Seagate’s i365 is holding a “Be the Hero” disaster recovery webinar on March 11, 2010 from 10:00-11:00 AM Pacific. This is oriented a bit more toward the enterprise than the SOHO user, but I thought I’d put the link here anyway. Disaster recovery is a useful thing to know about, after all.

Here’s the copy from their registration page:

If and when a disaster strikes you want to be the hero, not the fall guy.  This workshop will help you prepare to be the hero:

• Differences between data protection and disaster recovery
• How to secure organizational buy in for a disaster recovery program
• Specific factors to consider in creating a disaster recovery plan
• Real life examples of preparing for disaster and balancing priorities

Janson Hoambrecker, Manager of Disaster Recovery Services, is the featured speaker for BE THE HERO Disaster Recovery Workshop . Janson has been leading i365’s EVault Disaster Recovery Service team for many years and has helped hundreds of customers properly prepare for a disaster.

i365, which used to be EVault, has its headquarters just down the street from me, in Emeryville, California; their data recovery branch is in Santa Clara.

About a week ago I was approached by a representative of Backup Technology, a leading British firm providing online backup and data recovery services with an offer to write a guest post for the blog. I explained that I was happy to publish guest posts if they were relevant to the audience of small and home-office computer users and as long as the author’s affiliation with the company in question was disclosed. Not only do I feel strongly about the principle of transparency even when I’m not actually being paid or offered any goods and services, but the FCC is apparently about to rule on what bloggers are allowed to publish on behalf of vendors, and I’d prefer not to run afoul of the law.

Apart from anticipated FCC rulings, however, it’s a good time to get a guest post, because I’ve spent most of the past week recovering from last week’s trip up to Eureka for my cousin’s LVN pinning ceremony. (That’s what they call graduation when you’re a nurse.) I’ve barely had time even to look at the bombardment of backup-related e-mail messages, much less formulate my own topic for a column.

I do want to acknowledge that two different people from SocialSafe wrote in to say thanks for last week’s (actually Monday’s) post from Michael North about Facebook backups. (Now if only someone would invent a comprehensive backup tool for LinkedIn, one that would back up all your group discussions, Answers, and recommendations along with your contacts…)

On to what our colleagues from across the pond have to say to us:

In the modern era, almost every company is dependent on their IT systems to function day-to-day and any kind of unforeseen circumstance could be potentially devastating. Anything from the smallest power cut or server failure to an all out natural disaster could bring business to a grinding halt, any interruption to a company’s IT is financially damaging. For SME’s the means to restore business functionality from anywhere at any time is paramount and many companies are integrating remote backup facilities into their plans.

In every aspect of digital life it is proving vital to introduce a fully integrated disaster recovery plan to ensure business continuity is maintained and any downtime caused by unexpected circumstances is minimised.

It’s not only unexpected disasters that need planning for, companies and governments around are finding out more and more frequently cyber crime is on the rise. The recent attacks on Twitter and Facebook show a new level of cyber threat that are almost without motivation and have only malevolent intent.

The need for a disaster recovery plan is not limited to enterprises but with the increased threat of cyber crime and cyber warfare, governments worldwide are recognising the need for specialist defences against such attacks. NATO has set up a cyber defence facility in Estonia codenamed K5. The American government has launched a national cyber security strategy and the UK has responded by creating two organisations, the Office of Cyber Security and the Cyber Security Operations Centre.

In this increasingly cyber-driven world the key to protecting your assets is to get educated on the need for planning and incorporation of the necessary systems. No longer can anyone, whether you are an SME, major financial institution or major world government, put data storage, backup, disaster recovery or business continuity on the back burner.

While it usually takes a certain level of popularity to attract virus designers and DDoS attacks, there’s no denying that everyone needs to maintain some level of security and that an outage for any reason can cause serious problems for a business, as we mentioned a few weeks ago. If your backups are infected, you could re-introduce vulnerabilities into your system when you restore. That’s why you need to turn off system restore if you discover a virus on your system and have to use a special removal tool.

I’m sure Backup Technology would appreciate it if you checked out their business continuity services while examining your own company’s disaster preparedness. If you’ve actually used their services, write in and tell us about it. And if you’ve had to deal with a cyber-attack, write in and tell us about that, too. You can post comments on the blog (allow some delay for moderation) or e-mail me: sallie [at] fileslinger [dot] com.

