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News for the Disaster Recovery Planning

The Disaster Recovery Planning News feed is an XML news feed that you can subscribe to and re-publish on your web site or blog. The only requirement that you need to meet is that the feed is included with no modifications and that the links within the feed are retained as is.

If you wish to subscribe to this news feed the option that you have is:

• Disaster Recovery Planning News Feed - 30 items

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BC/DR Planning More complex

May 10th, 2013

As enterprise operations, including netwwork access with mobile computing, BYOD, SmartPhones, and tablets become more advanced and complex, solutions to restore companies back to business as usual after downtime are now more difficult. Preparing a DR plan can take months but in the midst of a disaster, you only have minutes to execute it.

 

Some Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity current articles:

1. Business Continuity Plan Has to be in Place Now  Business continuity plan is something that every organization needs to have in place before a disaster happens.  Every day somewhere in the world disasters are...
2. Top 10 Disasters That Need to be Planned for  Top 10 disasters that businesses should plan for Disasters Happen – How do you balance the business continuity disaster recovery risk and investment equation? Is...
3. Disaster Recovery High Risk Users Disaster Recovery High Risk Users There are three types of high risk users in disaster recovery and business continuity planning. They are: People who do...
4. Disaster Recovery Misconceptions  Disaster Recovery - What are the major misconceptions when a disaster occurs with IT systems? Can your systems can not support your company's day-to-day operations?...
5. Safety Program For Disaster Recovery Plan  Safety Program needs to be integrated into the Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Plan A safety program should be in place before disasters occur. Hurricanes, tornadoes,...

 

- more info

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Pandemic in China a concern

May 2nd, 2013

 

Pandemic Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
Top Priority

There is no question we are vulnerable to infectious and contagious diseases. The influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 killed more than 20 million people - more than 600,000 in the United States. That winter, more U.S. soldiers died from influenza than had died on World War I battlefields.

According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly 40,000 Americans die annually from seasonal flu. And most experts agree that the human race is long overdue for an influenza pandemic far more deadly than the H1N1 pandemic of 2009-2010. The threat from Mother Nature goes far beyond the flu.

The current outbreak in China and its spead to Saudi Arabia is cause for concern.  Pandemic planning, if it has not been completed, should be a tip priority.

- more info

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What is the cost of downtime?

April 11th, 2013

If your people can continue working for days without systems your cost of downtime is relatively low. If your business is tied to your systems or work cannot be processed your downtime cost may be high. We have had both sets of clients, a small architecture firm accounting system went down and they were comfortable with it being down for a few days.

 

However another customer, a lumber mill, shut down after someone tripped over a power cord. A server failed, and more than 200 workers were paid for doing nothing. That human error cost the company $10,000.

So calculate the cost of downtime in terms of labor paid, productivity lost, and all the other factors. Presenting such a number to your customer in terms of costs per hour or day can make a compelling argument for a solid business continuity plan.

MTPOD is the maximum amount of time that an enterprise's key products or services can be unavailable or undeliverable before its stakeholders see unacceptable consequences.

 

- more info

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Top 10 list for Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Planning

March 29th, 2013

Top 10 lists for Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Planning:

 

1. Top 10 tips for Disaster Recovery in a Small Business – best way to protect your data (16.3) Disaster Recovery for a Small Business Baseline for best practices defined in Janco’s Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Template. As requirements for avoiding downtime become increasingly...
2. Top 10 Disaster Recovery Best Practices (16.1) As requirements for avoiding downtime become increasingly stringent, administrators need tools and platforms that can help them plan, design, and implement disaster recovery strategies that...
3. Top 10 Reasons Why Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Plans Fail (14.6) In the recession many organizations put disaster recovery and business continuity on the back burner. As a result those plans are not as functional as...
4. Best of Breed Disaster Recovery Business Continuity (13.2) Best of Breed solutions for disaster recovery and business continuity has four key components: High Availability – Best of breed requires service that have high...
5. 10 Backup Best Practices supplementing a disaster recovery and business continuity solution with the cloud (13.2) 10 Backup best practices -  supplementing a disaster recovery and business continuity back-up solution with the cloud Backup best practices are used by many CIOs...

