DR Testing Could Put Companies at Risk, Expert Warns

With identity theft constantly in the news, it’s no wonder companies are looking for new ways to backup data. Many are switching from physical backup tapes to things like disk-based solutions and data vaulting – but one expert says that might have a drastic effect on disaster recovery testing.

In an opinion piece on the ZDNet website, expert Jim O’Connor says while the switch to other technology has helped alleviate the worries that come with physical backup tapes, it also creates new problems for DR testing.

“In a peer-to-peer implementation when businesses are conducting their DR testing, some businesses tend to break the data replication process — putting them at risk for lengthy data recovery delays and the possibility of non-compliance with regulatory guidelines,” O’Connor says. “Using appropriate techniques with an electronic data vaulting implementation, replication can continue uninterrupted during DR testing and eliminate any exposure of your production site and DR site being out of synch.”

Instead, O’Connor says a more prudent method of data replication involves taking a “snapshot” or point-in-time copy of the recovery data and conducting disaster recovery testing off of that image.

“Once the snapshot is created, companies are then able to do recovery testing from the copy while allowing regular daily data replication to continue uninterrupted,” he says. “With this approach, the organization never has to break the link between the production and disaster recovery sites. If a system goes down, recovery can occur in just hours instead of days.”

To read the full article, click here: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6179861.html