Disaster Recovery Planning 3rd Ed-Toigo

DISASTER RECOVERY PLANNING:
PREPARING FOR THE UNTHINKABLE
by Jon William Toigo

“There were 480 companies in the World Trade Center in NYC. Only 230
companies had a
disaster recovery plan in place. 100 companies probably did not need one due to
their small
size. Which leaves 160 companies that did not have a plan in place and as a result
they will
not be around a year from now!

“This book explains to system administrators and architects what they need to
know to plan
for and get through disaster recovery—without hiring expensive consultants with
proprietary
methodologies. It incorporates the latest technologies in data storage, networks,
server
systems, and the Internet (Web-based recovery planning and crisis management)
and shows
how they can become components of a corporate survival strategy for future
disasters. This
third edition is completely revised and updated to reflect new information on data
storage
topologies, challenges for recovery, problem of data re-hosting as well as coverage
of latest
technologies and trends.

“The book also covers the lessons learned from WTC disaster and includes
references to
the
California power outages, new mailroom procedures and new physical access
controls that
enable you to know where everyone is in a building by tagging them with an
electronic
badge.
This book shows IT professionals how to develop recovery strategies for all of
today's
computing environments: from PC to mainframe and everything in between.”

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

FOREWORD BY MICHAEL SHANNON
FOREWORD BY GREGORY FERRIS
PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
What Is Disaster Recovery Planning?
Purpose of This Book
A Working Definition of Disaster
The Time Factor in Disaster Recovery
The Need for Disaster Recovery
Planning
The Auditor’s View
An Imperfect Legal Mandate
Building Management Consensus for Disaster Recovery Planning
Who Should Write the Plan?
A Straightforward, Project-Oriented Approach
A Note on Methodology
Endnotes

CHAPTER 2 ANALYZING THE RISK
The Purpose of Risk Analysis
Identifying and Prioritizing Assets and Functions
Collecting Input from End Users
A Criticality Spectrum
Collecting Data on Outage Costs
Identifying Threats to Assets and Functions
The Problem with Probability
A Few Compelling Statistics
Developing Plan Objectives
Endnotes

CHAPTER 3 FACILITY PROTECTION
Water Detection
Fire Suppression
Contamination Reduction
Precombustion Detection
Power Failure
Physical Access Control
Endnotes

CHAPTER 4 DATA RECOVERY PLANNING
The Primacy of Data
Planning for Data Recovery
Identifying the Information Asset
Classifying Criticality: Inputs and Outputs
Setting a Policy on Data Asset Identification, Classification, and Backup
Policy-based Management of Electronic Data via Software
Performance Considerations in Backup Software Selection
Planning for Backup or Restoral?
Electronic Vaulting
Remote Mirroring
Mirroring Not a Panacea
Options for Records Storage
Selecting an Off-site Storage Vendor
Cost-Justify Off-site Storage
Implementing the Data Recovery Plan
Final Observations About Data Recovery
Planning
Endnotes

PERSPECTIVE: QUANTUM/ATL
PERSPECTIVE: EMC
PERSPECTIVE: NETWORK APPLIANCE
PERSPECTIVE: IRON MOUNTAIN
PERSPECTIVE: LEGATO

CHAPTER 5 STRATEGIES FOR CENTRALIZED SYSTEM
RECOVERY
Developing Centralized System Backup
Strategies
Cautions and Caveats
Mainframe Backup Strategies
Which Strategy Is Preferred?
Selecting a Hot Site
The Bottom Line on Centralized System Recovery
Endnotes

PERSPECTIVE: IBM BCRS
PERSPECTIVE: HP BRS

CHAPTER 6 STRATEGIES FOR DECENTRALIZED SYSTEM
RECOVERY
Distributed Client/Server Computing:
The Achilles Heel of Disaster Recovery Planning
A Brief Overview of Distributed Computing
Contemporary Client/Server Applications
Preventive Measures
Proactive Measures
Planning for Recovery
Endnotes

