Newsfeed for Disaster Planning Knowledge Base
Disaster Planning is lacking in many companies. According to an AT&T Survey of 100 Chicago firms (revenues <$10M), 81 have DR plans, but only 43% have fully tested their plans within the last 12 months and 12% admitted they have never tested their business continuity plans.
DR and BC are now accepted as basics requirement for every business and organization. It is widely accepted that a detailed plan should not only exist, but should be up to date. It should reflect the actual on-going needs of the business activity or function. But how do you ensure that this is actually the case?
A disaster recovery is a response to a declared disaster or a regional disaster. It is the restoration or recovery of an entire Agent computer. A disaster recovery plan describes how an organization is to deal with potential disasters.
Just as a disaster is an event that makes the continuation of normal functions impossible, a disaster recovery plan consists of the precautions taken so that the effects of a disaster will be minimized, and the organization will be able to either maintain or quickly resume mission-critical functions.
Typically, disaster recovery planning involves an analysis of business processes and continuity needs; it may also include a significant focus on disaster prevention.
The Disaster Recovery Planning Template (DRP) 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 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.
Clients can also subscribe to Janco's DRP update service and receive all updates to the DRP Template*.
The DRP template includes everything needed to customize the Disaster Recovery Plan to fit your specific requirement.
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Below are the latest the items from that feed.
Disaster Recovery Planning International Standard Set by Janco
08/25/2010
Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Template Now Accepted as the International Standard
Update to the Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Template has just been released by Janco Associates..
Park City, UT - The Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Planning template has been sold to enterprise in over 65 countries around the globe. With the release the latest verison of the template it is in complete compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, ITIL (Ver 3), ISO 17799, and PCI DSS.
M V Janulaitis the CEO of Janco said, "Our DRP /BCP Template has been accepted by enterprise around the globe as the standard for disaster recovery plan and business continuity plan creation." In response to that need Janco has updated its "Disaster Recovery / Business Continuity Template" by increasing the content of the template as well as updating the entire document to be compliant with Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, ITIL (Ver. 3), ISO 17799, and PCI DSS.The Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Plan has been purchased for use in over 65 countries around the globe including:
- Angola
- Australia
- Austria
- Bahamas
- Barbados
- Belgium
- Belize
- Bermuda
- Brazil
- Bulgaria
- Canada
- Cayman Islands
- Columbia
- Croatia
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Egypt
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Honduras
- Hungary
- Iceland
- India
- Indonesia
- Israel
- Italy
- Jamaica
- Japan
- Jordan
- Kenya
- Lebanon
- Lithuania
- Macao
- Malta
- Mexico
- Mozambique
- Namibia
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
- Nigeria
- Norway
- Panama
- Philippines
- Poland
- Portugal
- Puerto Rico
- Qatar
- Republic of Ireland
- Romania
- Russia
- Saudi Arabia
- Singapore
- South Africa
- South Korea
- Spain
- Sri Lanka
- Swaziland
- Switzerland
- Taiwan
- Thailand
- Trinidad & Tobago
- Uganda
- United Kingdom
- United States
- Venezuela
- Zambia
The Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Plan has been purchased for use in government, public, and private enterprises in almost all industries including:
- more info
- Federal Government
- State Governments
- Local Governments
- Law Firms
- Think Tanks
- Chemical
- Telecommunication
- Real Estate
- Manufacturing
- Universities
- School Districts
- Consulting Firms
- Banks
- Financial Service
- Investment Banks
- Credit Unions
- Outsourcers
- Property Mgt
- Heavy Industry
- Light Industry
- Distribution
- Retail
- Hospitality
- Energy
- Insurance
- Medical
- ISPs
- Application Development
- Construction
- Graphics
- Entertainment
- Paper Products
- Defense
- Aerospace
- Media
Disaster Plan & Business Continuity Infrastructure
08/18/2010
The key technology elements of a Disaster Recovery Plan and Business Continuity Plan (DRP/BCP) infrastructure are the primary data center, a remote site that duplicates the resources in that primary location and the method used to get files (master and transaction) between the two sites - such as high-bandwidth network connections. The best DRP/BCP strategies follow a "redundant every-thing" philosophy throughout the data center. Multiple mainframes and servers should run in the production and backup data facilities. Then, if a component in the production system encounters problems, it immediately fails over to the local backup as a first line of defense.
Power supplies and communication links are one of the most critical components in a DRP/BCP strategy.
