Ten disaster recovery considerations

Any wily IT veteran develops a keen sense for the gap between IT fantasy and reality. Best practices are often talked about as lofty ideals, but in the real world they tend to be the best we can do given current constraints. In a well-run shop, the gap between the ideal and the practical isn't that great for most functions.

When it comes to disaster recovery (DR), however, the reality gap can be alarmingly huge. The disaster recovery vision is a scenario in which all disasters are withstood; using a well-crafted disaster recovery plan, operations are transferred to a remote facility to get the organization back online within recovery time objective (RTO) and recovery point objective (RPO) targets. But this is pure fantasy for most companies. The reality is that if a disaster should occur, nothing short of Herculean efforts by the IT staff would be required to h

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ave the slightest chance of getting back online in any reasonable period of time, much less the targeted RTO. So, it's time for a reality check. Here are some reasons why your disaster recovery plan may fail.

But even with a small disaster recovery budget, prudent steps can be taken, such as ensuring good backups, establishing roles and responsibilities, and effective planning. New technologies may also be leveraged to make recovery more affordable. But don't create false expectations. Establish recovery objectives that are in line with capabilities and make them known and understood outside of IT. disaster recovery may be the item IT least wants to talk about, but it's past time to face up to the issue and close the reality gap.

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James Damoulakis is CTO of GlassHouse Technologies, an independent storage services firm with offices across the United States and in the UK.

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