Information Technology
Disaster Recovery Awareness Program
Disaster Recovery Awareness
What is Disaster Recovery?
• From an IT perspective, any event that would
affect the Fulton Hall Datacenter, but is not so
severe as to shut the entire campus down
permanently.
• Some examples of this could be: Fire, Hurricane,
Earthquake, and other natural or man-made
disasters.
• IT systems have become critical to the
functioning of the University and as such it is
essential that we create, test and maintain a plan
to recover vital IT services to the campus.
Disaster Recovery Awareness
Disaster Recovery Terminology
• RTO = Recovery Time Objective
o The amount of time within which IT business
processes must be restored after a disaster or
disruption in service.
o Our current RTO is to have most critical systems
up within two weeks of a disaster.
• RPO = Recovery Point Objective
o The acceptable amount of data loss measured in
time.
o Our current RPO for most systems is one day.
Email, Peoplesoft, and MyClasses have a one hour
RPO.
Disaster Recovery Awareness
Business Continuity Plans
• The recovery time objective (RTO) of the campus, in the event of a
total data center total loss, is within two weeks. Although the data will
be secure, the replacement equipment required to support the software
will need to be purchased, installed and configured. From our
experience gained in disaster recovery tests, we believe the first week
will be required to install and configure equipment. Once the servers
and drives are in place, data restoration can begin. While services are
not in operation, campus business units will continue operation
utilizing their departmentally developed business continuity plans.
• How can your department continue functioning without IT services for
up to two weeks?
o
o
o
o
What business processes can be done manually?
Does a paper method still exist for temporary use?
What systems and services are necessary for your department to function?
Documentation is vital, do any business processes only exist in someone’s
head?
Disaster Recovery Awareness
Business Continuity Plans
• These departmental Business Continuity Plans should be updated
Annually.
o With the rate of change in technology, it is helpful to review your BCP to
make sure it is still current.
o Staffing changes can also have a major impact on your BCP.
• Some concrete examples of useful things to consider for your BCP:
o In the event of a flood or hurricane, if we have advance notice, putting a
trash bag over your computer & monitor and elevating the computer off of
the floor on your way out can save valuable information.
o Implementing a departmental policy to ensure files are stored on Network
Drives and not personal computers.
o It is helpful to periodically do a “Tabletop Exercise” where you step
through your disaster recovery plan as a department and discuss “What
if ?” scenarios.
Disaster Recovery Awareness
How We Protect Our Data
• IT systems are backed up each night, critical databases are
backed up every half-hour.
• Backups are sent immediately as they are created to our remote
site of Coppin University.
• An additional backup copy is put onto tape once a month and
stored in a vault off-campus.
• Redundancy is built into as many systems as possible to prevent
hardware failure and minor events from affecting business
operations.
• Certain equipment & tools to aid in recovery are placed in a
secondary datacenter on-campus.
Disaster Recovery Awareness
Order of Recovery
•
Phase One: Communication
– In order to enable the administration and public safety to post urgent communications
intended for our students, employees, and outside public, we will restore the main campus
website (www.salisbury.edu) first.
– Once we have a web presence we will then restore the email system so that we can send
updates to the campus.
•
Phase Two: Student and Financial Records
– Any system such as Gullnet, that provides student or financial data is essential.
– This will enable us to provide transcripts & student data for contact information as well as
purchase replacement equipment and process payroll.
•
Phase Three: Instruction-Supporting Systems
– MyClasses in order to provide web-enhanced instruction and distance learning.
– Academic computing labs for instructor & student use.
– Faculty instructional material stored on network drives ie O & P
•
Phase Four: Other Systems
– All other applications and systems used by employees on campus not specifically
addressed in the previous phases.