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Disaster Recovery, IT
Service Management, IT Job Description, Sarbanes Oxley, and IT Salary
Full news feed
November 2nd, 2007
New Disaster Recovery Audit Program Released
 The Disaster Recovery / Business
Continuity Audit program identifies control objectives that are meet by the
audit program.
There are 36 specific items that the audit covers in the 11 page
audit program. Included are references to specific Janco products that
directly address the areas the audit covers.
This program can be used as standalone audit program or in concert with
the following Janco offerings:
more info
October 23rd, 2007
Centralized Back-up for DRP is an Issue
The need to be close to customers, manufacturing
facilities and specialized labor have required organizations to extend the
traditional concept of headquarters to offices and factories hundreds or even
thousands of miles away. However, along with the opportunities that come with
workforce globalization, come the realities of dealing with data that sprawls
across the organization. Whether the data is at the Munich branch or at HQ in
New York, it is equally susceptible to loss, requiring that data recovery and
security plans apply to all parts of the organization, regardless of location.
 To protect company data and ensure its availability to users, IT
organizations have been conflicted between two backup approaches. The first
approach, local tape backup, requires that tape libraries be present wherever
there are servers in racks. Local area network (LAN) access to the servers gives
administrators fast data backup and recovery.
The newer approach, centralized backup, puts
high-density tape libraries in one location to which data from servers around
the world is backed up. While centralized backup requires less hardware, reduces
administration time, and solves the security problem associated with loose tape
media, it can introduce greater bandwidth consumption and longer backup/restore
windows. Because of these issues, centralized backup has been a leap some
managers have not been willing to make. more info
October 13th, 2007
Back-up e-mail system should be part of your DRP
 Enterprise are now realizing that separate
archiving processes for disaster recovery and for general
archiving that is need for enterprise compliance to Sarbanes Oxley and
operation needs are wasteful and unnecessary. The Janco Disaster Recovery
Plan and Security Manual Template show their clients how to do this cost
effectively. The templates begin
with an assessment of what is done and maps that to what needs to be done.
In addition a backup
e-mail system in needed. The system
should be with a managed service provider who hosts the servers offsite out of
the client's immediate geography. Archiving and disaster recovery are both
extremely complex, combining the two so that there is one set of systems,
policies and data decreases cost and management complexity. more info
October 3rd, 2007
Explosive Growth is a Challenge Faced by Disaster Recovery Planning Processes
Enterprises of all sizes today are facing the
ever-increasing challenge of managing the explosive growth of valuable data. As
the predominant form of communication for business transactions, email is an
application that is mission critical to organizations of all sizes. It generates
a huge amount of information that must be immediately available and protected.
The loss of a single message may generate hours of unnecessary and frustrating
labor for administrators and can lower productivity or even hinder progress
within organizations.
Email
applications have become key communication tools for businesses of all sizes.
Today, email is the most common and vital form of communication, often replacing
the phone as the preferred mechanism for exchanging information in the business
world. It is a more efficient and cost-effective way of disseminating
information of all types (text, image, video, and even voice) to fellow
employees and between companies located anywhere in the world. In fact, as
companies consider their messaging servers to be mission critical, these are
among the first servers to be recovered after a disaster, sometimes even before
phone systems. more info
September 25th, 2007
Cell Phones Key to Disaster Recovery Plan
The first hours after a natural disaster are a crucial period for
the any enterprises efforts to implement the plan. Even when phone and power
service is unavailable, the organization's field staff stays connected to vital
information with their cell phones and smartphones. They use the
cellular network to send and receive emails and instant messages, keep their
calendars and contacts up-to-date, review documents, and place and accept phone
calls. more info
September 21st, 2007
Server consolidation increases complexity and adds risk to Disaster Planning
 Disaster plan need to take into account mainframes, blade
servers, consolidated file servers as well as distributed file servers.
The problem is more complex as enterprises slowly move away from IT and Business
alignment towards IT and Business convergence. For example, Server consolidation in
recent years has proven to be a successful technique to optimize IT costs and
efficiency, while increasing business uptime.
