Although historically one of the most ignored areas of ICT, Disaster
Recovery (DR) can also be one of the most crucial.
Planning
No matter what your organisation does, the integrity of its data is vital.
For many organisations, the confidentiality of their data is also vital;
and for many organisations, the integrity of their ICT infrastructure
(leaving aside data altogether) is also vital. Disaster Recovery planning
- or more generally, Business Continuity (BC) planning - is probably the
most important aspect of ICT strategy for such organisations, and in all
likelihood also one of the most important aspects of their broader risk
management strategy.
When many people hear the term Disaster Recovery, they tend to
think of scenarios like natural disasters, or terrorist attacks
("If the unthinkable were to happen, what strategies do we have in
place to recover and continue to do business?"). The trouble is,
these scenarios do seem unthinkable, and it is only human to assume -
albeit misguidedly - that "those things won't happen to us".
Unfortunately, such scenarios do eventuate - events well documented
in the mainstream media bear out the grim truth.
However, risks of much greater likelihood than disasters of such global
scale exist, and strategies should be in place to plan for their
eventuation. These risks are many and varied, including relatively
common events such as hardware failure, software failure, backup media
failure, power failure, network failure, and plain old human error, common
malicious acts of disgruntled employees or random miscreants such as
physical theft or vandalism, virus or spyware infestations, acts of hacking
and "phishing" scams, as well as more esoteric events such as
heat, fire or water damage, acts of industrial espionage or minor natural
disasters.
Like all risk management, DR/BC planning begins with thorough
analysis. All potential risks should be
identified and their likelihood and severity quantified. A risk assessment
is presented and used to assist senior management in making key decisions
about the relative importance to the organisation of the integrity of their
data and infrastructure and of the confidentiality of their data. These key
decisions are used to form the requirements which an effective DR/BC plan
for the organisation must meet.
saosce are positioned ideally to assist organisations in
the risk analysis phase and to facilitate the key risk management
decision-making process, as well as to develop and help implement
appropriate DR/BC strategies and to assist with associated change
management issues. For a confidential discussion of your organistaion's
DR/BC planning needs, contact saosce at
info@saosce.com.au or call us on
(08) 8233-5933 today.
Execution
DR execution is a mission-critical process for virtually all
organisations, and can be a make-or-break experience for some. Depending
on the nature of the incident, every minute prior to restoration of normal
service could be costing your organisation big money, and every minute
prior to containment almost certainly is.
Having an effective DR/BC strategy in place can be invaluable when such
incidents occur. But either way, immediate and effective action is called
for. Incidents must be contained, evidence preserved for later
forensic analysis, normal service restored,
stakeholder relations managed and forward planning to prevent future
occurrences commenced.
Whether to assist your organisation in executing its in-place DR/BC
strategy in a timely manner, or to manage an unforseen critical incident,
saosce will have a competent, experienced, professional
engineer at your site as soon as is humanly possible.
If all hell has just broken loose with your organisation's IT or
communications infrastructure, call our DR hotline now on
(04) 3828-7866 for immediate and appropriate action.