PERSPECTIVE: SUNGARD RECOVERY SERVICES
PERSPECTIVE: XAND COMPANY

CHAPTER 7 STRATEGIES FOR END USER RECOVERY
Developing an End User Recovery Strategy
Options for End User Recovery
Emerging Technology: Harnessing Remote Access Capabilities
Types of Remote Access
Considerations Regarding the Use of Remote Access for End User Recovery
Other Issues in End User Recovery
Supply Logistics
Final Thoughts on End User Recovery
Strategies
Endnotes

PERSPECTIVE: CITRIX SYSTEMS
CHAPTER 8 STRATEGIES FOR NETWORKING BACKUP
What Is Involved in Formulating a Network Recovery Strategy?
Analyzing Networks: A Layered Approach
Preliminary Activities in Network Recovery Planning
Formulating Strategies for Internal
Network Recovery
Backup Strategies for the Local Loop and Wide Area Network Services
Planning for the Restoral of Wide Area Voice and Data Network Links Following a
User or
Systems Relocation
Endnotes

PERSPECTIVE: CISCO SYSTEMS

CHAPTER 9 EMERGENCY DECISION MAKING
Designating Teams
Common Evacuation Project Functions and Teams
Common Recovery Project Functions and Teams
Relocation and Reentry Project Functions
Staffing Teams
Developing a Notification Directory
Creating the Emergency Management Flowchart
Emergency Response
Situation Assessment
Emergency Operations Center Activation
The Recovery Phase
The Relocation/Reentry Phase
Final Thoughts on Emergency Management Decision Making
Endnotes

CHAPTER 10 THE RECOVERY MANAGEMENT ENVIRONMENT
Researching Literature
Interviews and Tours
Professional DR Organizations
Professional Associations
Other Milieu Resources
Endnotes

CHAPTER 11 PLAN MAINTENANCE AND TESTING
Team Education
Plan Maintenance
Change Management
Testing to Maintain the Plan
Managing the Results

CHAPTER 12 CONCLUSION
GLOSSARY
INDEX

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EXCERPT FROM THE PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION

“On reading the forewords to this edition, which consist of first hand accounts of
the events
that occurred during and after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the
World Trade
Center, one cannot help but be moved – and somewhat awestruck.

“In addition to the sadness and tragic loss associated with 9/11, we are also
magnetized by
the remarkable tenacity and heroism manifested by those who worked to save lives
and to
recover organizations in the hours, days, and weeks following the disaster. This
edition is
dedicated to spirit of the survivors and to the memory of the victims.

“When my editor approached me to write a third edition of this book in the
aftermath of the
September incidents, my first reaction was one of hesitance. Was a new edition
really
justified, or was it simply a marketing ploy designed to capitalize on the current
surge of
interest in disaster recovery and risk management in the wake of 9/11? To keep
things
honest, I performed a quick inventory:

“Question: Had September 11 changed what we know about disaster recovery?

“Answer: Of course not. The methodologies and procedures and best practices
that
comprise disaster recovery planning did not change in the wake of this latest
disaster any
more than they had changed following Hurricane Andrew or the Kobe Earthquake.
If
anything, 9/11 had confirmed the efficacy of planning and, once again,
demonstrated the
difficulties of undertaking recovery successfully in the absence of proactive DR
planning.

“Question: Is terrorism a new threat to organizations that requires new measures
of
preparedness?

“Answer: Again, no. The terrorist threat potential has been an unfortunate fixture
in the
disaster scenarios of private and public institutions for many years – both in the
USA and
abroad. Moreover, disaster recovery planning is less concerned about the root
cause of
disasters (unless such knowledge can help disasters to be averted in the first
place), than in
coping with their consequences. From a disaster recovery standpoint, it mattered
very little
whether 9/11 was caused by Al Qaeda operatives, bin Laden fanatics, or insane
hijackers of
any political or religious stripe. The disaster might just as well have been the
result of an
electrical spark or other igniter.

