Risk Analysis

The first steps in drafting a disaster recovery plan is conducting a thorough risk analysis of your computer systems and list all the possible risks that threaten system uptime and evaluate how imminent they are in your particular company. Anything that can cause a system outage is a threat, from relatively common man made threats, such as virus attacks and accidental data deletions to more rare natural threats like floods and fires. Determine which of your threats are the most likely to occur and prioritize them using a simple system. Rank each threat in two important categories; probability and impact. In each category rate the risks as low, medium, or high.

Establish the Budget

Once you’ve figured out your risks, ask the following: What can we do to suppress them and how much will it cost?’ Can I detect a threat before it hits? How do I reduce the potential of it occurring? How do I minimize its impact to the business? For example, a small California company could employ an emergency power supply to mitigate its power outage threat and have all its data backed up daily on RAID tapes which are stored at a remote site in case of an earthquake. The more preventative measures you establish upfront the better. Dollars spent in prevention are worth more than dollars spent in recovery.

A good place to begin is by presenting the cost of downtime to the business. How long can your business afford to be without its computer systems should one of your threats occur?

Ultimately, the business operations unit decides which threats the business can tolerate. When developing a DRP, IT departments are “shooting in the dark without those business indications.” Both IT and the business units must agree on which data and applications are most critical to the business and need to be recovered most quickly in a disaster. The management of our example small company may decide they can supply the budget only for the emergency generators and the company will have to assume the risk of an earthquake.

Disaster recovery budgets vary from company to company but they typically run between 2 and 8 percent of the overall IT budget. Companies for which system availability is crucial usually are on the higher end of the scale, while companies that can function without it are on the lower end. However, these percentages may be too small. For a large IT shop, 15 percent is a best practice rule of thumb.

Develop the Plan

The feedback from the business units will begin to shape your DRP procedures. If, for example, they determine that the company must be up within 48 hours of an incident to stay viable, then you can calculate the amount of time it would take to execute the recovery plan and have the business back up in that timeframe. 3T Pro suggests that you have the recovery systems tested, configured, and retested 24 hours prior to launching them.

The recovery procedure should be written in a detailed plan or “script.” Establish a Recovery Team from among the IT staff and assign specific recovery duties to each member. The manner in which your team conducts its recovery probably will be no different than its regular production procedures; the chain of command likely won’t change and neither will the aspects of the network for which each member is responsible.

Define how to deal with the loss of various aspects of the network (databases, servers, bridges/routers, communications links, etc.) and specify who arranges for repairs or reconstruction and how the data recovery process occurs. The script will also outline priorities for the recovery: What needs to be recovered first? What is the communication procedure for the initial respondents? To complement the script, create a checklist or test procedure to verify that everything is back to normal once repairs and data recovery have taken place.

Test, Test, Test

Once your DRP is set, test it frequently. Eventually you’ll need to perform a component-level restoration of your largest databases to get a realistic assessment of your recovery procedure, but a periodic walk-through of the procedure with the Recovery Team will assure that everyone knows their roles. Test the systems you’re going to use in recovery regularly to validate that all the pieces work. Always record your test results and update the DRP to address any shortcomings.

As your business environment changes, so should your DRP. Reexamine the plan every year on a high level and ask the following: Do we still need every part of the plan? Do we need to add to it? Will the budget need to be adjusted to accommodate changes to the plan? As applications, hardware and software are added to your network, they must be brought into the plan. New employees must be trained on recovery procedures. New threats to business seem to pop up every week and a sound DRP takes all of them into account.

At 3T Pro we have been working hard to provide a complete disaster recovery solution location for our clients. We have partnered with our collocation facility to make the necessary arrangements and we are happy to announce the facility is ready for client enrollment. This facility will be a first come first service arrangement with a maximum simultaneous seating capacity of 14. Each company that enrolls is assured to have the best possible disaster recovery solution in the DFW metroplex. Please contact our sales office to discuss the best solution for your business.

Please take a moment to review our facility overview.

Server, cabinet and cage collocation * High security and power density
State-of-the-art infrastructure * SAS 70 Type II, PCI, SOX and HIPAA compliant
Ultra redundant network * Preaction fire protection and effective environmental controls
Inside and out security cameras with 100+ day video life span * Backup UPS and generator tested weekly
Plano Flood free zone *Rich fiber under ground to Dallas Carriers * Multiple fiber entrances into the building

Strategic and Convenient Location
Our data center is strategically located in Plano, Texas. Stable power, new bandwidth infrastructure and far enough away from Dallas to be in the safe zone for potential terrorist activity. Southeast Plano has been known to be the Telecom and Technology Corridor for North Dallas. In the event of emergency, time is of the essence.

Carrier-neutral
We are connected to Dallas largest carrier hotel with capacity of up to multiple 10 GBps or OC-192. Although not a comprehensive list, we can connect you to these popular carriers and more:
ATT | Level 3 | Qwest | Time Warner Telecom | Time Warner Cable | Verizon | Comcast | Sprint
Savvis | Global Crossing | Internap | Above.net | NLayer | PCCW | NTT/Verio | XO Communications
Cogent Communications | Tata Communications | Hurricane Electric | Telia Sonera

UPS
UPSSince power is crucial to your business, it is of utmost importance at 3T Pro. All circuits provisioned to your equipment are conditioned and protected by UPS and generator. When commercial power fails, the UPS carries the load as the generator starts automatically. Within seconds, the load is transferred to the generator until the commercial power is restored. This happens automatically without power interruption to our data center.

Generator
All top data centers have generators. But, are they always ready when power outage strikes? Our generator is serviced regularly, exercised weekly with once a month load test and can run for 2 days without refueling. To satisfy our commitment for uptime, once a month we exercise a live power outage simulation and operate 100% on the generator power to prepare us for the real event. We also work with multiple vendors to deliver diesel fuel 24/7 as needed. Since our backup power is primed and ready 100% of the time, your uptime is all the time.

Amenities
We are here for your business and we made our data center a business friendly facility. Our customers have access to our conference room, break room, secure Wi-Fi and other benefits included in our service.
If you have to be away from your office, we want you to have everything you need while you’re at ours.
Our North of Dallas data center is located in the heart of the technology corridor in Plano, Texas, away from busy downtown Dallas traffic. With easy access from highway I-75 and I-190, we are within minutes from Richardson, Addison, Allen, Frisco, Carrollton and the Dallas Metroplex.

Once your business has elected to incorporate near real-time replication disaster servers we have several things that must be done including.

Step 1: Discuss your company goals and craft a customized plan
Step 2: Procurement of replication servers that are dedicated for your business
Step 3: Implement replication services on your existing server
Step 4: Install and configure your disaster replication servers at our facility
Step 5: Test the solution..

Server Area

Security

Waiting Area

Conference

AC Power

Generator Power

Excluding the cost of the replication server(s) and their setup as this can vary from one client to another you would have the following monthly costs that include.

Seating Allocation (2)
Secure WiFi Access
Power Facilities
Conference Room Access
Redundant Internet
Dedicated Server Space
Remote Access Portal
24/7 Engineer Support

$ 750.00 / month

Please contact us so we can customize a plan to fit your needs.