Disaster Recovery Planning And Network Services Continuity
Review and modify design, infrastructure, configuration, security and management for improved network resiliency and availability. It is my contention that running a network assessment is an effective strategy for determining what changes should be made to your network. The argument could be made that all assessment groups have some affect on network availability and resiliency. The availability assessment will collect most of the key information however the security assessment must be considered since problems with company security will expose your network to attacks. When your network is being attacked it isn’t available!Management strategy assessments are key as well since the absence of effective management policies and applications will create a tenuous situation. For instance without any change management policies you will have employees changing application and device configurations (assuming they have security authorization) without prior approval and at any time of the day. The configuration change doesn’t work as expected and it is 10 am while employees are starting their day. Guess what, your day just got longer.
Pro-Active fault and performance monitoring strategies will indicate when a device or server is not operational or near capacity. Those situations will obviously affect network availability. The performance assessment will describe how well the network is performing and whether there are any capacity issues and what offices are affected. The infrastructure assessment will focus on issues such as media mismatches, switch port capacity, IOS version problems, router memory shortages, application software versions and protocols. Facilities are considered with an availability assessment and focus on rack space, temperature controls, power availability and raised floors.
The creation of and maintenance of a sound business continuity and disaster recovery plan, is a complex undertaking, involving a series of steps. Prior to creation of the plan itself, it is essential to consider the potential impacts of disaster and to understand the underlying risks: these are the foundations upon which a sound business continuity plan or disaster recovery plan should be built. Thinking Safe is designed to consider all these issues and to catalog some of the most highly acclaimed products and services. The first step in a sensible business continuity process is to consider the potential impacts of each type of disaster or event. A sound disaster recovery / business continuity plan is essential to protect the well being of an organization. Disaster recovery is a subset of business continuity. While business continuity involves planning for keeping all aspects of a business functioning in the midst of disruptive events, disaster recovery focuses on the IT or technology systems that support business functions. Another driving force in the growth of the industry was increasing government regulations mandating business continuity and disaster recovery plans for organizations in various sectors of the economy.