 

- more info

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Disaster Planning is Required for Virtual Applications

March 12th, 2013

A number of customers using the Microsoft-hosted Dynamics CRM Online and its Office 365 cloud service were reporting performance problems.
 
One CRM Online customer said problems began in the morning. The @MSCloudUS twitter account acknowledged the Office 365 problems, starting in the afternoon (EST).

 

The Disaster Planning Template addresses these issues. On the CRM Online front, "performance is slow for most users, to the point that some can’t use CRM at all," one Microsoft CRM user said. His company is based in the U.S., he said, but international users of the system were affected, as well.

A Microsoft spokesperson said, "We were made aware of a few customers experiencing difficulty using their Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online service this morning.  The customer impact was limited to some organizations in North America and has been resolved.  Microsoft takes any downtime seriously, and customers will be reimbursed service charges per the terms of our SLA which guarantees  99.9% uptime."

- more info

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Tools for Disaster Recovery planing

March 1st, 2013

When it comes to disaster recovery, rapidly growing data volumes, distributed computing models, and new technologies all combine to present an ever-changing playing field. Safe recovery distances can also mean painfully slow replication and backup across the WAN in addition to the costs to accomplish this.

Janco's "Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Template" leads the way to implementation of the latest disaster recovery technologies and cost savings strategies. Enterprise of all sizes can build a functional disaster recovery plan with this tool and make your own disaster recovery efforts more efficient.

1. Reasons why electronic forms are the future  Why use electronic forms? Electronic forms allow for the exchange of information more quickly, easily, and dependably than ever before. The Internet, mobile devices and...
2. 10 point checklist for disaster recovery  10 point checklist for disaster recovery HR, Legal and Media Communications Disaster Recovery 10 Point Checklist A list of 10 questions to rank how comprehensive...
3. Top 10 Disaster Recovery Best Practices  As requirements for avoiding downtime become increasingly stringent, administrators need tools and platforms that can help them plan, design, and implement disaster recovery strategies that...
4. Top 10 Selection Criteria for a Disaster Recovery Cloud Provider  Cloud disaster recovery business continuity When looking for cloud providers of Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Services you need to establish that they will be...
5. Disaster Recovery Misconceptions  Disaster Recovery - What are the major misconceptions when a disaster occurs with IT systems? Can your systems can not support your company’s day-to-day operations?...

- more info

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Social media a disaster planning tools

February 15th, 2013

Government agencies are turning to social media technology to manage disasters and improve public safety.

A growing number of agencies are tapping into Facebook and Twitter to monitor events and provide near real-time notifications. And some are now taking social media a step further by communicating internally or sharing information and comments across offices or agencies.

A September Congressional Research Service report, Social Media and Disasters: Current Uses, Future Options, and Policy Considerations, noted that social media already plays an important role in disasters, but the use of the technology for emergency management is growing.

In Fort Worth and Tarrant County in Texas, for instance, a joint emergency operations center has switched on social media tools that improve communication across dozens of agencies and departments throughout the state. Police, firefighters, healthcare providers and others use push-to-talk radio, cellular telephony, and text messaging (including text documents and file sharing) to interact with an IP telephony infrastructure located in a response center. This allows teams to coordinate immediate responses, regardless of the underlying communications technology.

• CIO IT Infrastructure Policy PDF (All of the policies below which come as individual MS Word files)
• Backup and Backup Retention Policy
• Blog and Personal Web Site Policy (Includes electronic Blog Compliance Agreement Form)
• BYOD Access and Use Policy (Includes electronic BYOD Access and Use Agreement Form)
• Incident Communication Plan Policy (Updated to include social networks as a communication path)
• Internet, e-Mail, Social Networking, Mobile Device, Electronic Communications, and Record Retention Policy (Includes 5 electronic forms to aid in the quick deployment of this policy)
• Mobile Device Access and Use Policy
• Patch Management Policy
• Outsourcing Policy
• Record Management, Retention, and Destruction Policy
• Sensitive Information Policy (HIPAA Compliant and includes electronic Sensitive Information Policy Compliance Agreement Form)
• Service Level Agreement (SLA) Policy Template with Metrics
• Social Networking Policy (includes electronic form)
• Telecommuting Policy (includes 3 electronic forms to help to effecively manage work at home staff)
• Travel and Off-Site Meeting Policy
• IT Infrastructure Forms

