Backup &  Disaster Recovery

Being prepared for virtually any systems contingency is what Backup and Disaster Recovery is all about. Read about business continuity and disaster recovery with Dolphin, and learn more about the issues & how we can help mitigate your risks with the correct solution.

Backup/Redundancy

Dolphin can help mitigate the risk of a disaster & reduce the impact of server/system failure by implementing various forms of system backup & redundancy. There are various ways to implement redundancy into your systems, including RAID disk implementation & backup power management. No matter how good your systems are, the data on your systems is really the asset & must be protected at all cost. Various data backup methods can be adopted & depends on the required Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs).

DR – Tape Backup: Tape is a well-established technology with a proven history in backup and archival tasks. Since tape uses removable media, it's a simple matter to guard against disaster by removing the completed tapes and sending them off-site. Tapes can be locked in fire-proof safes or be picked up for off-site storage at a secure location.

Tape technology does presents some critical liabilities:

1. Tape is a relatively slow technology - as storage volumes spiral upward, it takes more time to complete a backup, and more time to restore that backup.
2. It can take numbers of hours to retrieve tapes from the storage location when disaster strikes.
3. Reliability is another problem, with failure rates being a lot higher than solid-state media, especially as tapes are re-used within the planned backup cycle.

DR – Data Replication: To overcome the limitations of tape, solutions implement disk-to-disk (D2D) technologies - giving added speed and reliability. Data storage can be replicated either on-site or to an off-site disk storage system using WAN links (such as the Internet).

Local replication can be achieved in a number methods, using RAID technologies or mirror system architecture. Similarly, there are numerous ways to implement remote replication. The easiest method is a straight-forward replication which creates a simple backup by copying files from the primary facility storage to another storage system elsewhere. The remote storage system may be an ordinary disk storage array or VTL. After a disaster, data at the remote location is then moved back to the rebuilt data center or sent to an alternative site so that business may resume.

DR - Server Replication: Another popular approach is to replicate data directly to a secondary Data Centre that duplicates the essential capabilities of the original DC. A "hot or cold" approach basically receives data but keeps the secondary DC offline until a disaster occurs. It can take up to 12 hours (perhaps longer) to bring a "cold" site online. A "warm" configuration is online and receives data from the primary DC, but only takes over processing tasks when the main DC is disrupted. It may take several hours to bring a "warm" site online. A "hot" approach generally keeps a fully functional remote site online and running full-time, usually sharing some of the data processing tasks and remaining constantly synchronized with the primary DC. When disaster hits, the remote "hot" site continues working, often without noticeable interruption.

DR - Server Virtualization

It seems that virtualization in the server world continues to spread like wildfire. The return on investment (ROI) achieved through virtualization is very compelling but demanding applications, such as high I/O databases, may find that the extra overhead of virtualization hampers their performance.

Disaster Recovery

The disaster recovery solution needs to be a tailored package that meets the requirements of the particular client data processing environment. The Disaster Recovery Solution can incorporate recovery at the Dolphin Data Centre (DC) site as well as off-site Dolphin Partner Contracted DC site facilities, to either physical or virtual server infrastructure. This solution can provide the flexibility to be tailored to requirements based upon a defined business risk profile, whilst maximizing ROI through the use of server virtualization technologies.

Disaster planning relies on one simple principle, a copy of business-critical data must exist in a physical location other than the primary DC. Off-site tape storage has been the traditional defense against disasters, but the logistical demands of recalling the tapes from storage and then restoring them has always proven cumbersome. Today, the availability of the Internet and other long-distance WAN links has presented disaster planning with the option of remote replication - copying vital data disk-to-disk between two physical locations across a WAN.

The formulation of a DR Plan must successfully handle the many parts including: design, deployment, handover, training and the necessary components included within the solution. Success of DR Solutions can not really totally be measured without a Total Disaster taking place, which is never desirable. Therefore considerable effort needs to be committed in the planning and formulation stages to consider all possible scenarios and levels of risk management outcomes to be achieved.

Support

Risk Management – Issues

In today's business climate, downtime can be costly to an organization and unacceptable to customers. Organizations that prepare for their recovery from failure situations are better able to maintain operations, retain customers and preventing long-term damage.

