“Do we have a backup?”
It is one of the first questions organizations ask when discussing data protection. It is an important question. But it is not the only one.
A backup protects information. Disaster recovery addresses how the organization resumes operation when the primary environment is unavailable.
Backup Answers: Can We Recover the Data?
A good backup strategy can protect against:
- hardware failure
- accidental deletion
- ransomware
- corruption
- server failure
- other forms of data loss
But restoring several terabytes of data can take time. Applications may have dependencies.
A virtual server may require networking, storage, identity and database services before employees can use it again. That is where recovery planning becomes important.
Disaster Recovery Answers: How Fast Can We Operate Again?
Some organizations can tolerate a long restoration window. Others cannot.
A government agency may need public-safety or financial applications restored quickly. A healthcare organization may depend on systems that support clinical operations. A manufacturer may have systems connected to production.
Recovery planning requires understanding those priorities before a failure occurs.
Recovery Order Matters
Not every system should necessarily be restored first.
Applications may depend on:
- domain controllers
- databases
- network services
- storage
- application servers
- vendor connectivity
Recovering systems in the wrong sequence can create unnecessary delays.
Plan Before the Incident
The worst time to determine recovery priorities is during the outage.
Mayer Networks works with clients to understand backup and data protection requirements and, where appropriate, disaster recovery and failover options.
The goal is not simply to say that a backup exists. The goal is to know how the organization gets back to work.