“What was important to disaster recovery planners was how the most critical
assets of the
organizations located in the WTC and the Pentagon – specifically, the trained
personnel and
the data – would be protected and returned to work quickly and efficiently in the
wake of the
disaster. Simply put, whatever the toll of the disaster, failing to respond to the
events in a
rational way would have made the costs much greater.

“Question: Did the events of 9/11 change the milieu in which disaster recovery
plans must
execute?

Answer: Maybe. This event was not a manifestation of natural forces, nor a
consequence of
random circumstances. It was a deliberate act by hostile force that has touched
off a
response increasingly characterized as a war. As a consequence, it has placed
certain
societal and governmental institutions on a war footing. That does create a
meaningful
change in the milieu in which disaster recovery plans will need to be executed.

“Without a doubt, new legal mandates will follow the events of 9/11. Some involve
the
“hardening” and protection of public infrastructure. Security has already been
stepped up
within the energy and transportation sectors. Information and communications are
also
coming under greater scrutiny as investigations turn to discovering how the
terrorists
obtained detailed intelligence on structural vulnerabilities and how they were able
to
establish
false identities with such apparent ease.

“When milieu changes occur, disaster recovery plans need to be re-tested. So too
with
books on disaster recovery: assumptions need to be re-visited and reconfirmed.

“Question: Aside from 9/11, have any other technical changes occurred that merit
revision of
the content of this book?

“Answer: Yes. Ten years elapsed between the first edition (1989) and the second
edition
(1999) of Disaster Recovery Planning, during which information technology moved
from the
data center and into the distributed environment of departments and workgroups
within many
organizations. The second edition endeavored to update the content of the original
to reflect
the new challenges and opportunities created by this shift.

“In the comparatively brief period of time between 1999 and 2002, one could argue
that an
equally important technology shift has occurred. Several indicators testify to the
truth of this
assertion.

“Data Growth: According to a study conducted by the University of California at
Berkeley, the
amount of data amassed by organizations and stored electronically in all of human
history
through 1999 totaled twelve Exabytes (12,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes).
Researchers
observed, however, that this number would double by mid-2002 – a function of
greater
amount of information generated by a greater number of individuals.

“The bulk of burgeoning data is being created by individuals and the lion’s share,
some 55
percent, is being stored on personal computers that are often not included in
disaster
recovery planning efforts. This is potentially an Achilles Heel of disaster recovery –
a point
underscored by many 9/11 recovery efforts.

“New Storage Technologies: Managing the data explosion referenced above –
providing for
its secure yet accessible storage – has become the central challenge confronting
IT in the
21st Century. Today, we are seeing the advent of nascent, “networked,” storage
technologies that portend to sever the connection between storage arrays and
servers.
Such technologies are expected to improve data accessibility and to provide
non-disruptive
scalability. Vendors claim that their wares also have potential for improving the
resiliency of
data storage and for reducing the timeframe for critical business process
restoration, which
is increasingly described by the metric “time-to-data.” The truth of these
assertions has yet
to
be demonstrated and interoperability problems continue to plague solutions,
causing many
more disasters than they prevent.

“New Application Paradigms to Support Business Process Deconstruction:
Currently, the
industry is seeing the rise of new technologies such as XML-enabled “Web
Services” that
promise to enable an entirely new level of interoperation and integration between
disparate
systems in different companies. At the same time, new outsourcing paradigms,
such as
application service provisioning or ASP, are being introduced to reduce business
costs and
enhance business capabilities.

“Such technologies are required to support the larger trend toward “business
process
deconstruction” – a means by which companies improve the efficiency of business
processes by outsourcing more logistical responsibility to supply chain and value
chain
partners. The question is whether the still-evolving technologies will cause more
disasters
than they avoid. Will the use of ASPs increase the vulnerability of business
processes to
disaster or reduce it? Will application Web-enablement deliver less-costly and
more secure
B2B operations or simply succeed in making multi-tier client/server platforms even
less
stable than ever before?