The purpose of a disaster recovery and business continuity plan is to safeguard human life and keep the business and its functions running. Business surveys show that nearly half of all organizations don't have a disaster recovery (DR) plan in place. What's more, less than 50% of the ones that do have DR plans, actually test them. The safety of business operations depends not only on having a solid DR plan, but also knowing that the plan works. If an organization hasn't tested its DR plan, it’s no better off than if it didn't have one at all.

There is a lot of hype surrounding Disaster Recovery, and C-level managers are eager to talk the talk. However, DR is more than just a project - it's a significant investment of time, personnel and data. If an organization isn't willing to take the necessary steps, data in a Data Centre may be susceptible to a variety of threats, including natural disasters and mal-functioning software.

Disaster Recovery – Planning

DR provides a blueprint for resuming operations in the event of unanticipated disruptions - whether from hurricanes, hackers, terrorists, power outages or any number of other risks. Included are arrangements for data replication and storage, auxiliary power sources, redundant computer systems and alternative work locations for employees.

Experts advise that there are seven key components to DR planning:

1. Business impact assessment - A business impact assessment (BIA) should answer two questions pivotal to your DR planning: How soon do you need to resume operations? And how much information would be lost, including its financial impact?
2. Discovery - Companies often jump right to the information technology aspects of DR without first knowing their business drivers. Make sure the DR covers all enterprise-critical applications, as well as any line-of-business-critical applications.
3. Budget - Not every risk is worth offsetting. The company’s field of operation will probably define the level of DR planning & implementation necessary required. Government regulations or implicit customer expectations may require certain levels of cover, such as in the financial & healthcare industries.
4. Role-based teams - Rather than relying on one or two people, it is widely considered preferable to have a team of different employees to manage and maintain a DR plan.
5. Data protection - Perhaps no component is as crucial as technology. Aside from people, information is the single most important asset for any organization. Yet companies often neglect simple measures such as storing multiple copies of crucial business files and applications at backup locations.
6. Logistics - In DR planning, it pays to concentrate on the detail. Often companies neglected to deal with logistical details, such as employees' transportation to backup facilities. Detail at the DR site needs to include everyday items like desks, pads, pens, phones and refreshment facilities.
7. Regular tests - The conventional wisdom is that DR plans should be tested at least twice a year, perhaps more depending on the degree of change within the environment.

If a business impact analysis (BIA) is performed, there should be documented recovery time objectives (RTOs) and recovery point objectives (RPOs) that are agreed upon, per application, and are designated for both operational and disaster recovery. Often, the operational objectives are more aggressive, as those are the types of events you will be recovering from 99% of the time – those daily mishaps that are at the crux of why you do backups in the first place.

The bottom line is that you must look at what your operational RTOs and RPOs are for recovery from the most likely events before embarking on a DR initiative, especially with aggressive recovery classes. Understand what your current operational recovery classes are, and the supporting architectures and processes behind them. There are many options currently available to support aggressive operational RTOs and RPOs, including continuous data protection, disk-based snapshots and mirrors, virtual tape libraries, and data duplication. These technology solutions are viable and successfully deployed in many large data centres.

Disaster Recovery – Testing & Training

Why don't companies test their DR plans? The expense, schedule limitations, resource constraints, skill deficits and fear of the results are some of the factors listed. Testing also requires systems to be shut down, a prospect that always makes IT Departments uneasy. In many cases, it is considered an exercise that diverts resources from "real work". But like annoying fire drills that force you away from your desk periodically, disaster recovery tests are imperative to carrying out a plan when it's the real deal.

The purpose of a disaster recovery and business continuity plan is to safeguard human life and keep the business running. The best way to do this is to take as many decisions out of the hands of humans as possible. Where should employees go in the event of an emergency? Tell them where to go so there's no guesswork involved. "People in crisis make bad decisions”, the more you can decide for people, particularly in the first four to five hours, the more they know what to do and the better recovery will be.

DR training of staff starts with education about the DR Plan documentation because it doesn't matter if you have the best plan if not everyone knows what's in it. The training should involve testing of the management of people, accessing successfully implement of individual’s part of the overall plan.