10 Questions
for your Disaster Recovery Provider |
| DataFort
Announces |
| Release
date: March 2003 |
| Disaster
Recovery has become the issue of the moment, and not soon
enough. September 11th followed by recent threats of a
recurrence have brought home to companies large and small
the inadequacy of their existing procedures. |
| Companies
are realising that, to be effective, a solution must be
both automatic and store the information away from the
primary point of business. Too many businesses realise
too late that when their facility has a major fire or
disaster, regular backups left in the office, even in
a safe, offer no protection at all. |
| The result
is that a growing number of companies are looking at true
disaster recovery and offsite backup solutions –
but how do you find a good solution. Managers who may
be used to tape backup, something they can pick up and
hold, suddenly feel uncomfortable when confronted with
a solution that stores their data in a remote facility.
What questions should they ask? What selection criteria,
and finally what follow-up procedures should be in place. |
| This
article illustrates 10 of the key points that should be
remembered when selecting a Disaster Recovery solution.
Remember that this is your business we are talking about,
it doesn’t matter whether the supplier is quoting
for a multi-terabyte enterprise solution of a single office
LAN. They should have answers to these questions and be
able to provide a level of service that will meet your
requirements if disaster strikes. |
| Here
then are ten tips - provided by business continuity
experts DataFort (www.datafort.com) - for creating a
back-up and recovery strategy that will stand up to
any disaster. |
- Do they have adequate levels of encryption?
In all these implementation your data will be exposed
to the outside world in one form or another. Most use
the Internet as a transmission network and as many people
will be aware. The Internet is not a secure transmission
network. To protect your data against prying eyes insist
on a minimum level of 128 bit encryption of the data.
256 bit AES encryption is rapidly becoming industry
standard, replacing the older and less secure triple
DES algorithm. The US Federal Government recently approved
this algorithm for their own use and there have been
no successful attempts to date to break a well constructed
AES key. Further information can be found at http://csrc.nist.gov/encryption/aes/.
In summary if someone is offering a low encryption,
or worse no encryption, solution (they do exist) then
look elsewhere.
- Have they developed their own software?
Obvious though this sounds, there are many companies
out there offering the service using 3rd party software.
While this is fine when everything is running smoothly,
the last thing you want when disaster strikes is a company
that needs to refer back to the manufacturer before
they can help you with an issue. Choose a company that
understands the technology and the issues around it.
- Do they offer an engineer assisted service?
While you may be very comfortable backing up your data
over the high-speed link that you have in place. For
many installations time isn’t an issue. The first
full backup takes the bulk of the transfer time over
the weekend and then subsequent incremental backups
take no noticeable time at all….But what about
the restore? When you arrive at your temporary location
your connection may be little better than ISDN. How
long will it take to recover your data? How quickly
do you need to be up and running? These are questions
that must be addressed and any true solution provider
must be able to provide an Engineer to bring you a server
to your local office and allow a high speed LAN retrieval.
This is essential for larger installations.
- Where’s the SLA?
Every company should have one and it should guarantee
high availability. While many providers will run the
line “Its not our fault if our bandwidth provider
lets us down” don’t let them get away with
it. They should be providing a 24x7 service and, while
they won’t guarantee the operation of your network
and bandwidth provider, they certainly should guarantee
their own side.
- How much information can I get?
One of the major concerns when moving away from tape
is the lack of information. While everyone who has used
tape for any length of time will know the feeling of
putting a tape in the machine to restore some files
only to find that the backup was not completed correctly
or the data is corrupted. There is still something comforting
with a physical tape. Any DR solution provider must
be able to provide you with significant information
on a daily basis, tailored to what you need. Whether
it’s a simple count of files transmitted plus
the space used, a full list of every file sent, or anything
in between. The DR provider should be able to offer
this on a daily basis. In addition they should provide
on-line problem warnings. Many will inform you that
a backup has failed to take place if there is a problem
at your end. Some of the better solutions will even
warn you that a problem has developed on your network,
allowing you to take remedial action before your backup
fails to happen. Information provision for every unit
supported is an essential requirement for this service.
- Where’s my Data Stored?
The information should be stored in a secure location
with up to date fire-retardation facilities and 24x7
physical security. Few offices provide the level of
security needed for this type of application. Insist
that your provider allow you to see their data centre.
Just asking the question, even if you don’t intend
to follow through, will often tell you whether they
are credible or not. Unless the servers are stored in
a secure data centre how can you be sure the data will
be there when needed. Also can they provide twin site
storage. While most companies don’t need the added
expense of storing their backup information in two separate
locations, for some companies this is essential. While
this is rarely a standard service, if you need it, make
sure they can provide it.
- Dry-run a restore.
Not exactly a question, more something
that should always be done within a month of starting
the service. Pull in a selection of files. Run through
the rebuild of a machine with the software. Make sure
the results you get are what you expect. This is not
something that should be done for the first time when
you have a real disaster on your hands. Often a bit
of testing will highlight procedural problems that can
easily be resolved with the service providers help,
providing you’ve identified that an issue exists.
This is especially true with some Databases and email
systems.
- Evaluate.
Any provider should be willing to set up a
test environment for you to evaluate the service over
a reasonable period. Support and training should be
provided during this process to allow you to get the
most out of the software. This service may be free or
charged for but, in any event, should be a nominal fee.
Once you are happy that the service provides what you
need then.
- Ask for reference sites.
Any credible provider should
be able to provide one or two of these sites which are
invaluable for learning any issues and glitches with
the service. It’s also the only way to get a true
picture of the after sales support that you can expect.
- Homework.
There are a number of providers servicing
different segments of the marketplace. Whatever your
requirement, make sure you speak to the correct company
for your needs. GuardianIT are great if you’re
a large-scale financial institution with real-time DR
requirements; Netstore or DataFort preferable if you
have regular multi-office or single office backup requirement.
Find the right provider for your needs but insist that
they meet the minimum level of professionalism detailed
above.
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 ABOUT
DATAFORT
DataFort provides
dependable secure off-site computer information storage with
a focus on functionality and convenience for the end user. The
company was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in Guildford,
UK and New York, USA. It’s software and services are used
by thousands of businesses worldwide - ranging from small SMEs
and schools through to quoted companies and local government.
Every hour of every day someone, somewhere backs up with DataFort. |
CONTACTS
Marcie Terman
T: +44 (0) 1483 872 052
E:  |
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