In the past few weeks, I’ve received news of two different surveys that reach similar conclusions: businesses are not as prepared to face disasters as they think they are. Here in California—where we have wildfires in the hot season, mudslides and flash floods in the rainy season, and earthquakes all year round—disaster preparedness is a common theme. But disaster preparedness is rather like backup: everyone knows they should do it, but most people don’t. I have a haphazard earthquake kit, myself: some clothes, some blankets, some food, and a multi-wave radio; certainly not enough for more than a day or two. And as far as preparing my business for a disaster goes…

Nope, not even earthquake insurance. Nor specific insurance to cover my computer equipment, though unlike the Ur-Guru, I don’t actually own enough computer equipment to need a separate policy in addition to my renter’s insurance.

And this is a problem. Even though I don’t need very much more than a working computer and my data to run my business and my business doesn’t need to live on after me, the complete lack of a business continuity plan is an issue. Big companies not only have plans, they have drills—like fire drills—to make sure everyone knows what to do and where to go in the kinds of emergencies that the planners can foresee. Even a one-person business can benefit from making a plan about what to do if the house burns down in the middle of a huge project. Or how to get the clients notified if you end up comatose in the hospital.

I have an advance directive to cover health decisions, but I don’t even have someone who knows my computer password to get into Outlook and notify the people in my address book if I die. (I gave my password to the Ur-Guru, but he can’t remember it because it doesn’t mean anything to him. And anyway, he lives too far away.)

My guess is that a lot of sole proprietors don’t have business continuity plans because we don’t really think of ourselves as business owners, even if the IRS does. It seems that owners of slightly larger businesses fall short in the area of disaster preparedness for a different reason. The 2009 Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Survey conducted by Agility Recovery Solutions (with the aid of Hughes Marketing Group) surveyed 700 small and mid-sized and found that while 94% of them have a plan for data backup, only 42% had tested their business continuity plans, even though 52% of them had experienced unforeseen interruptions to business.

The good news is that 94% of these businesses are backing up their data. That’s a shockingly high number, in fact, compared to surveys conducted by various storage companies over the years. On the other hand, if you read the complete report, it would appear that most of the companies surveyed were financial institutions and insurance agencies, so regulations might have something to do with their high scores in the backup department.

In any case, it’s certainly true that being able to restore your data is only part of what you need to keep your business running. You need the computer equipment, the Internet connection, the phone lines, the office space, the employees…and most of the companies surveyed would have much more trouble replacing those things than restoring their data. The Ur-Guru keeps both a DSL and a cable Internet connection to make sure he doesn’t experience any interruptions to his connectivity, and certainly any business of any size needs more than one ISP, with an automatic fail-over.

Another survey, this one commissioned by SunGard Availability Services and conducted by Harris Interactive, addresses the state of disaster recovery in larger enterprises. The conclusion: the IT department and business management have different ideas about what matters in disaster preparedness and disaster recovery. You can look through the handy slideshow below for the details, but in case you’re reading this on your BlackBerry or the slides don’t come through in the e-mail version, I’ll summarize a few of the key points, kindly provided by the Porter Novelli press release:

• 86% of IT says availability of network, data, systems and applications important—while only 65% of business executives say this is important
• 74% of IT says disaster recovery is important—while only 49% of business executives say so
• Both IT (70%) and business (63%) say the tolerance for IT downtime in their company has grown shorter, but data shows that IT is still not receiving the budgets necessary to achieve rapidly declining recovery timeframes

Backing up data is relatively inexpensive, but replacing network, systems, and applications for a large enterprise—or even one of its local offices—can be pricey and time-consuming. And, again, before you can replace the systems, you have to have an office to put them in. You have to have electricity to run them. You have to have an Internet connection. And you have to have employees to operate them.

It shouldn’t be too great a surprise that the IT decision makers consider inadequate funding a bigger problem for disaster recovery than the business decision makers do. IT often reports to the CFO and is most often thought of as a “cost center.” Never mind the fact that you couldn’t run your business without it, it’s still not creating profit. But I digress.

Now, of course both Agility and SunGard have a vested interest in emphasizing the importance of disaster preparedness. But just because they make their money helping companies set up business continuity plans doesn’t mean you don’t need a plan. Maybe it’s time to do some calculations. How fast could you replace your equipment? How much would it cost? Would your insurance cover it? And what about paper records, and books? Is there anything that you need to make copies of and send off-site? Where do you keep your insurance records? Do you have a safe deposit box? Would you need to rent office space, or could you do your work at the local coffee shop? Is there someone who could take over your work if something happened to you? Is there someone who knows how to reach your clients if something happens to you?

