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Written by Tony Phelps
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Thursday, 17 November 2005 |
Most people have a good idea of what a “disaster” is in terms of the
forces of nature, whether on a large scale such as we are witnessing
across all of New Orleans or on a smaller scale such as the experiences
of one family there losing their home.
In terms of computers and computer systems, disasters can be just as
devastating but with much less physical damage to see. Thankfully, few
computer systems are directly responsible for life-or-death situations
(and those that are should be subject to very stringent testing,
monitoring and fail-safe requirements). However, for a business to lose
all of its accounting data, its current orders information, its
customer details database, and/or its inventory lists could easily lead
to the closing down of the business. Few businesses that depend on
computers and which suffer a disaster involving their data will
recover, unless appropriate and effective recovery measures are in
place.
DRP is the field of endeavour focused on keeping a business going no
matter what happens. DRP stands for Disaster Recovery and Prevention.
As you might guess, prevention is much better than recovery –
prevention includes making sure that important equipment and data is
kept safe electronically and physically, for example keeping servers in
a waterproof secure locked room and protecting them with firewalls and
passwords. It also includes the use of Uninterruptible Power Supplies
(UPS) to make sure that any fluctuations in mains power do not have an
adverse effect on critical electronic equipment. By the way, remember
Unelco’s power cut this weekend (Sunday 7am-11am) – they advise any
electronic equipment should be unplugged. Disaster Prevention is all
about sitting down and thinking what might go wrong, how it might
affect you, and what you can do to avoid any effect (within your
budget).
Of course we cannot prevent all possible problems. This is where
Disaster Recovery steps in. Disaster Recovery is all about sitting down
and thinking about what might go wrong that you can do nothing about
(eg. equipment failure, earthquake, cyclone, tsunami) or that overrides
your prevention measures (eg fire, theft, flood), how it might affect
you, and what you can do to minimize the effect (within your budget).
As you can see, Disaster Recovery and Disaster Prevention are close
cousins. “How do I stop something happening in the first place” versus
“How do I get back to normal after something has happened”.
Now is a good time of year to undertake your own evaluation, be it of
your home or business situation. If you need spare parts (eg. computer
components that are not available locally), can you wait however long
it would take to order them in? What if all flights were taken up for
emergency relief use? Cyclone season is coming, and cyclones represent
a strong risk of disaster in this region. As the Scouts say, “Be
Prepared”! You could have more to lose than you think. |
