User:RJOAK/sandbox

Disaster Recovery Defined: The ability of an entity such as an Information Technology Data Center to recover from a natural or man made disaster. There are many forms of disasters to consider:

1. Natural disasters: Tornadoes, floods/tsunami, wildfire, volcanic eruption, electrical storm, hurricane and sun flares. 2. Man made disasters: Fire/smoke, flood (plumbing), malicous logic, malicous activity, accidents, war and terrorism

Steps towards preventing: There are many options for maintaining critical data and business continuity (services) following either a manmade or natural disaster. While having redundant systems at the same facility is a form of disaster recovery (DR), it is very limited. Preparing data and services to survive off-site is a more expensive but more survivable option to ensure post disaster continued operations. Ideally your disaster recovery (DR) site should be geographically separated at a distance far enough to ensure survivability in case of a wide spread disaster. To ensure the integrity of data and business continuity, there are many options available such as using a cloud provider to host the DR site, or having your own company maintained DR facility. Each option will have unique challenges to be resolved in order to design the best solution for DR and business continuity. Below are some areas of considerations: - Conduct a risk analysis of critical systems and business operations. - Publish results to business units. - Develop and test mitigation steps. - Enlist external experts to validate your plans and tests for compliancy.
 * Identifying the critical business operations
 * Identifying the DR response scenario (Location, Facility Type, Cloud Design)
 * What are the factors contributing to risk
 * What are the challenges to the DR solution (Cost, Distance/Latency, Resources)
 * What technical solutions will be employed (Backup Services, Replication, Synchronization, Physical Servers versus Virtual)
 * Administrative Considerations (Trained Personnel at DR Site, Travel Arrangements, Off Site Manuals with System Documentation/Policies/Procedures, System Access)