Disaster Recovery Dallas

There is nothing more worrying to a business than the loss of data and important documents.  Especially when it could have been prevented had a solid disaster recovery plan been put into place.  Disaster Recovery is a great strategic tool that helps businesses prepare against circumstances beyond their control.  It is a method of regaining access and functionality to its vital technology infrastructure and systems through a set of policies, tools and procedures following a natural or human-induced disaster. Disaster Recovery services by TeamLogic IT Plano can help to reverse any kind of situation that has resulted in the loss of data.

HOW DOES DISASTER RECOVERY WORK?

Disaster recovery relies upon the replication of data and computer processing in an off-premises location not affected by the disaster. When there is a server down because of a natural disaster, equipment failure or cybersecurity attack, a business needs to recover lost data from a second location where the data is backed up.

WHAT ARE THREE DIFFERENT TYPES OF RECOVERY SITES?

A disaster recovery site is a place that a company can temporarily relocate to following a security breach or natural disaster.  Ideally, a business can transfer its computer processing to that remote location in order to continue operations.  The three different types of recovery sites are cold, warm and hot. 

Cold sites are the least expensive backup locations that a company sets up with bare minimum hardware infrastructure like raised floors, air conditioning, power and communication lines etc. for employees to work following an incident.  Equipment is brought in and set up to resume operations. As it does not provide a way to protect or recover important data, a cold site must be combined with other methods of disaster recovery.

Warm sites are a middle ground between hot and cold. These locations have their own hardware and network infrastructure in place although with limited performance capabilities. Although warm sites might have backups on hand which can restore data and operations quickly, they may not be complete.  Furthermore, recovery will be delayed while backup tapes are delivered to the warm site, or network connectivity is established and data is recovered from a remote backup site.

Hot sites are the ideal backup IT solution that dramatically reduces downtime, especially for a business that cannot afford it.  A hot site is a near replica of the primary location, with full computer systems as well as complete backups of user data.  Real time synchronization between the two sites may be used to mirror image the data environment of the original site using wide area network links and specialized software.  Although hot sites maintain up-to-date copies of data continuously, they are time-consuming, very expensive, and are considered mostly in the case of mission critical operations.

WHAT ARE SOME TYPES OF DISASTER RECOVERY METHODS?

Disaster Recovery methods and strategies require a careful analysis of all the dependent areas affecting a business during the course of a working day. They should be developed for Information technology (IT) systems, applications and data which include networks, servers, desktops, laptops, wireless devices, data and connectivity. They should also involve an accurate estimate of the number of resources that would be required to implement the disaster recovery plan. Below is an array of methods businesses can choose for disaster recovery actions besides recovery sites.

  • Backup: This is the simplest type of disaster recovery and entails storing data off site or on a removable drive. However, just backing up data provides only minimal business continuity help, as the IT infrastructure itself is not backed up.
  • Back Up as a Service: Similar to backing up data at a remote location, a third-party provider backs up a company’s data, but not its IT infrastructure.
  • Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS): In the event of a disaster or ransomware attack, a DRaaS provider moves a company’s computer processing to its own cloud infrastructure, allowing a business to continue operations effortlessly from the vendor’s location, even if a company’s servers are down.
  • Datacenter disaster recovery:  Impact assessment and organizational planning are used to determine what costs are associated with the loss of critical systems in order to resume business operations following an unexpected event which may damage or destroy data, software and hardware systems.
  • Point-in-time copies: Also known as point-in-time snapshots, it is the process of making a copy of the entire database at a given time. Data can be restored from this backup, but only if the copy is stored off site or on a virtual machine that is unaffected by the disaster.
  • Instant recovery: Instant recovery is similar to point-in-time copies, except that instead of copying a database, instant recovery takes a snapshot of an entire virtual machine. 
  • Virtualization: Businesses may backup certain operations and data or even a working replica of a company’s entire computing environment on off-site virtual machines that are unaffected by physical disasters. Using virtualization allows businesses to automate some disaster recovery processes, bringing everything back online faster. For virtualization to be an effective disaster recovery tool, frequent transfer of data and workloads is essential, as is good communication within the IT solutions team about how many virtual machines are operating within a business.

WHAT IS A DISASTER RECOVERY PLAN?

Disaster recovery is the process of resuming normal operations following a disaster by regaining access to data, hardware, software, networking equipment, power and connectivity. A disaster recovery response should follow a disaster recovery plan, which is a documented process or set of procedures developed specifically to prepare the company to recover in the shortest possible time during a period of acute stress.

A Disaster Recovery Plan for businesses must be clean, clear and concise.  The simpler the better.  The disaster recovery teams need to be able to execute the plans with ease and not be confused or challenged.  All of these can be accomplished through technology consulting.  Highly effective Disaster Recovery Plans address these critical areas:

  • Identify, prioritize and describe detailed emergency response actions immediately following a disaster.  Include a statement, overview and main goals of the plan.
  • Have a business impact analysis that spells out events’ potential financial, legal and operational effects.
  • Contact information for key personnel and disaster recovery team members.  Name specific individuals who are essential in responding to and recovering from disasters. 
  • Diagram the entire IT network and recovery site. Include directions on how to reach the recovery site for personnel that need to get there.
  • Identify the most critical IT assets and determine the maximum outage time.
  • List software, license keys and systems that will be used in the recovery effort.
  • Have technical documentation from vendors on recovery technology system software.
  • Summary of insurance coverage.
  • Test the disaster recovery plan and effectiveness of responders through regular training and disaster drills
  • Update major changes to any internal systems
  • Evaluate DRaaS to make sure the cloud services recovery solution is right for your business

It is always recommended that a comprehensive disaster recovery plan is created in conjunction with business continuity planning.  To ensure effective data backup, it is often done hand-in-hand with a professional IT support company Dallas. One that has the knowledge and experience necessary to ensure that the business and its data will be fully protected in the event of a disaster. All important documents need to be easily retrievable and restorable. The IT company will recommend technology-driven recovery strategies that will be able to restore data, applications, hardware, and software in as fast a time as possible if it is lost or damaged.

TeamLogic IT Plano understands that every business is unique, and each business requires a customized strategy to account for its specific needs and situation. However, there are some essential elements for any recovery strategy that apply to all IT outsourcing disaster recovery plans. 

TeamLogic IT Plano can help your business develop solid plans for Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Dallas that enable your operation to bounce back quickly when a natural disaster, severe power outage or other unexpected event threatens your business.  We offer Data Recovery Dallas, as well as in Plano, McKinney, and surrounding areas.  Contact us through our website at teamlogicitplanotx.com or call (469) 573-3743 and let’s get started.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT DISASTER RECOVERY?

WHAT ARE THE TYPES OF DISASTER RECOVERY PLANS?

There are four types of disaster recovery plans which are Data Center Disaster Recovery, Cloud-Based Disaster Recovery, Virtualization Disaster Recovery and Disaster Recovery As A Service.

WHY DO COMPANIES PREFER TO ADOPT DISASTER RECOVERY AS A SERVICE (DRaaS)?

DRaaS provides the needed resilience to a business by providing continuous mirroring of critical infrastructure and data to a high-availability cloud service, so that recovery of the business is possible within very few minutes of an outage.

WHAT ARE THE THREE MAIN MODELS FOR DRaaS?

There are many different disaster recovery as a service providers to select from with the three main models being Managed DRaaS, Assisted DRaaS, and Self-service DRaaS.

By on December 3, 2020   /   Technology