- more info

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Wiring meltdown can be a disaster

February 5th, 2013

The design of data centers and large computer rooms always includes a cooling system. Yet many IT devices are located in distributed spaces outside of the computer room in closets, branch offices, and other locations that were never designed with provisions for cooling IT equipment. The power density of IT equipment has increased over time and the result is that distributed IT equipment such as VoIP routers, switches or servers often overheat or fail prematurely due to inadequate cooling.

To properly specify the appropriate cooling solution for a wiring closet, the temperature at which that closet should operate must first be specified. IT equipment vendors usually provide a maximum temperature under which their devices are designed to operate. For active IT equipment typically found in a wiring closet, this temperature is usually 104 F (40 C). This is the maximum temperature at which the vendor is able to guarantee performance and reliability for the stated warranty period. It is important to understand that although the maximum published operating temperature is acceptable per the manufacturer, operating at that temperature will not generally provide the same level of availability or longevity as operating at lower temperatures. Because of this, some IT equipment vendors also publish recommended operating temperatures for their equipment in addition to the maximum allowed. Typical recommended operating temperatures from IT equipment vendors are between 70 F (21 C) and 75° F (24 C).

Follow us at https://twitter.com/@itmanagercio

- more info

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Crisis communication

January 17th, 2013

In order to shape an effective crisis communications plan, all options, both traditional and non-traditional, should be considered and utilized within the objectives and strategy of the organization.

Methods of more common crisis communication strategies include:

• Phone Trees
• E-mail Blasts
• Mass Notification Systems (SMS/Telephone)
• Hotlines and Pre-Recorded Messages
• Radio and TV (Mass Broadcasts)
• Formal Statements
• Press Releases
• Press Conferences
• An Incident-Specific Website.

Methods of some non-traditional crisis communication strategies include:

• Social Media Sites
• RSS Feeds and Blogging
• Podcasts
• Smart Phone Mobile Applications
• Image Sharing Sites
• Widgets on Pre-Existing Webpages.

- more info

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Cloud based disaster recovery

January 16th, 2013

Protecting business means protect ongoing access to functional applications, servers and data; traditionally that means backing up data. However, backing up the data is only part of the equation. If you can’t restore the data, the backup effort is useless. If a business relies on tape backup alone, restoration is easy only for the simplest failure, and only if everything goes perfectly.

   

If a hard disk fails and all the backup tapes are good and the staff is practiced at doing the repair and restore, then you might be able to simply buy a replacement part and get things up within a couple of hours – though the data will be from last night’s backup. If the problem is more complicated and involve s a replacement server for instance, you will probably need a day or two to get new hardware in place before you even begin to recover.

- more info

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Economic impacts from disasters

December 14th, 2012

The UK government is publishing a series of background papers that have been commissioned as part of the Foresight project on Improving Future Disaster Anticipation and Resilience.

The latest paper, Indirect economic impacts from disasters aims to:

• Provide a review of existing evidence and case studies to outline and illustrate the types of indirect and long term economic impact that disasters can have;
• Summarise previous similar work highlighting any apparent temporal trends apparent comparing direct and indirect losses; and
• Explore economic impact on countries other than country in which a disaster has occurred.

Read the paper (PDF).

- more info

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5 factore impacting time to return to normal operations after a disaster

December 2nd, 2012

The time it takes for a business to return to something like normal operating levels depends on a number of key issues:

 

• Overall damage assessment - can you trade from your existing premises and what stock, supplies, equipment and other key assets are recoverable and what is not recoverable
• Your insurance coverage and how quickly your claim can be processed
• Any government assistance you can access
• Communication with employees, customers and suppliers
• An assessment of the business's fnancial position
• Developing a plan to reopen your business.