This has raised the level of complexity and risk associated with DRP
and business continuity plans. For example, in 2004 alone, over 65 percent of
all IT organizations implemented or planned to implement server consolidation.
Today, with the advent of blade server architectures, virtual server technology,
and storage deployment methods such as clustering and virtualization, the
expansion of the already proven benefits of consolidation are accelerating.
Appropriately Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity need to be
updated. more info
September 13th, 2007
Disaster Rcovery / Business Continuity is the International Standard
Disaster Recovery Business Continuity
Template in WORD 2003 and WORD 2007 (Office 2003 and Office 2007)
Formats
Version 4.4 of the Disaster Recovery
Business Continuity Template has just been released by Janco
Associates..
Park City, UT The Disaster Recovery Business Continuity template has been
sold to enterprise in over 65 countries around the globe. With the release
a of version 4.4 of the template it is in complete compliance with
Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, ITIL (Ver 3), ISO 17799, and PCI DSS.
M V
Janulaitis the CEO of Janco said, "Our DRP /BCP Template has been accepted by
enterprise around the globe as the standard for disaster recovery plan and
business continuity plan creation." In response to that need Janco has updated
its "Disaster Recovery / Business Continuity Template" by increasing the content
of the template as well as updating the entire document to be compliant with
Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, ITIL (Ver. 3), ISO 17799, and PCI DSS.
The Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Plan has
been purchased for use in over 65 countries around the globe
including:
- Angola
- Australia
- Austria
- Bahamas
- Barbados
- Belgium
- Belize
- Bermuda
- Brazil
- Bulgaria
- Canada
- Cayman Islands
- Columbia
- Croatia
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Egypt
|
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Honduras
- Hungary
- Iceland
- India
- Indonesia
- Israel
- Italy
- Jamaica
- Japan
- Jordan
- Kenya
- Lebanon
- Lithuania
|
- Macao
- Malta
- Mexico
- Mozambique
- Namibia
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
- Nigeria
- Norway
- Panama
- Philippines
- Poland
- Portugal
- Puerto Rico
- Qatar
- Republic of Ireland
- Romania
|
- Russia
- Saudi Arabia
- Singapore
- South Africa
- South Korea
- Spain
- Sri Lanka
- Swaziland
- Switzerland
- Taiwan
- Thailand
- Trinidad & Tobago
- Uganda
- United Kingdom
- United States
- Venezuela
- Zambia
|
The Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Plan has
been purchased for use in government, public, and private enterprises in
almost all industries including:
- Federal Government
- State Governments
- Local Governments
- Law Firms
- Think Tanks
- Chemical
- Telecommunication
- Real Estate
- Manufacturing
|
- Universities
- School Districts
- Consulting Firms
- Banks
- Financial Service
- Investment Banks
- Credit Unions
- Outsourcers
- Property Mgt
|
- Heavy Industry
- Light Industry
- Distribution
- Retail
- Hospitality
- Energy
- Insurance
- Medical
- ISPs
|
- Application Development
- Construction
- Graphics
- Entertainment
- Paper Products
- Defense
- Aerospace
- Media
| more info
September 7th, 2007
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
(Computerworld) --  In December 2005, a thief broke into Steven Shields car at his
Oregon home and walked off with computer disks and tapes containing unencrypted
personal information on 365,000 patients at the Portland Providence Health
Systems.
Keaney noted that the lawsuit is being filed under
the Oregon whistle-blower law, which makes it illegal for a company to fire an
individual for making a report to law enforcement authorities. According to
Keaney, Shields was just doing the job he was asked to do when he transported
the Providence patient data tapes to his home as part of the organization backup
protocol.
The breach was the largest of its kind in Oregon
history and resulted in a class-action lawsuit against the health care provider
and a nine-month-long investigation by the state attorney general. That probe
ended with a $95,000 settlement paid out by Providence Health.
