
Virtualization and Cloud executives share their predictions for 2014. Read them in this VMblog.com series exclusive.
Contributed article by Steve Kahan, Chief Marketing Officer, PHD Virtual
Organizations with Virtual and Cloud Environments Get Serious About Improving Disaster Recovery Preparedness
Recently a group of executives, including myself, formed a
new council whose aim is to increase disaster recovery preparedness and improve
disaster recovery practices. The idea is to study current DR practices and develop
DR standards and best practices for the industry to follow. Our initial
research surprised us.
Initial results from the Disaster Recovery Preparedness
online benchmark survey show the dismal state of DR preparedness of companies
worldwide. Using a common grading system from A (the best) to F (the worst), 72% of survey participants, or nearly 3 out
of 4 companies worldwide, are failing in terms of disaster readiness scoring ratings
of either a D or F grade. (You can
take the test yourself at www.drbenchmark.org).
In addition, one-third lost critical Apps for hours. 11% of
the companies lost critical apps for days. The impact of this downtime is huge
because the cost of losing critical applications has been estimated by various
experts at $5,000 per minute. Believe
it or not, 60% of those who took the
survey do not a have a fully documented DR plan. For those that have disaster
recovery plans, the majority rarely, if ever, test their plans. 50% of
respondents test DR plans only once or twice a year. 13% never test their DR
Plans. Without testing and verification of DR plans, most companies really have
no idea as to whether they can fully recover their IT systems in the event of a
disaster or extended outage.
The question is not if a disaster or outage could happen,
but when it will occur and how prepared organizations are for that scenario. That's
why the council members and I believe that 2014 will be the year companies get
serious about disaster recovery preparedness. We believe there are three important steps
companies need to take in 2014:
Build a DR plan for
everything you need to recover
There are many items that IT professionals must recover.
Companies need to protect their data, files, folders, emails, etc. They also
need to recover applications, business services or even their entire site in
the event of an outage or disaster.
Define Recovery Time Objectives
(RTO) & Recovery Point objectives (RPO) for critical applications
RTOs are all about defining how quickly you need to recover.
This describes the amount of downtime that is tolerable in the event of an
outage or disaster. RPOs describe the amount of data your willing to risk in an
outage or disaster. Companies need to define RTOs and RPOs for critical
applications
Frequently test critical
applications to validate they will
recover within RTOs/RPOs
Companies need to position themselves to immediately become
aware when the recovery time or recovery point actuals do not fall within the
objectives. For DR preparedness to improve, companies must automate these processes
to overcome the high cost in time and money of verifying and testing their DR
plans.
If companies take these 3 steps in 2014, we believe they
will have taken significant steps forward ensuring business continuity no
matter what the scenario.
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About the Author
Steve
Kahan serves as chief marketing officer for PHD Virtual. In this role, Steve is
responsible for global campaign marketing, product management, partner
marketing, branding and marketing communications as well as public and analyst
relations.
Steve
has over twenty-five years of experience building high energy, high commitment
organizations that produce breakthrough revenue growth. Prior to PHD Virtual,
Steve most recently was Senior Vice President of Global Marketing for Quest
Software. Prior to that role, Steve served as Vice President of Marketing at
The Planet (acquired by Softlayer), Bindview (acquired by Symantec), Postini
(acquired by Google), PentaSafe (acquired by NetIQ) and was President and CEO
of eSecurity (acquired by Novell).
Steve holds a B.S. in Communications from Illinois
State University.