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Plan, Backup, Test, Repeat—
It's Not Just a Good Idea, It's a Necessity
Follow these steps to create a disaster recovery plan that will help you sleep at night.
by Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
Posted September 15, 2003
I'm a pretty tech-savvy guy, in theory, with decades of experience in running networks—from small office/home office (SOHO) ones up to networks with thousands of computers. But then came the day when I noticed an awful odor of smoking electronics in the office. A quick look around showed that the power supply in Subtle, my Windows 2000 primary domain controller (PDC) server for my 20-station SOHO network, had gone to meet its maker. Guess who didn't have a current backup? While mine was not an enterprise network, the situation made me realize just how important backups are—and how you must make sure that you not only avoid losing your information, but you get it back online in a hurry.
You see, worse than losing my server was realizing how lazy I've been with my backups. I managed to restore most of my data, but I lost two days doing it. No business can afford that kind of downtime.
With security threats like Blaster abounding, the danger of your business being knocked out of service is greater than ever. You must have a backup and disaster recovery (DR) plan to ensure that your backup and restore systems are capable of swinging into action at a moment's notice. And more than that, you must be certain that it really will work.
Good intentions are never enough. The best backup and recovery plan in the world won't do you a lick of good if you don't follow it. You also can't make such a plan on a napkin during lunchtime. (Of course, all the plans, good wishes, and protocols in the world don't matter if they don't work when you need them—if you don't believe me, just ask the North American Electric Reliability Council.)
Here are the key steps you must follow to make sure that you'll have a solid DR plan in place.
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