Now, in a new twist in the case, Shields -- a former
IT worker for the health care agency -- has filed a wrongful termination lawsuit
against Providence Health, claiming he was fired in February 2006 simply because
he reported the theft to local law enforcement officials.
The lawsuit, filed at the Multnomah County Circuit
Court on Aug. 28, seeks $1 million in damages for lost wages and what Shields'
attorney said was the emotional distress caused by the firing. In addition to
anxiety, depression and humiliation, the firing also caused anger, lost sleep
and skin disorders, the lawsuit said.
The theft occurred on Dec. 30 or 31, 2005. Providence
Health did not start notifying affected individuals until the end of January in
2006. Shields was fired the next month. more info
August 28th, 2007
Wide Area Network Back-up Strategy Defined
The
Janco DR / BC Plan addresses all of the back-up issues faced by enterprises
today. Included are wide
area network-based approaches to data backup are naturally limited by the
performance of the WAN. Bandwidth limitations and network latency can make
backup take much longer than desired. For large remote offices with significant
datastores, this can make WAN-based backup impossible without significant costly
WAN bandwidth upgrades.
By overcoming bandwidth limitations
and optimizing transfers to overcome network latency, network based appliances
have successfully enabled and facilitated network-based backup approaches in the
most demanding customer environments. Network Based applicance
technology dramatically optimizes common network-based approaches for
backing up large amounts of data in your distributed enterprise:
- Centralized backup and recovery of
servers and desktop machines in remote offices
- Replication of centralized data
repositories between data centers
Click here to download a copy
of the table of contents and selected pages of the DR / BC template.
more info
August 28th, 2007
Back-up Strategy Centralized versus Local
 Local versus Centralized Back-up - Which is
Best?
|
Disaster Recovery
Back-up
Alternatives |
Advantage |
Disadvantage |
|
Local Back-up |
- Back-up
quicker
-
Minimal bandwidth
usage
-
Quicker restore in minor recovery situation
|
- More hardware
required
- More staff
required
-
Security risks
increased
-
Riskier restore in a major
recovery situation. |
|
Central Back-up |
-
Hardware requirement
less
-
Less staff
required
- Less training
-
Quicker restore in a major
recovery situation.
-
Security risks
lower |
-
More bandwidth
required
- Back-up takes
longer to complete
-
Restore takes longer in minor
recovery situation |
|
Coordinated Local and Central
Back-up |
-
Recovery time
eased
-
Enterprise risks
reduced
-
Easier to coordinate DRP and
Business Continuity Plans |
-
More hardware
required
-
More staff
required
-
More training
required
-
More bandwidth
required | more info
August 16th, 2007
Communications After a Disaster are Critical
Without an effective plan in place, disruptions to business
operations or government services can cause substantial financial loss,
unnecessary personal or property damage, while seriously impacting communities.
Business continuity planning (BCP) and organizational procedures for continuity
of operations (COOP) can be strengthened and enhanced by means of a proven
wireless solutions.
Preparing effectively for catastrophic events, power
outages, weather-related incidents, and similar threats requires forward-looking
procedures, a responsive communication network, and a framework of supporting
technology.
Developing and implementing an effective mobile BCP
strategy includes establishing best practices to make sure the solution
is:
- Architected to minimize potential revenue loss and
brand damage;
- Reliable and easy to use;
- Secure and confidential;
- Capable of communicating promptly to stakeholders
during crisis;
- Engineered for efficient usage of battery,
processing, and network resources;
- Designed to protect employees and other corporate
assets; and
- Compliant with regulatory mandates and reporting
requirements.
more info
August 9th, 2007
Distaster Recovery is more of a challenge today
With
expectations for system availability continually increasing and more businesses
relying on 24 x 7 mission-critical applications, disaster recovery planning has
risen to the forefront of IT's priorities. But complexities and costs associated
with implementing a comprehensive data protection strategy often keep the vision
from becoming reality, whether due to time, bandwidth and budget
restraints.
