Overview of DCAG Disaster Recovery Services
by, Thomas Bronack
In this volatile world where
natural disasters are occuring every day and terrorist activities are on the
rise, it is becoming ever more important to protect your company's data
processing and business resources with a Disaster Recovery Plan. This requirement is compounded by the fact
that companies are depending more and more on computers to supply critical
business services and to provide business products.
With the advent of On-Line Systems,
Local Area Networks and Personal Computers, Contingency Planning is not only
concerned with protecting the data center (i.e., Disaster Recovery
Planning), but in fact, most recovery
activities are now being performed for the protection of business facilities
(Business Recovery Planning) located geographically away from the data
center. These fields are coupled with
the Risk Management discipline, which is responsible for evaluating exposures
and managing the vendor contracts that are in place to respond to recovery and
regulatory requirements.
Contingency Recovery
Disciplines
Figure 1 - Overview of
Contingency Planning Disciplines and Functional Responsibilities.
DCAG’s Response to Disaster Recovery Needs
DCAG recognizes this business need
and has responded by providing expert disaster recovery services to its client
base. These services include:
1. Risk Assessment's to determine
the exposure to outages that our clients have and to evaluate the effectiveness
of any existing contingency plans.
2. Disaster / Business Recovery Plan
Generation and testing by assisting clients with their selection of recovery
facilities / vendors and to implement recovery plans for data centers and
business locations.
3.
The creation and training of Contingency
Organizations within client companies.
4.
The selection, evaluation and institution of Insurance
protection (i.e., Business Interruption Insurance and Managers and Directors
Insurance). This service can result in
a reduction in Insurance Costs when a Recovery Plan is implemented, because the
Insurance Companies exposure to financial loss is reduced.
5. Audit response to repair
compliance and regulatory exposures relating to Disaster / Business Recovery
and Access Controls over vital corporate assets (i.e., EDP Security Rules over
critical resources and Audit Trails to report on access activities).
6. Corporate Asset identification
and protection from magnetic tapes through intellectual property and the
vaulting of source code related to mission critical programs (Vital Record Management).
7.
DCAG can even outsource the
functions performed by your Disaster Recovery Manager, thereby
freeing the presently assigned individual(s) to perform more business sensitive
functions. In this capacity, a DCAG
Disaster Recovery specialist will be assigned to your company as your Disaster
Recovery Manager. He will assist in the
creation of Recovery Plans, train Recovery Teams, and test Recovery Plans to
insure they are functioning correctly.
After successful testing of the Recovery Plan, the DCAG consultant will
periodically audit your Recovery Plan to insure that it is maintained in a
current and accurate state of readiness.
In accomplish Disaster Recovery requirements, it is essential to interface with a wide variety of company and vendor personnel so that critical information can be obtained and recovery procedures generated.
Functional areas
that must interface
with Disaster Recovery
are:
We at DCAG believe that our
Disaster Recovery Service offering is in tune with the needs of the industry
and our client base has confirmed our belief.
We have performed Disaster Recovery Services for major financial and
service organizations (including: ADP,
AIG, Chase, Shearson, Sandoz, EAB and many more). Our clients have received reductions in their insurance rates due
to the implementation of recovery plans (the savings associated with this
reduction in insurance costs can be greater than the cost of implementing a
recovery plan) and have realized better environmental controls and improved
efficiency through the documentation contained within recovery plans.
We would be delighted to discuss
how DCAG can assist your firm in responding to its Recovery needs. Please contact us to discuss your needs and
arrange for a meeting between our two firms.
Data Center
Assistance Group, Inc.
78-17
164th Street
Flushing,
New York 11366
Email: bronackt@dcag.com
Phone:
(718) 591-5553 Fax: (718) 380-7322