Disaster Recovery in the 21st Century

Novell Cool Solutions: Feature
By Alan Mark

Digg This - Slashdot This Posted: 15 Apr 2002

Another solid Novell Connection article by Alan Mark. This one offers some great advice and guidelines with respect to disaster recovery.

Here's where to read the full article: http://www.novell.com/connectionmagazine/2002/04/disaster42.pdf

Here's an excerpt:

The formula for achieving a successful relationship is simple: you should treat all disasters as if they were trivialities but never treat a triviality as if it were a disaster." (Quentin Crisp, Manners from Heaven, ch. 7.)

Crisp's quip should be the foundation for business models as well as the foundation for human relationships. In theory, companies should be confident that despite any interruption--whether that interruption is due to a computer virus, a hurricane, a flood, an earthquake, a fire, or a bomb--business will continue as if nothing happened. To achieve this goal, companies must duplicate many aspects of their business to another location, and that duplication must include people as well as equipment.

Rather than asking your boss to start a human-cloning project, you should first determine how to effectively clone your company so it won't go under if a disaster strikes. Over the past decade, the computing industry has built millions of information highways, but many of these highways have single points of failure. These electronic roads are similar to Germany's autobahns, where speed is more important than safety. However, just like regular highways, electronic highways need police for protection and ambulances for cleaning up the mess if an accident occurs.

Reader Comments

• Well written and considers most points in securing a company from disasters, as well as providing a few real-world examples. A more in-depth follow-up article should be required reading in the CNE track.
• Great summary, worth the time to read
• What an amazingly useful real-world overveiw of NetWare Disaster recovery options! Why is it so hard for other authors to provide such a comprehensive, clear picture? I do take exception to the commendation in Quentin Crisp's book, to the use of lies to manage social relationships. Fortunately, Alan only told the truth!

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