The
DRP / BC is the one answer that we can all agree on. It is current, meets
all mandated needs like Sarbanes-Oxley, and is compliant to
ITIL. more info
August 1st, 2007
DRP Can Be A Risk Due To Hardware Upgrades
(Computerworld UK) -- Intelligent
Finance, the online and telephone bank owned by HBOS PLC, suffered extensive
online downtime on Sunday and Monday after a routine hardware upgrade ran into
problems.
The downtime left customers unable to access their
accounts or use any other part of the site for much of Sunday and Monday. The
Web site was down from midnight on Sunday morning until 5:30 p.m. that day, and
from 9:45 a.m. on Monday until 5:20 a.m. on Tuesday morning -- 37 hours in
total, spread over three days.
Problems arose when the bank was performing a
hardware upgrade that included the addition of new servers, according to an IF
spokeswoman.
She said Sunday's upgrades were long planned and that
the day had been chosen because traffic on the site was generally "not as
intense."
But the work carried out on Sunday did not go to plan
and affected customers attempting to use the service on Monday morning, with
pages not loading properly. The system was taken offline again on Monday
afternoon so the upgrade could be reinstalled.
It is not the first time the bank's Web site has been
knocked out. In late 2002, some customers complained of being offline for up to
five days.
IF defended its record of customer service. "Like any
business, we have to upgrade," said a spokeswoman. "As a Telenet bank, we are
lucky that customers were able to deal with us on the phone too."
Systems downtime remains a big problem among U.K.
businesses, whether the customer-facing parts are affected or not. According to
a recent poll, more than 80% of CIOs, IT directors and IT managers in large and
medium-size businesses worldwide saw business continuity as a priority for
increased spending this year.
And Google Inc. suffered its
own high-profile downtime over the weekend when its Analytics service went down
between Saturday and Monday. more info
July 27th, 2007
Disaster Plan Template Released by Janco
DRP Template
Version 4.3 Released
The
Disaster Recovery / Business Continuity Template version 4.3 has just been
released. Janco contiues to update its
templates to meet the ever changing requirements of the business
environment.
With this new version a fully indexed PDF copy
of the template is now provided in addition to the two versions of WORD (2003
and 2007). The updates to the
template included:
1.
Defined generic
metrics for DR/BC success
2.
Business & IT
Impact Analysis Questionnaire Updated
3.
Updated references to
DRP card
4.
Updated formatting to
meet WORD 2007 requirements
The
version history for updates to template can be seen at http://www.e-janco.com/drpversion.htm
and the full Table of Contents with sample pages can be downloaded at http://www.e-janco.com/Register_drp.asp
. more info
March 29th, 2007
Florida State Computers Fail - State is Down
A massive air-conditioning failure at a state office
complex in Tallahassee shut down government computer traffic statewide and
forced emergency managers to begin studying backup plans.
Rising temperatures posed an immediate threat to a $30
million state computer system in the Shared Resource Center, a highly secure,
windowless brick complex that serves as the electronic nerve center for much of
state government.
Computer traffic from 84 agencies and local
governments, including some non-profit groups, flows through it
daily.
Temperatures in a 9,276-square-foot room filled with 1,200
computer servers hovered at 90-degrees earlier today. Technicians like to keep
the room chilled to 68 degrees and expect the equipment to start failing at 95
degrees. more info
March 6th, 2007
RFID technology could end lost data tapes
(Computerworld) --
Imation
Corp. today announced a
first-of-its-kind tracking technology that could put an end to the ongoing
problem of lost data tapes by using passive radio frequency identification
(RFID) tags and Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking systems to
remotely locate cartridges, no matter where they are -- stationary or in
transit.
Imation said it will begin shipping its RFID
tape-tracking technology in April. The technology embeds RFID chips in
standard tape-cartridge labels, allowing them to be scanned either
individually with a handheld device or by placing cases with up to 20 tapes
inside on a scanning pad. While the GPS tracking system will not be part of
the initial product launch next month, over the next two months,
Imation plans to announce when GPS technology will be
available in order to locate cartridges no matter where they are.
