Disaster Recovery / Backup Strategies

D&S, Ltd. uses a multi-faceted strategy to protect in critical business assets. D&S, Ltd. maintains agreements with remote collocation facilities to resume business functions in the event a disaster prevents normal operations at our current location. To ensure the integrity of our data, we also protect our assets in the following ways:

  • Daily incremental backups and weekly full backups for all critical business data.
  • Daily offsite rotation of a copy of all backup media.
  • Nightly synchronization of critical business assets to a secure remote facility greater than 500 miles away.
  • Documented recovery procedures to relocate and resume business operations at a remote facility.

Disaster recovery planning refers to interim measures to recover IT services following an emergency or prolonged system disruption. Interim measures may include the relocation of IT systems and operations to an alternate site, the recovery of IT functions using alternate equipment, or the performance of IT functions using manual methods.

IT systems are vulnerable to a variety of disruptions, ranging from mild (e.g., short-term power outage, disk drive failure) to severe (e.g., equipment destruction, fire) from a variety of sources such as natural disasters to terrorists actions.

While much vulnerability may be minimized or eliminated through technical, management, or operational solutions as part of the organization"s risk management effort, it is virtually impossible to completely eliminate all risks.

In many cases, critical resources may reside outside the organization"s control (such as electric power or telecommunications), and the organization may be unable to ensure their availability. Thus, effective contingency planning, execution, and testing are essential to mitigate the risk of system and service unavailability.

Accordingly, our Disaster Recovery plan ensures the following:

  • D&S, Ltd. management understands the role of Disaster Recovery Planning, and its role relative to overall Business Continuity Planning.
  • D&S, Ltd. management's Disaster Recovery Policy directs the business impact analysis, alternate site selection, and recovery strategies of the document.
  • D&S, Ltd. management re-examines and updates the Disaster Recovery Plan on a semi-annual basis with emphasis on maintenance and training.

The following six steps were used in the development of this document. These six progressive steps will be used as a guide when updating the recovery plan during normal plan maintenance.

DISASTER RECOVERY POLICY

D&S Ltd.'s recovery policy provides the authority and guidance necessary to develop an effective contingency plan.

BUSINESS IMPACT ANALYSIS (BIA)

D&S Ltd.'s BIA identifies and prioritizes critical IT systems and components. The BIA determines the order in which assets are recovered and reconstituted in the event of a disaster.

RECOVERY STRATEGIES

D&S Ltd.'s recovery strategy provides a high level overview of the methods and processes used to efficiently and quickly recover systems following a disruption.

RECOVERY PLAN

D&S Ltd.'s recovery plan provides detailed documentation and guidance for restoring IT systems.