“The above list could go on, but by the conclusion of this brief inventory, I
determined that a
new edition of this book was indeed merited. A new edition was mandated not by
the events
of 9/11 directly, but by changes in the information technology infrastructure that
supports key
business processes and by changes in the organizational and external milieu in
which
disaster recovery plans must execute. It can be argued (and will be) that these
changes
require that the traditional approach to disaster recovery planning must also
change.

“Rather than being reactive, “playing the hand of cards they are dealt,” DR planners
will need
to become more proactive in their efforts. They will need to begin to interact with
application
architects on an ongoing basis and to begin addressing the recoverability of
applications,
storage, and IT infrastructure while they are still in their initial design phases. DR
planning
can no longer be conceived as a “bolt on” or an afterthought: it must become an
integral part
of systems development.

“Of course, to move into this role, planners themselves will need to become more
technically
astute. The days of “secretary friendly” plans are increasingly behind us. To
interface with
technical personnel – IT designers and architects, in particular – planners will need
to
become more proficient in the concepts and terminology of advanced technology
domains.
The modern planner will need to be conversant in object-oriented programming,
middleware,
extensible markup language, storage area networking, and many other rarified
facets of
information technology. To walk the walk of the IT architect, planners will need to
talk the talk.

“Planners will also need to become more business savvy. While it is a given that
9/11 has
increased business awareness of the need for DR, history teaches us that
business interest
in DR has a tendency to wane over time. It is only natural: just as current events
eventually
become footnotes in history books, the more time that elapses following a disaster
event, the
less urgency business managers tend to place on disaster preparedness.
Practicality
dictates that companies spend money on projects that advance the goal of
profitability.

“Thus, business savvy planners will contextualize their efforts using a more robust
business
value proposition than mere “risk reduction.” Dual use – the philosophy of
delivering DR
solutions that both reduce risk and enable business in normal day-to-day
operations – must
be paramount in DR strategy development going forward.

“Ultimately, disaster recovery planning will need to become an integral part of the
business
and IT decision-making process. The development of a new business process and
selection
of every element and component of the technology infrastructure to support that
business
process should have recoverability as a key criterion.

“When this happens, the discussion of disaster recovery planning as a separate
discipline
will be oxymoronical. Disaster recovery planning will no longer be a role for a
select
individual or dedicated cadre of planners. It will be the job of everyone in the
organization –
from the most senior manager to the most junior staff member, from the business
professional to the IT professional.

“And, of course, the need for new editions of this book will fade away. (I, for one,
would
welcome this outcome.)

“But, until such a day arrives, new editions of Disaster Recovery Planning will be
forthcoming
to address the challenges of change in business, technology, and the backdrop of
institutions
and cultures in which we must all operate.”

- Jon William Toigo
Tampa Bay, Florida

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

“JON WILLIAM TOIGO is Managing Partner of Toigo Productions. Jon wrote the
original DR
plan for the NY Port Authority and is currently working with the PA on a new DR
plan. He is a
prolific author, journalist and IT industry speaker, Jon William Toigo has written
over 1,000
articles covering varied aspects of storage, infrastructure and business automation
for such
online and print publications as Enterprise Systems, Computerworld, Network
Computing
and Scientific American. Toigo's ten books include: The Holy Grail of Data Storage
Management, Disaster Recovery Planning 2nd Edition, and the forthcoming
Essential Guide
to Application Service Providers, all from Prentice Hall PTR. Over a 20-year period,
Jon has
held senior positions both within the IT management teams of several leading
financial
institutions and within the consulting organizations of two international systems
integrators. In
1993, he decided to write and consult on an independent basis. His client list
ranges from a
host of smaller firms to a who's who of technology companies, including AT&T,
Compaq,
Cisco Systems, EMC, Hewlett-Packard Company, Network Appliance, and many
others.

“He serves as a columnist for TidalWire.com and PlanetIT.com, and also for the
print edition
of Enterprise Systems magazine. His articles appear frequently in a wide range of
publications including Network Computing, MidRange Systems, Washington
Technology,
Federal Computer Week, Unisphere, Scientific American and a host of others.”

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2002, 482 pages. Order #DR651.
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