Why I.T. Disaster Recovery plans fail and three simple steps to protect your business

Most disaster recovery plans that fail do so from a lack of backups, lack of network documentation or lack of practice. A documented plan with recent backups and a practiced staff will work better than a grandiose scheme only an engineer can understand.

• No matter how good your disaster recovery plan, you cannot recover data that is not backed up. Make sure there is a routine for backing up data regularly. Test and verify that that data has been backed up properly. Use at least a Raid Level 5 to ensure data duplication. Build as much redundancy in your system as possible to remove any single points of failure. Know exactly your recovery time objective. Is it one hour? Several days? Virtual Server Technology can assist you in testing your DR plan quickly and effectively.

• Document, Document and Document some more! Make sure that your entire network is properly documented and updated. Document the entire recovery process to get you up and running. Make sure that key staff are familiar with procedures and at least two staff have access. Store your recovery plan and system passwords in at least two separate secure locations - only one of which is in the same building as your IT equipment.

• Practice your disaster recovery plan on a quarterly basis. The plan should be clear to someone other than the authors of the plan.  Establish an automated system to notify critical staff of disaster by text. These staff should be thoroughly trained so that they can perform basic disaster recovery/back-up tasks unsupervised.

Most businesses never suffer a catastrophic data loss. For those that do, whether caused by hardware failure, natural disaster, fire/flood, employee malice…..it can be devastating. More than 50% of businesses suffering a catastrophic loss of data never recover. Start off 2011 with peace of mind. Schedule a free Network Assessment from Akuwa Solutions Group Inc., Sarasota's most trusted and experienced Network Integration Firm, Call 941.556.0496 for information. www.akuwa.com