXX Joined: 05 Aug 2003 Posts: 3473

That's part of what I do here at Wells Fargo. Putting together the disaster recovery plan for our department.

One thing you really need to find out, is how fast they want it recovered. Our general rule of thumb:
Less than 1 week = Hardware has to be on hand, installed at offsite location. Rent space at another building, buy hardware with same configuration as you have now.
1 - 4 Weeks = Rented space, ready to install equipment. Contract with vendor to receive equipment within 1 week.
More than 30 days = Order equipment, find rental space at time of disaster.

Even more so than the data recovery, you have to consider where your employees will sit, how you will continue working, etc. Lots to think about for those kind of plans.

There are many facilities around the nation that do this kind of thing. Buildings sit empty until you need the space for some reason.

I'm by far no expert at it, but can give you advice if you want.

trekrider · Posted: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 09:13:26 Post Subject:

Thanks Hellfire! I'll pass this info along.

Don't think they have ANY plans as yet!

Matt

BeerCheeze · Posted: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 10:18:01 Post Subject:

Hellfire is right on with that.

It's going to come down to $$... how much they can afford to be down. That is the driving question... when does down time become business failure time?

Hellfire · Rated XXX Joined: 05 Aug 2003 Posts: 3473

It's pretty amazing how many company's don't have a disaster recovery plan. After 9/11, as you would expect, there was an incredible surge in urgency for many corporations.

One thing to keep in mind, is if your corporation has a second building in another city, that could be a potential recovery site. If it's large enough, has hardware in place. People work split shifts, transfer work to them, etc.

Another thing to consider is to what level do you consider a disaster? Building burns down? City Floods? Hurricane/Tornado/Earthquake damage? 9/11 Disaster? Each one could potentially need a different recovery solution, or just select what's considered your worst case scenario and plan for that level of damage.

BeerCheeze · Posted: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 13:20:32 Post Subject:

Well unfortunately many consider a tape back up a disaster recovery plan. Specially at small to medium size companies.

The problem is also for them to define what services really are business critical. Define the priority applications/services/employee's, determine how fast they are needed to be restored, etc... Plus the cost. Wells can of course afford to have a hot site for their DC (If I remember right it used to be some place on the east coast), but a small to medium size company can't afford a hot site.

Trek if you need more help feel free to ask, and I'll help you out all I can.

IceNine · Posted: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 13:38:43 Post Subject:

Our IT guy implemented two new HP machines for our File Server and Net App server. They're pretty sweet, I must say. At any rate, he takes a tape backup with him home every night. We also have an off-site colo'd FTP server that stores our most important info.

Colocation is a wonderful thing.

Hellfire · Rated XXX Joined: 05 Aug 2003 Posts: 3473

Yea, offsite recovery solutions are rather expensive.

IceNine · Posted: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 13:51:59 Post Subject:

Depending on the OS and GigaBytage, you could have a pretty cheap backup on a colocated server. For example, you can get a server with 80GB of storage (running Linux) for less than $150/month. You could use something like that as a nightly backup for the most important info.

BeerCheeze · Posted: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 13:56:20 Post Subject:

Sadly... that's not a real disaster recovery plan. But it is what most small business consider one.