CertiGuide to Network+  9  Chapter 1000:  Security in the Real World       9  II  Minimizing Risk

Fault Tolerance 1 III  Network Resource Security Models

Natural disasters can also challenge the security of an IT operation. What happens to the business if the data center is destroyed by a tornado? There are two significant things to be concerned with, in planning for disaster recovery:

1. Ensuring corporate data is not lost.
   
   
2. Ensuring that the corporation gets up and running again as quickly as possible.

You minimize the chances of loss of data by performing regular backups of computer systems, and by storing at least some of those backups off-site where they will not be affected by any physical incidents at your IT operations site. A backup program should also include regularly scheduled tests of restoring data. It is more common than you would think, for a site to have carefully kept backups for months (or even years) without ever needing to use one, and then when the situation does arise, the site finds out that for whatever reason (bad media, a bad tape drive, etc.) their backups are unreadable and their data has been lost.

You enable the company to resume IT operations as quickly as possible after a disaster through activities such as planning for alternate locations at which to do business, arranging in advance for hardware and software replacements that might be needed, and assigning corporate personnel specific duties that they will have in the process of restoring operations.

Disaster recovery planning is an entire IT field in and of itself. Although this overview knowledge is all that’s required for Network+, there is much more you can learn about it through additional research beyond the scope of this book.

Fault Tolerance 1 III  Network Resource Security Models