- more info

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IT pros not equiped to audit disaster plans

November 23rd, 2012

Although business continuity is in many ways relatively straightforward, it is not really a technical or scientific discipline compared with security or quality. Auditors need fixed points of reference for comparisons. Standards (in various guises) provide them with a route map to follow. This allows them to check the process, but not really the effectiveness, of the program. For example, it is easy to check the number of employees who have been through a business continuity management induction, but much more difficult to determine if this has had any impact upon corporate resilience.

This factor has often caused full-time BC practitioners to claim that they alone can properly audit a BC plan or program. There might be some justification for this. An ISO inspector, for instance, could successfully audit a hospital for its compliance against pre-agreed hygiene standards, but would not be credible at determining a surgeon's technical competence at performing a difficult operation.

However, few BC practitioners have the formal audit skills that colleagues in internal audit possess. Many consultants try to gain these skills by undertaking various audit training courses, but often find the concentration on process and compliance frustrating.

- more info

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Top 10 tips for Disaster Recovery

November 17th, 2012

Disaster Recovery for a Small Business

Baseline for best practices defined in Janco's Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Template.

As requirements for avoiding downtime become increasingly stringent, administrators need tools and platforms that can help them plan, design, and implement disaster recovery strategies that can meet those needs.

1. Analyze single points of failure
2. Backup frequently
3. Keep Updated notification trees
4. Be aware of current events
5. Plan for worst-case scenarios
6. Clearly document recovery processes
7. Centralize information
8. Create test plans and scripts
9. Retest regularly
10. Perform comprehensive recovery and business continuity test

Related posts:

1. Top 10 Disaster Recovery Best Practices  As requirements for avoiding downtime become increasingly stringent, administrators need tools and platforms that can help them plan, design, and implement disaster recovery strategies that...
2. 10 point checklist for disaster recovery 10 point checklist for disaster recovery HR, Legal and Media Communications Disaster Recovery 10 Point Checklist A list of 10 questions to rank how comprehensive...
3. 10 Backup Best Practices supplementing a disaster recovery and business continuity solution with the cloud  10 Backup best practices -  supplementing a disaster recovery and business continuity back-up solution with the cloud Backup best practices are used by many CIOs...
4. Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Tips  Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Tips Business continuity requires that you are prepared to deal to with a disaster and is one of the only...
5. 8 Characteristics of a Good Disaster Recovery Manager  8 Characteristics of a Good Disaster Recovery Manager The characteristics of a good disaster recovery manager and leader in a crisis like a recovery process...

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Are you prepared for a disaster

October 18th, 2012

According to a recent study, the average loss for businesses when a disaster occurs is $12,500 per hour. To reduce the risk of losing critical business information, you need complete protection of your important files and mission-critical applications.

Natural disasters, system crashes, theft, and cyber attacks can all lead to data and financial loss. To protect against these losses and minimize negative business impacts, you need to follow a few basic guiding principles to keep your data safe and your business running.

 

The template and supporting material have been updated to be Sarbanes-Oxley compliant.  The complete package includes:

• Disaster Recovery Plan Template
• Business and IT Impact Analysis Questionnaire
• Work Plan

With the template is a 3 page Job Description for the Disaster Recovery Manager.  The Disaster Recovery Plan Template PREMIUM Bundle contains 11 additional key job descriptions.

- more info

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Backup straegy for remote sites

October 8th, 2012

Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Planning Challenges for Remote Sites

The best contingency a business can take is to implement a data backup and disaster recovery plan. This will safeguard critical systems and data so that, should disaster strike, a business can get back on track with only minimal downtime.

• Know your data - which systems are most important and how long can a business continue without them? Sensitive legal and financial information may fall into this group.
• Location - onsite storage is useful for the speedy recovery of backed-up data, but single-site storage alone will not form a robust disaster recovery plan. Local storage must be supplemented with remote offsite backup (more than one location if possible) to ensure the security of data. Transferring data to a remote storage site means that, after the fire, systems can be restored as soon as a firm is ready to continue business.
• Cost Effictiveness - Using on-premise and remote storage adds a layer of security to data backup and disaster recovery plan. However, some businesses are dissuaded by the perceived cost and management involved in offsite storage.
• Backing up and carrying on - Data is the lifeblood of a business. It is therefore essential that a company takes steps to address the security of its most valuable asset, especially as the volume of its data grows.

