To have a proper data center disaster recovery plan in place, it is important to identify the points of failure and have the appropriate procedures and hardware on hand to remediate those issues. The following will discuss necessary steps to ensure your data center IT infrastructure has minimal downtime risk.
Unfortunately, disaster can strike at any time.
Physical structures like data centers will always be susceptible to potential damage.
Data centers have mountains of sensitive data, making contingencies for these scenarios critical.
Sometimes, disaster is inevitable.
Having the right data center disaster recovery plan can make all the difference.
Data Center Disasters: Are You At Risk?
The short answer is yes, probably.
No matter where your data center is located, it’s important to consider the absolute worst-case scenarios when thinking about your data center disaster recovery plan.
What factors come into play as potential risks?
First, it’s important to think about the possibility of natural disasters. Are you on the west coast?
Then you know the risks associated with the likelihood of earthquakes and wildfires wreaking havoc.
Midwest or east coast? What about snowstorms, flash-floods, hurricanes, hail, and tornadoes?
Even a “normal” rainstorm could do massive damage to a data center and its contents if all of the conditions line up perfectly.
But it’s not just natural disasters. Cyber attacks and hackers are a constant threat to the modern age. If recent headlines are any indication, companies cannot afford to ignore the risks and damages from outside, manmade sources.
Protecting your company and potentially any clients’ sensitive data starts with proper security practices.
Being proactive is only half the battle. You can lower your risk of complete shutdowns substantially with the right plans and employee training.
But it’s also important to acknowledge that a total halt of operation could happen.
And it may even be better to assume one will happen.
With the right emergency response and disaster recovery plan, the damage can be contained. As a result, your company will be back on its feet before any significant problems arise.
Data Center Disaster Recovery: Where to Start
To start, protecting your company and potentially any clients’ important, sensitive data starts with the right security practices in data centers.
However, being proactive is only half the battle.
That being said, you can lower your risk of complete shutdowns substantially with the right plans and employee training.
But it’s also important to acknowledge that a total halt of operation could happen.
It may even be better to assume one will happen.
With the right emergency response and disaster recovery plan, your company will be back on its feet before any setback can cause significant, permanent damage.
For starters, take a look at what policies and procedures are currently in place at your company and begin assessing any potential risks.
Assessing Risk
Downtime is extremely costly for data centers.
Any recovery plan starts with trying to minimize any potential downtime as much as possible. That starts with identifying and assessing the risks associated with your specific data center.
Think about who should be involved in your company. For instance, IT technicians, network administrators, security, management, and investors or stakeholders may want to add their own input.
Now think about your building’s infrastructure. Locate any floor or building plans and blueprints, network infrastructure, equipment diagrams—any relevant information that should be evaluated for risk and damage.
Use documented information, personal company inventory, and staff knowledge to locate and address the most serious vulnerabilities to your data center.
For example, these may be old equipment, poor training, dirty or damaged ventilation, etc.
Maintenance levels can play a key role in a data center’s downtime risks.
Think about your current procedures and the maximum amount of downtime you can realistically afford should it occur. Think about any at-risk equipment. How would you replace it? What kind of shape is it in now?
Performing regular security and maintenance inspections can save you more in the long term.
Build Your Data Center Disaster Recovery Plan
Now prioritize the likelihood and severity of each risk.
Further, it may be a good idea to internally designate a specific disaster recovery team of employees.
It goes without saying that everyone should be properly trained and prepared in case of an emergency.
That being said, designating a team will only improve the odds of a data center disaster recovery.
For team members, prioritize veteran employees committed to your company’s future.
For one, you won’t waste time training and educating new team members every few years.
In the event of a serious disaster, having a team of employees you know you can trust will only make the recovery process easier.
Once you finish your thorough risk assessments and review building plans as well as any previous disaster recovery plans, it’s time to build your new plan.
As you do this, consider every angle prior to this point—anything you miss or gloss over will only hurt yourself in the long run.
In this sense, recovery plans are more focused on minimizing risks and making any potential downtime as short as possible.
Any physical back-up sites should have their own set of recovery plans and emergency contingency plans as well.
In addition, cloud backups should be regularly tested for speed.
Also, you should know your maximum downtime and what to expect during a reboot.
Always Be Ready With a Proper Recovery Plan In Place
As Benjamin Franklin once said: “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.”
And although he wasn’t talking about potential risks and failures of our nation’s corporate digital data centers, his words still hold true.
Thus, ensure that your plans are approved by the necessary management and stakeholders at all levels.
Thoroughly document as you develop and maintain the plan so it is ready on an ongoing basis.
In addition, be sure to run annual inspections and the necessary tests to ensure your plan is still effective.
All employees should be aware of any and all recovery plans as well as procedures during an emergency.
Further, regular testing and training should be a normal part of your company’s annual plan.
The right security and risk assessments will help tremendously in disaster prevention.
Tangentially, it helps to have cutting edge tools to protect your data from network attacks.
Looking To Sell Used IT Equipment?
When upgrading your data center or selling excess IT equipment, we hope you’ll consider us.
We can help you with your servers, your processors, and all of your computers, among other things.
We’re a family-owned company that provides industry-leading returns. Contact us today for a free asset valuation and service quote.
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