- more info
Microsoft products do not work with each other
08/13/2010
Angry customers, perhaps unable to contact customer support via e-mail, have inundated Microsoft support forums with an array of complaints, such as the inability to load or to send messages, as well as problems with script errors.
As if these problems that have turned Hotmail into Notmail weren't bad enough, Microsoft's suggested solutions have ironically urged users to turn off certain Microsoft products or features. Among the recommendations: Don't use Messenger, Internet Explorer, or particular Windows 7 features if you want Hotmail to work properly.
Killing the Web-based version of Messenger is listed as a way to address the problem of a script causing one's browser to run slowly while attempting to access Hotmail. "[We] are working on releasing a fix as soon as possible, but until then, a good workaround is to try signing out of Messenger on the Web (click your name in the upper-right of the page, and then click "Sign out of Messenger" in the menu)," reads a portion of the "Frequently experienced issues in the newest version of Hotmail." The Windows Live Team is working to fix the problem, Microsoft says.
Another frequent problem: Mobile broadband users report they can't read their mail. Microsoft attributes this little inconvenience to, yet again, script errors and suggests users stop using Internet Explorer or Firefox and instead try using Windows Live Mail or the mobile version of Hotmail. An alternative solution Microsoft offered in one of the support threads: Try Google Chrome. Microsoft notes that it the Windows Lives Team has developed a fix for this problem that has yet to be released
Finally, for users who aren't able to send messages, Microsoft offers this workaround: If you are using High Contrast display mode in Windows 7, turn it. The Windows Live Team is -- you guessed it -- working on a fix, Microsoft notes.
- more info
The focus of a DRP/BCP
08/07/2010
All BC/DR plans need to encompass how employees will communicate, where they will go and how they will keep doing their jobs. The details can vary greatly, depending on the size and scope of a company and the way it does business. For some businesses, issues such as supply chain logistics are most crucial and are the focus on the plan. For others, information technology may play a more pivotal role, and the BC/DR plan may have more of a focus on systems recovery. For example, the plan at one global manufacturing company would restore critical mainframes with vital data at a backup site within four to six days of a disruptive event, obtain a mobile telephone switch with 3,000 telephones within two days, recover the company's 1,000-plus LANs in order of business need, and set up a temporary call center for 100 agents at a nearby training facility.
But the critical point is that neither element can be ignored, and physical, IT and human resources plans cannot be developed in isolation from each other. (In this regard, BC/DR has much in common with security convergence.) At its heart, BC/DR is about constant communication.
- more info
DRP and Security Plans key to compliance
07/24/2010
Preparing for a disaster requires detailed planning, preparation and testing. Knowing what IT assets need to be recovered, where to recover them and how to recover them are the essence of IT Disaster Recovery. The most difficult challenge is mapping the prioritized business requirements to the IT assets so that recovery can be staged. The recovery strategy then evolves based on the available options which support the required recovery objectives. The resulting Disaster Recovery plans contain all of the information detailing where to go, who is to do what and the information required to rebuild servers, restore applications and data as well as restart and synchronization procedures. - more info
Simple Disaster Planning Activities
07/13/2010
Creating a disaster recovery plan is a complex task; however there are a number of basic steps that you can follow to start thre process
- more info
- Prepare your systems, processes, and people for an organized response to disaster when it strikes.
- Identify critical IT systems and develop a long-range strategy.
- Select and train your disaster recovery team.
- Conduct a Business Impact Analysis.
- Determine risks to your business from natural or human-made causes.
- Get management support.
- Create appropriate plan documents.
- Test your plan.
Wireless may become open source like
06/22/2010
Infrastructure planning may become easier for CIOs as AT&T and Verizon Wireless, the two largest U.S. mobile operators, have joined an organization that ensures roaming among mobile operators' Wi-Fi networks.
The group, called the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA), also announced on Monday that South Korean mobile operator KT, Cisco Systems, U.S. cable operator Comcast, and wireless software vendor Devicescape Software have recently joined.
- more info
Recovery time is focus of 57% of Business Continuity Managers
06/18/2010
In a recent survey it was found that 57 percent of IT organizations see reducing recovery time in the event of IT failure and cutting the cost of backup as the two biggest pain-points for backup and disaster recovery. The next most significant difficulties were the ability to roll back to any point in time when recovering workloads and recovery testing.