 

- more info

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Pandemic get closer

October 3rd, 2012

According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly 40,000 Americans die annually from seasonal flu. And most experts agree that the human race is long overdue for an influenza pandemic far more deadly than the H1N1 pandemic of 2009–2010. The threat from Mother Nature goes far beyond the flu.

 

More than 400 new U.S. cases of West Nile virus [infection] emerged in the last week in an outbreak that remains the 2nd worst on record but has begun to show signs of slowing. So far this year [2012], 3545 cases have been reported to federal health officials as of 25 September 2012, up from 3142 reported the week before, the CDC said in its weekly update of outbreak data. About 38 per cent of all cases have been reported in Texas. Other states with large numbers of cases include Mississippi, Michigan, South Dakota, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and California.

- more info

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DRP Critical Component of Risk Management

September 19th, 2012

Disaster Recovery (DR) is a critical component of IT disaster planning and risk mitigation strategies, and compounded in difficulty by ever growing data volumes, distributed computing, and new technologies. How can you get creative in protecting more data, recovering more swiftly, but also saving some money?

Download this outline learn how the Janco Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Template can reduce RPOs and RTOs even more. 

Disaster Recovery Guide
Business Continuity Planning

ISO 27001, ISO 27002, ISO 17799, Sarbanes-Oxley, and HIPAA Compliant

         

 

What is Disaster Recovery and how does the Disaster Recovery Planning Template help?

This DRP Template can be used for any sized enterprise.  

The template and supporting material have been updated to be Sarbanes-Oxley compliant.  The complete package includes:

• Disaster Recovery Planning and Business Continuity Template
• Business and IT Impact Analysis Questionnaire
• Work Plan
• Disaster Recovery / Business Continuity Audit Program

With lost data being a competitive liability, there is no room for downtime in today's business world.

- more info

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What is Rescue Point Objective (RPO)?

September 19th, 2012

CIOs, CSO's, BC Managers constantly will work to improve their restoration point objective (RPO) and also recovery time objectives (RTO) by means of performing fast, non-disruptive backups, in addition to by performing data rescue. All comprehensive data safety solutions involve many criteria and contingencies.

Here are examples of the things that can fail with your data as well as backup requirements that must be addressed:

• Accidental or malicious removal of critical data - Requirement that provides enable you to quickly and easily get back individual files and folders.
• Data that is displaced or corrupted over a period of time - Requirement to spin back individual records to renovate database corruptions. The ability to get back data from any previous moment in time, and have it as granular as is feasible.
• A crashed disk - Requirement to recoup a disk volume takes a different approach than recovering a single file, but it really should be done just as promptly, and with automation to help keep operational disruptions to the minimum.
• A server failure - Requirement to bring back operations when replacing a broken server may just be complicated by the desire to install different drivers within the new system if the hardware is not an exact match. It helps to get the capability to move the coating workload to a standby server (with completely different hardware) or virtual server while system is being exchanged or repaired.
• A local or local disaster - Requirement as you lose an entire company to fire, flood, and other disaster, have a newly released copy of your important info in another location that is certainly outside the disaster area.
• Remote offices and side branch offices - Requirement to undertake a process in place to with minimal technical assistance as remote and branch offices often would not have the luxury of experiencing an on-site technical resource to help you in backups and restores.
• Resource-intensive backup processes - Requirement frequent and even continuous backup which is not resource-intensive.
• Security breaches - Necessity to secure data. If moving data between internet websites, it needs to be protected from potential stability breaches. A breach involving data security, whether actual damage is complete or not, can be devastating towards your company's reputation, as dozens of great enterprises and government agencies have found in recent years.

- more info

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Disaster Recovery Template helps to manage expectations

August 15th, 2012

In regards to disaster recovery and business continuity, clear expectations allow the enterprise executive to understand the process they will go through if a disaster does occur.

Expectations are one of the most important elements when finalizing a successful plan.  An open flow of communication between the recovery team and the end user will allow both parties to define exactly what they can expect from one another, with no surprises.  The mantra for setting  expectations is under represent and over deliver, so that an recovery team can be the hero that save the company tens of thousands of dollars and thusly offering value.

- more info

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