Selecting a recovery facility is only part of a comprehensive disaster
recovery program. You should prepare and implement a comprehensive
disaster recovery plan. Your plan should detail resource requirements
and procedures for each step in the recovery process.
The Recovery Facility |
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Locate your recovery facility close to the computer system you want to
protect, but not in the same building or group of buildings. It should
be in a different power distribution system. If you think your system
may be damaged by a major earthquake, locate the recovery facility in
another region of the country. The facility should have adequate
security, provided by either security guards or controlled system
access.
System Compatibility |
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The disaster recovery computer system must be compatible with your Data
Center computer system. The main memory, disk drives, backup drives,
and printers should allow you to perform necessary recovery operations
without requiring you to reconfigure your system. The recovery computer
system should also be expandable to meet your future needs.
The number of telephone lines into the disaster recovery facility should
be sufficient to support recovery operations. Telephone lines should be
either of voice or data quality, depending on your requirements. Data
communications equipment must be compatible with your data transmission
requirements. Pay attention to required baud rates and other special
requirements.
Name representatives from your Data Center and the disaster recovery
facility who will keep in frequent contact to ensure continued
compatibility between computer systems. They ensure that changes made
in either system do not affect the disaster recovery capability, and
that upgrades in the Data Center computer system are quickly reflected
in the disaster recovery computer system.
Disaster Notification and Response Time |
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A disaster can occur any time without warning. Your recovery center
should be available 24 hours a day. The time from when you notify the
recovery center to the time that your backup system is up and running is
called response time. Response time requirements vary depending upon
the business situation. A response time of four hours is normally
considered a quick turnaround.
Only authorized personnel should notify the disaster recovery facility
to initiate disaster recovery. They should identify themselves to the
disaster recovery facility by a prearranged codeword; and, of course,
the disaster recovery facility personnel must act quickly and report
promptly for recovery operations.
Storage of Backup Tapes |
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If you keep your regular backups at your Data Center, and the Data
Center is destroyed by fire, the backups are also destroyed. Create a
duplicate set of backups to keep at a suitable off site storage
facility. In this way, you have a set easily accessible for routine
problems and a set available in case of a major disaster. Arrange to
have around-the-clock access to the backups, and to have them quickly
delivered from the disaster recovery facility when necessary.
