Disaster Strikes! Is Your Business Ready? Disaster Preparedness for Mid-Sized Firms

Disaster Strikes! Is Your Business
Ready? Disaster Preparedness
www.yankeegroup.comfor Mid-Sized Firms
by Gary Chen | February 2008
AbstractMid-sized businesses have long struggled to protect their IT systems. Many firms are inadequately protected andmistakenly think that a disaster is rare and won't happen to them anytime soon. This custom Yankee Group Reportuses customer interviews, statistical data and Yankee Group SMB survey results to examine disaster recovery (DR)issues for mid-sized businesses. There is a lot of confusion and misunderstanding regarding what disaster recoveryencompasses and how to effectively implement it. This Report explores common minor and major disaster scenarios,shows that they are far likelier than most people think, and explains how they can affect a business. This Report alsoclarifies what true disaster recovery means and how backup and high availability are not true DR solutions. We studythe newest technology trends, such as virtualization and storage replication, which make powerful DR solutionsattainable and affordable even for mid-sized businesses. Finally, a list of practical recommendations and DRstrategies is presented as a guide to improving any mid-sized firm's level of protection.
Many firms are inadequately
protected and mistakenly think
that a disaster is rare and won't
happen to them anytime soon.
This custom publication has been sponsored by VMware.© Copyright 2008. Yankee Group Research, Inc. All rights reserved.This Yankee Group Report is published for the sole use of Yankee Group clients. It may not be duplicated, reproduced or transmitted in whole or in part without the express permission ofYankee Group, Prudential Tower, 800 Boylston Street, 27th Floor, Boston, MA 02199. For more information, contact Yankee Group: info@yankeegroup.com; phone: 617-598-7200.All rights reserved. All opinions and estimates herein constitute our judgment as of this date and are subject to change without notice.February 2008
Table of ContentsI. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3II. Disaster Scenarios. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3Hardware Failures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Software Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Power Outages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Circuit Failures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5Natural Disasters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5Human Error . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6Fire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6Odds and Ends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6III. BCDR Maturation Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7Backup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7High Availability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Disaster Recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Business Continuity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8IV. Disaster Recovery Strategies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... [download for more]