A Guide to Windows Disaster Recovery and Backup
You need only take a quick look at the news on any given day to remind you of why your company needs a disaster recovery plan. Chances are, you won’t ever experience a Level Four disaster, such as a terrorist bombing or natural disaster such as a hurricane or flood. But even the smaller-scale Level One, Two, or Three disasters that you’ll more likely encounter, such as power outages and server malfunctions, can paralyze business operations unless you’ve developed a plan for rapidly restoring IT services.
You probably already have a disaster recovery plan, but it’s wise to review it periodically and update it to accommodate changes in your business. Chapter 1 details 10 steps an organization of any size should follow when creating a new disaster recovery plan or revising an existing plan.
Many organizations don’t have a strategy for backing up their desktop computers. If your users store data files on a network volume that you back up as part of your file-server backup strategy, you might decide that you don’t need to back up your workstations. When a user’s desktop system crashes or dies, you can install the OS and applications from scratch or from a system image and reestablish the connection to the unharmed data on the network. For most users, this approach provides a sensible balance between manageability and data security. However, some desktop systems might merit special attention because of a user’s position in the company or the nature of his or her job. For these special cases, Chapter 2 suggests a variety of backup solutions, including system imaging, local backups, and third-party remote backup agents.
IT administrators are always looking for ways to revamp their backup strategies. Today’s exciting technologies and capabilities provide an added incentive to take a fresh look at backup procedures. To help you identify and take advantage of these advancements, Chapter 3 offers recommendations for making the most of these technologies and for devising a sound Windows backup strategy.
Many people break the subject of high availability into two parts — disaster prevention and disaster recovery — and discuss the topic as if every step in a high-availability solution fits neatly into one arena or the other. But the line between the two isn’t a neat one. I also realized that to distinguish between disaster prevention and disaster recovery, you need a clear definition of “disaster” for your organization. Chapter 4 offers a definition for “disaster” and presents strategies for disaster prevention.
In Chapter 5, you’ll find a collection of quick-reading tips and tricks that might answer some of your questions related to backup and recovery concerns.
See A Guide to Windows Disaster Recovery and Backup, by Bob Chronister, Jerry Cochran, Kalen Delaney, Paul Robichaux, Ed Roth, John Savill, Bill Stewart, Alan Sugano (free registration required).