What are your plans to keep your business going in case of disaster? Backup is just the beginning.

Making your hard drives more secure seems to be the trendy thing to do these days. Within the past couple of months, I’ve been contacted about two similar products for protecting your external hard drives from fire and water—not to mention spilled coffee. I haven’t had the chance to test either product myself, so I can’t give you a firsthand account, but it seemed worth mentioning them in case fire hazards or water hazards are particularly high in your office.

The first is the MediaVault HD, which I first heard about in a LinkedIn question from Chuck Fetta of Office Furniture Warehouse asking for feedback from IT professionals. MediaVault’s main claim to fame is that it’s fireproof (up to a point, the point in fact being a UL 125°F 1 Hour rating), semi-waterproof (it will probably survive your sprinkler system), and locks to reduce the risk of theft (but you’re not supposed to bolt it down).

The IT professionals consulted suggested that online or other off-site backup was almost certain to be better protection against disasters (including fires) and that as an anti-theft device, the MediaVault didn’t look too impressive. I have to agree with that last objection. I have friends who had their safe stolen because it wasn’t built into their wall or floor. The MediaVault just isn’t large or heavy enough to deter thieves, even the casual sort who didn’t come prepared with a dolly and a moving truck.

The Ur-Guru also pointed out that any USB port was likely to melt off immediately in a fire (perhaps causing interesting electrical problems to your drives and your data). The backup advantage of leaving the device connected is countered by the security disadvantage. Better to get a genuine fireproof safe (the built-in kind that will still be there when nothing is left of your house but cinders) and put your external drives there. Of course, that does require an extra step: remembering to take the drives out of the safe to make the backups and put them back into the safe for storage.

The MediaVault HD ships with Seagate drives and Genie Backup Manager Pro. This is another product I’ve heard of but never used. You can get it with or without disaster recovery. Somewhere in my copious spare time, I’ll have to give it a try, though the Ur-Guru might not forgive me if I start cluttering up the machine he’s been spending the weekend reinstalling.

It seemed hardly a moment after the LinkedIn discussion of MediaVault that I heard from Brett Callow about ioSafe, but it was actually a month or so. Brett started out by asking for a link, as many companies do. I gave him the same answer I give everyone: “Why not write a guest post?” I did have to warn him that he’d have to disclose the fact that ioSafe is paying him to talk up their product, even though he’s not one of their employees. This is what he sent me.

Where should you keep your backups?

Backing up to an external hard drive is an easy and reasonably economical way to protect your data against loss due to computer failure — but it will not protect your data against disasters. Should you be unlucky enough to have a fire, chances are that both your computer and external drive will be toast. (And, if the flames don’t get it, the water from the fire department’s hoses almost certainly will!)

So, how can you minimize the risks? One solution would be to store your drive in a waterproof and fireproof safe when it’s not in use or to keep the drive at somebody else’s house. A much better solution, however, is to use more than one best-in-class solution to protect your data.

ioSafe makes a range of fireproof and waterproof drives which provide rock-solid protection for your critical data. The ioSafe Solo range are waterproof to 10 feet for 3 days and can withstand temperatures up to 1550°F for 30 minutes. The Solo can even be bolted to the floor to make theft more difficult. In short, it provides the best possible protection for data. Even if everything else in your house is lost to a disaster, at least your backups will still be safe and secure. With prices starting at $149.99 for a 500 GB model, ioSafes are a bit more expensive than other drives, but not by much. And, if you really value your data, the extra bucks are certainly money well spent.

But don’t stop there. Every mechanical device — hard drives included — will eventually fail. Consequently, you should be keeping your data in more than one spot. Unless you have an exceptionally large amount of data, the easiest way to do that is to use an online backup service. When choosing a service provider, don’t simply go with the cheapest option. Shop around, do some research and choose a well-established company. (A startup may offer you the best deal, but will they still be around in a week, month or year from now?)

By keeping more than one backup and keeping the backups in different locations, you’ll be protecting your data against pretty much every eventuality.

For more information about ioSafe, visit the company website.

This was a bit more of a sales pitch than I’d hoped for, paid post or not. Examination of the specs on the ioSafe site does, however, suggest that it’s likely to provide better protection against fire, water, and theft, than the MediaVault, and the price is not that much higher than for an ordinary external hard drive. If you’re prone to spilling your coffee, it might not be a bad investment.

But if you’re really concerned about fires and floods, you’re going to need more serious protection than this.