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Examples of Disaster Recovery



One of my first tasks when I was hired ten years ago was to


investigate the creation of a disaster recovery site for our


mainframe computer systems. I had already had some experiences


with disasters and recovery. Here are some examples of a few


that we included in our plans.


Major Earthquake - Those of us who live in California understand


earthquakes. I've personally been through at least five


significant quakes (6.8 or greater) without suffering any


damage at all. In many people's mind, a major earthquake is


the disaster scenario.


One day the "big one" will come (in California) and who knows


what will happen at that time. In fact, my boss and I were able


to convince the CEO of our company to create a "hot site" (a


duplicate site which is already ready to take over in the event


of a disaster) because of a recent significant earthquake.


One of the first things that we did is contact Caltech (the


experts on earthquakes) to commission a study to determine


where we should place our disaster site. The primary criteria


was that the site be relatively close (within 50 miles) but on


a different geologic plate so the earthquake would not flatten


both locations.


As we studied the possibility of this disaster, we realized


that the building and computers might emerge from the earthquake


entirely intact, but the infrastructure (power, phone lines


and so forth) might be destroyed. In addition, a major


earthquake is a unique disaster because it's more likely that


your people will be in complete shock and more interested in


their families and homes than in restoring your computer


operations.


The thing to do here is be sure you've got the infrastructure


issues covered cold. This includes phones, power and the


network. Make sure you have a disaster site (or very good


backups kept off-site) ready to go. Rehearse your disaster


plan, and make sure your people know what to do.


Minor Earthquake - A minor earthquake might be easy to survive


(we've been through several of them with no issues) and it


might introduce some interesting quirks on it's own. The power


might be out, phone lines might be down and take weeks to


repair, and the general infrastructure (roads, food shipments


and so on) might be disabled. In addition, earthquakes tend to


put people into a state of shock, so it might be difficult to


get people to recover and get back to work.


Biological Event - When envelops fill of anthrax started


appearing on the news, we were suddenly confronted with a new


type of disaster. What if a biological attack or event occurred


in our building? What if the receptionist opened an envelop


contaminated with anthrax? We would then be confronted with a


unique situation. The building would be sealed and off-limited


for days, weeks or even months; and we would not be allowed


back in under any conditions for any reason for that time.


This situation is probably one of the worst disaster scenarios


of all. The old building and equipment is intact but completely


unreachable. Tantalizing and frustrating. Sigh. What to do?


Hope and pray that you've got an excellent disaster recovery


plan and a very competent team, that's what you do. In this


case, you'd better have a hot site or, at the very least some


excellent backups. Not only that, you're business continuity


plan had better be totally finished and rehearsed. You see, in


this case you will not even be able to look through the ruble


or burned building for papers, disks, CDs or anything else.


Nothing, absolutely nothing, will be available for your use


for a long, long time. In fact, if any of your people are in


the building you may find them unavailable (as in quarantined)


as well.


Lightening - One day a few years ago, when I was just beginning


in the computer field, I was working late, way past midnight.


I was just sitting in the computer room (freezing my butt off),


listening to one of the heaviest rain storms that I'd heard in


a long time. It was kind of eerie, listening to the rain drops


on the roof and the thunder in the distance.


Suddenly, the room lit up and I was blinded for a few seconds.


I instinctively pulled back from the keyboard, and I believe


that saved my life. I felt heat on my face and body, and when


I opened my eyes the computer room was dark.


I soon learned that lightening has struck the power pole just


outside the building. The computer simply melted down - no


circuit breaker in existence could have protected it. I was


lucky to be alive - wow, what a rush that was!


Unfortunately, this company did NOT have a disaster recovery


plan. We had to purchase a new computer system and build it


back up from scratch. Fortunately, we did keep backups off-site,


and within a week or so we were back up and running.


And that's the reason why, now, I have a complete belief and


focus on disaster recovery - if you have a plan and have


prepared well, you will recover just fine (even with the


unexpected bumps and such). If you don't, then you basically


leave it up to fate or whatever else you believe in. PersonallyComputer Technology Articles,


I would rather be in control of the situation. I find that


makes things much easier.

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