Imation's DataGuard rf Tape Tracking
System will be sold as kits that contain one or both scanning devices
-- stationary and handheld -- tracking management software, and a newly designed
tape cartridge carrying case that fits most tape cartridge formats, including
LTO, DLT, 3590, 34x0, 9x40, 3592, and T10000.
"ImationÂ’s ground-breaking DataGuard rf tape
tracking system will help ensure [that] data centers are able to reliably
account for their tape cartridges,” said Dianne McAdam, an analyst at The
Clipper Group in Wellesley, Mass. more info
January 27th, 2007
ISO 17799, SOX, HIPPA Compliant Disaster Recovery / Business Continuity Template Released
The ISO 17799 compliant Disaster Recovery Planning
(Business Continuity) Template is Version 4.2. The template has increased
in size from 140 pages in version 3.1 to 189 pages in the current
version.
New
with this version of the Disaster Recovery Planning
Template are:
-
Added
Section defining the ISO 17799 compliance requirements
-
Reviewed
and modified entire DRP/BCP template to ensure compliance with ISO
17799
-
Business
& IT Impact Questionnaire updated to meet ISO 17799 compliance
requirements
-
Added Best
Data Retention and Destruction Practices
section more info
January 14th, 2007
IT Challenged on Managing Storage, Securing Data
Despite advances in storage technology, IT
managers are still concerned about their ability to secure data, ensure it's
available to valid users, track who uses it and manage it effectively.
When Hurricane Wilma struck southern Florida many
enterprises had difficulty inkeeping data available to users after the
natural disaster. Wilma knocked out several
branch offices of a law firm, which has about 450 servers and two storage-area
networks that support about 3,000 users.
The firm replicates data between data centers in
Tampa and Denver and uses digital tape to transport information between offices.
Nevertheless, systems weren't restored quickly enough after Wilma knocked out
power to millions in southern Florida.
Our challenges in recent months have been to put
together a suite of services that will allow for disaster recovery and business
continuity.
See
Disaster Recovery template more info
January 14th, 2007
IT is critical to business continuity. So why haven't more organizations started planning?
(Computerworld) -- Monday morning, 9
a.m. The CEO calls you into an executive meeting as word comes that a full-blown
H5N1 avian influenza pandemic is spreading rapidly from central Asia. Your job:
Keep mission-critical IT systems working despite staff absenteeism rates that
could reach 40% at the height of the pandemic, which is expected to run its
course over a period of six to eight weeks.
Supply chain disruptions are
expected as countries close their borders, so you canÂ’t count on spare parts.
With emergency travel restrictions in effect, you can forget about moving
staffers between global locations to cope with labor shortages. You also need to
enable remote access for an unprecedented number of employees who will either be
out sick, caring for ill family members or afraid to come to the office. You
have weeks, possibly just days, before the outbreak overtakes one of your major
data centers.
Are You Ready?
For many businesses, the
answer is probably no. more info
January 14th, 2007
Disasters in disaster recovery
InfoWorld reports an incident he encountered after questioning
an IT director about the companys preparedness for disaster recovery. The
director responded huffily that the hot site was ready for any disaster,
including the necessary space and equipment all backed by a diesel-powered
generator with plenty of fuel.
After
about a year, the company had a hurricane-related power outage that forced it to
roll over to the hot site. Sure enough, the IT Director had critical functions
up and running and I could hear that generator running out back. But after about
eight hours the power went out for good and all systems crashed when the
generator stopped.
It turned out that
plenty of fuel was one 55 gallon barrel that was already half empty from the
monthly testing.
Solution:
A disaster recovery plan that called for fuel checks in addition to
generator testing.
Moral:
Disaster recovery is not a static issue. One plan or one policy is
never perfect out of the gate. Ever. Pass such concepts by as many experienced
eyes as you can and then revisit them annually or even bi-annually for
refinement. more info
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