Virtualization is already in place with the majority of those surveyed, with 86 percent of those questioned having a virtual infrastructure in place within their organizations.
Other findings are:
- more info
- Tape backup is the most popular technology involved for recovery of virtual machines, with 60 percent of organizations relying on tape to protect their virtualization implementations. 53 percent of organizations are using disk-to-disk backup products, while proprietary virtualization products are used by 23 percent;
- 17 percent of organizations are only using tape backup for the backup / recovery of their virtual machines;
- The number of respondents that were able to judge their recovery point objectives (RPO) when it came to virtualized environments was much lower than those able to define their recovery time objectives (RTO) - only 45 percent of those surveyed were able to state their satisfaction level around their RPOs.
Continuous Data Protection can be used as a backup strategy for DRP amd BCP
05/27/2010
Continuous Data Protection (CDP) is an increasingly popular disk-based backup strategy. It is replication with an Undo button. Every time a block of data changes on the system being backed up, it is transferred to the CDP system. However, unlike replication, CDP stores changes in a log, so you can undo those changes at a very granular level. In fact, you can recover the system to literally any point in time at which data was stored within the CDP system.
A near-CDP system works in similar fashion except that it has discrete points in time to which it can recover. To put it another way, near-CDP combines snapshots with replication. Typically, a snapshot is taken on the system being backed up, whereupon that snapshot is replicated to another system that holds the backup.
Why take the snapshot on the source before replication? Because only at the source can you typically quiesce the application writing to the storage so that the snapshot will be a meaningful one.
- more info
Senate plans to control IT Spending
05/24/2010
The Senate has passed a bill that would put tighter controls around the money the government invests in its major information technology projects. Metrics for this process are yet to be defined
The Information Technology Investment Oversight Enhancement and Waste Prevention Act (S. 920) would set up tougher monitoring of the roughly $80 billion that agencies spend each year on IT.
The Government Accountability Office reported in October 2009 that it had identified 11 mismanaged IT investments made by agencies that will likely cost $3 billion more than planned.
- more info
Mobile workforce chanllenges disater planning process
05/11/2010
It is estimated that by the end of 2011, mobile workers will make up 73 percent of the total US workforce. These workers increasingly demand access to current, comprehensive, and often sensitive data, while relying on smaller IT operations teams to provide it. This creates a significant challenge for disaster recovery and business continuity planning: how to make the most data available to the greatest number of mobile employees, while maintaining availability and security levels. - more info
Weather is the primary cause of disaster declarations
04/25/2010
Disasters and emergency situations can strike at any time. The term, disaster, typically brings to mind serious weather events like tornadoes and fl oods, man-made disasters such as oil spills, or accidents resulting from human error such as a utility crew severing a power line or water main. Though these events are still common - in 2006 and 2007 across the US.
FEMA records disasters and has classified them for 2006 (52 disaster declrations) and 2007 (53 Disaster declarartions).
Disaster declarations at an average rate of one per week - over the past ten years the frequency, magnitude and scope of disasters has broadened to include national wildfi res, pandemic threats, acts of terrorism such as Fort Hood in 2009 and crises such as the Virginia Tech Shootings, the mall shootings in Omaha, Nebraska, in December 2007.
- more info
Disaster Recovery Business Continuity for Remote Offices
04/24/2010
Data residing outside the data center at remote and branch offices (ROBOs) accounts for a significant portion of an enterprise's information store, yet it often either is protected with inefficient backup processes or is not protected at all -- leaving companies at risk on many fronts.
In a recent research report, high priority projects for ROBOs included improving information security measures; ensuring compliance with government, industry or corporate governance mandates; and improving Disaster Recovery Business Continuity processes.
- more info
Outsouring Can Help in Disaster Recovery Planning
04/16/2010
Between hackers, natural disasters, or even a pipe breaking in the office above yours, every business needs a contingency plan. It could mean the difference between riding out a problem and going out of business. For this reason, most businesses are concerned about the safety of their backups. Data loss is a significant concern for any business - and in healthcare and other industries can have huge financial consequences. Solutions typically require that you spend more money on a third party backup solution. Outsourcing is one solution that should not be overlooked. Solutions typically require that you spend more money on a third party backup solution. Outsourcing is one solution that should not be overlooked. - more info
Guidelines for Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Planning
04/07/2010
Disaster recovery and business continuity are important business issues that require awareness and planning. Guidelines that can be used in this process are:
- more info
