Disaster recovery

Disaster recovery in information technology is the ability of an infrastructure to restart operations after a disaster. While many of today s larger computer systems contain built-in programs for disaster recovery, standalone recovery programs often provide enhanced features. Disaster recovery is used both in the context of data loss prevention and data recovery.

There are two primary metrics to demonstrate recoverability following failure:

Recovery Point Objective (RPO) is the point in time that the restarted infrastructure will reflect. Essentially, this is the roll-back that will be experienced as a result of the recovery. Reducing RPO requires increasing synchronous of replication (computer science).

Recovery Time Objective (RTO) is the amount of time that will pass before an infrastructure is available. Reducing RTO requires data to be online and available at a failover site.

When critical data loss occurs without a preventive disaster recovery policy in place data recovery becomes the only option.

In order for an organization to effectively protect its resources from potential disaster, they should invest in implementing a Disaster Recovery Plan.

= Providers of Disaster Recovery Technology =

UNISYS Corporation

EMC Corporation

HP

IBM

Unitrends

= External links =

*[http://whitepapers.businessweek.com/plist/Disaster-Recovery.html Business Week s Disaster Recovery Resources], a resource and directory dedicated to disaster recovery issues from the editors of Business Week magazine.

*[http://www.protectpro.com Disaster Recovery and Computer Security for small business], a easy to use resource focused on disaster recovery and computer security issues.

*[http://www.datarecoveryservice.us Disaster Recovery, Data Recovery and Computer consulting for small business], for that last resort when all else fails.

*[http://www.availability.sungard.com/ Sungard Availability Services] Very large DR providers

*[http://www.ultrabac.com Image and Disaster Recovery ] Very fast, efficient and simple to use Windows Disaster recovery solution

*[http://www.disasterrecoveryworld.com Disaster Recovery World], a resource and directory dedicated to disaster recovery issues.