Ready for a Technology Disaster? Really? Let s Get Ready! Michael Price, President of MPA Networks, Silicon Valley www.mpa.com 1
Overview True life stories! The Major Disaster Game Show Quiz. Why is your business like a horse? What s a technology disaster anyway? Is Cloud the answer? Create your own simple and powerful recovery plan. Q&A Ask the Expert. 2
PLAN AHEAD 3
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Disaster Recovery Plans: Most Disaster Recovery Plans DO NOT EXIST. Traditional planning is too COMPLEX to ever do. Consequently, those that do exist are UNFEASIBLE, laughable, or both. 5
The Major Disaster Game Show QUIZ TRUE stories! 6
Firm A Professional Trade Association ~ 40 employees Fire their only office burns to the ground Firm B Low tech manufacturing company ~ 40 employees Lightening strike EMF destroys silicon chips 7
Both Firms Have insurance Have cash (one has a few million bucks unallocated) Have off-site backups of data and applications Have a non-regional disaster Have a tech service firm (MPA Networks) ready, willing, and able to work 24x7 on recovery. HOW LONG until these two firms were able to process digital transactions? Tip: Think about how long this would take your firm to accomplish?.... 8
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Reasons I D I + D.C. 10
For the highest return on investment (ROI) from your disaster planning, plan for how your firm will minimize common delays in getting back in business. Really. 11
Why is a small business like a horse? 12
A fortune 500 company is like a starfish 13
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half of companies that lose their data in disasters go out of business, while 90 percent close within two years. data loss University of Texas Center for Research on Information Systems 15
My firm s risk of disaster is small, right? 16
My firm s risk of disaster is small, right? WRONG! 17
Low Frequency Major Disasters Earthquake Fire Flood 18
High Frequency Major Disasters Computer Virus Electrical power event Employee error 19
High Frequency Major Disasters The magnitude of high frequency disasters can be greater or smaller than low frequency disasters. Consequently, high frequency disasters normally have a much greater overall negative effect. They can happen to any organization at anytime and do. 20
90% of data loss occurs due to viruses, power problems, hackers, loose cables, user mistakes, water leaks, and hardware and software errors. data loss 21
NIMDA Possibly the World s worst technology disaster of all time so far.. 7 days after the planes hit the World Trade Towers (9/18/01) More than 2 million computers broke, most of them servers, affecting hundreds of millions of people. The extent of the disaster was hushed up by the US Government. The New York Times went down! The perpetrator(s) have never been found.. 22
Those were the Good old days THEN: NOW: A virus writer acted alone. His goal was fun or getting a job in the West, like at McAfee. If you could write a destructive virus, you could get an H1b visa and a job writing anti-virus code. A virus writer today is typically part of an organized enterprise. A writer in some countries can make millions of dollars in profit. Example: CryptoLocker. In some countries he can get a nice stable job in state sponsored, organized cyber war (with benefits!). Example: China. 23
For the highest return on investment (ROI) from your disaster planning, focus on High Frequency Disasters. 24
Planning well for High Frequency disasters prepares you for Low Frequency major disasters also. 25
What s a Technology Disaster anyway? 26
definition: a disaster is an interruption of mission-critical information services for an unacceptable period of time 27
Relative/contextual The TYPE of disaster is totally irrelevant! Who cares why your tech is down? Your people are dead in the water they can t work. It s about Unacceptable Downtime of Mission Critical functions. Which both vary by company It s about TIME. 28
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RELIABLE? 31
PA Industry Issue No paper industry migration to scanned documents. Which is more resilient to disaster? Paper or a PDF? It s not even close. Paperless means: You need damn good Backup and Disaster Recovery (BDR) systems! Better than you had before. 32
Are your computers more or less important to your business than they were? 33
Your computer downtime costs have gone up! Therefore, the ROI of DR planning is higher too! 34
Since downtime cost is higher than it was and rising, increase strategic focus and budget to minimize unacceptable downtime. Let s get started 35
The Simple Disaster Recovery Plan created by MPA Networks, Inc. 36
Our DR Plan The TWELVE components we may lose The BIG THREE QUESTIONS 37
Our Process Answer the BIG THREE QUESTIONS Decide on an appropriate action plan for loss of each of the TWELVE components. Write it down! Circle back and confirm congruity between THE BIG THREE and the TWELVE. Revisit and adjust annually. 38
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BIG 3 QUESTIONS Answer THE BIG THREE Q s in order Discover which of the TWELVE COMPONENTS are mission critical for you Discover your TIME window component. KISS (Keep it Simple Stupid) for now.. 52
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Create a document. Create 12 Sections. Write your plan. 57
Congruity Will our plan work??? Circle back and confirm congruity between THE BIG THREE and the TWELVE. Do the TIME windows work for you? Compare the expected window in each of the TWELVE plans to your BIG THREE needs If not, accept a different window or use a different strategy. 58
Factor in these 4 Delays which may happen after a MAJOR disaster I D I + D.C. 59
Process DR Planning is a PROCESS. It s not a one time event. It s never finished. Revisit Annually (at least) DR mitigation technologies change all the time Your technologies and important business processes naturally change over time 60
Distribute Create a PDF & share it Print it out and at least give copies to all your managers to take home, put in car trunks, etc. Don t be lame and store it only on your server! That would be a disaster. Oh yeah, don t forget your Asset List! Share with business partners as appropriate 61
FAQ Strategies Backup and DR system? Doesn t Cloud fix all this? Know of any phone strategies? 62
BDR Systems If you have on-premises servers, the best option is a BDR (backup and disaster recovery system) Vendors: Datto Axcient Many white labels of the above: MPA SafetyNet 63
Continuous Backup Live Production Server SafetyNet Users Access Server System 64
Failed Server (Disaster) SafetyNet Users Can t Access Server System 65
Failed Server Repaired/replaced offline SafetyNet Users Access Spare Tire Server System 66
Live Production Server Continuous Backup Live Production Server SafetyNet Live Production Server 67
Encrypted World Class Data Center (East Coast) Redundant Copies of Your Data Encrypted SafetyNet Encrypted World Class Data Center (West Colorado) Encrypted 68
Office gone, stolen, flooded Servers gone, stolen, flooded Spare tire server and some workstations spun up in a datacenter Users Access Spare Tire Server System 69
Cloud Not a panacea It s still a computer it breaks and goes down too Not immune to user errors, virus: 2 of the top 3 major disaster causes + high frequency Vendor s DR plans are often not transparent Vendor s backup systems are often poorly designed, with poor retention & # of backup sets Example: Egnyte file sharing mirror, not backup Example: Microsoft Azure no backup in base offer!? End user is responsible?!?? 70
Cloud Not a panacea You still need your workstations and software and configurations on those computers You still have to have employees type Creates a new single point of failure: your office Internet connection and your firewall Rx: Dual ISP service or Dual ISP service with dual firewalls. 71
Cloud Executed and designed well, Cloud solves many disaster recovery challenges MPA Networks offers a Cloud Workspace environment. A few others do also. More will. Your server(s), data, AND workstations in a private, secure, data center. No software or data on workstations or laptops Unlimited # of software applications Access from anywhere, anytime, any device Can implement for a firm located anywhere 72
Timesharing 73
A word on phones Some Cloud hosted VOIP Phone systems have the ability to forward to cell phones or have cell phone office apps (extension lights! Voicemail!) so you can keep working when the lights go out. Sweet. 74
Q&A 75