A Disaster Recovery too far? - Networking Computing
Newsletter
Every business knows the value of electronic data
Most UK companies are now heavily reliant on the
confidentiality, availability and integrity of their
data for the smooth running of day-to-day operations.
So much so, that, according to the initial findings
of the Department of Trade and Industry?s (DTI?s)
Information Security Breaches Survey 2004, 88% find
it easy or very easy to justify the cost of backup
technology and disaster recovery facilities.
Indeed, 95% of UK businesses now have some form of
backup or disaster recovery facility in place.
So CEOs and MDs can sleep soundly at night, safe
in the knowledge that the business is protected from
the potentially catastrophic effects of a data disaster,
right? Wrong.
Most companies backup their servers (around seven
in ten). Less than 13% of UK businesses, however,
backup data stored on desktop PCs and laptops, yet
around 70% of critical business information resides
on these computing devices. Rather like an iceberg,
only 30% sits above the server line. So ask yourself,
should a disaster strike, will your backup sink or
keep the business afloat?
Will the CEO be happy that he?s got his emails back
but has had to write off the business plan he?s been
working on six months which was saved to his local
hard-drive?
The IT department?s priority is to ensure that operational
systems are kept up and running. Therefore, if the
servers are fully backed-up, then there?s no problem.
What they don?t often understand is the necessity
and full mandate under rules for good corporate governance
to protect data no matter where it resides. Equally,
the board doesn?t necessarily understand the intricacies
of the distributed enterprise and will usually take
the IT director?s word for it that if the servers
are protected then everything?s hunky dory. And as
a user, you just naturally assume everything is backed
up as a matter of routine?
Date: 6 March 2004
Frequency: Bi-monthly
Circulation: 17,760
The mis-communication and lack of common understanding
between the board and the IT department has led to
a false sense of security, evidenced by the almost
exclusive focus on server backup. This is compounded
by the shocking fact that less than 8% of UK businesses
have actually tested their recovery plan to see if
it would work in practice and that the vast majority
of backup is still done to tape ?despite the well
know reliability issues?. Indeed, the DTI security
survey found that two-thirds of companies do not store
tapes offsite, meaning they stand a good chance of
being lost along with computer systems in a fire,
flood, etc. A right recipe for disaster.
The amount of critical business information distributed
across the extended enterprise is only going to increase.
The take-up of wireless networking and the convergence
of computing and mobile devices will further decentralise
the storage of data to local drives. So a server-centric
backup and disaster recovery plan is going to become
more and more ineffective and risky.
Businesses, therefore, need to look at implementing
remote data backup and recovery solutions which can
protect any data, stored on any computing device across
the entire enterprise from servers and desktops to
laptops and mobile devices. Online disk-disk solutions
are automated, safe, secure and cost-effective, and
can backup data via any type of network connection
be it LAN, WAN, DSL, WLAN, etc, etc. Data really has
no place to hide.
But backup is a little like being an alcoholic. First
you have to admit you?ve got a problem before you
can solve it. Until the board and IT department realise
that only backing up (some) servers is like insuring
the engine of your car but forgetting about the brakes,
wheels, chasis, etc, then nothing will change. Unless
of course the company suffers a catastrophic systems
crash ? but being wise after the event may be too
late in any case.
At the end of the day you can?t prevent disasters
happening (indeed, 93% of UK businesses have anti-virus
protection but half still suffered from virus infection
or denial of services attacks in 2003. But you can
prevent against disastrous data loss. It?s just a
matter of making sure that no sever, desktop, laptop
or mobile device is left unprotected. NC
To download a copy of a datasheet on the findings
on backups and recovery from the DTI?s Information
Security Breaches Survey 2004 please go to
http://www.uk.attix5.com/files/products/A5_dti_databackups.pdf
