In this post referring to an unexpected reality for network administrator, server admin etc.: sooner or later, your organization’s IT infrastructures has possibility of down.
From the perspective of an IT manager, such statements can be somewhat offensive. However, we want to make it clear that we are not questioning the diligence with which an IT manager pay his efforts. It is rather a statistical question. Too many factors can lead to loss or interruption of access to critical information in an organization. Not all necessary pre-caution preventing crush is not an effective strategy. Instead, it is more convenient to know the causes, assess the impact they can have and implement a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP)
This post is dedicated to the first part of the problem: Identify the main causes that can generate an IT failure.
Faults in the supply and mains
One of the main causes pointed out by a large number of organizations is failure of power supply or power grid. That disaster trigger in information systems failure every day.
At least, 43% of the companies surveyed study stated for the preparation of the report Global Disaster Recovery Preparedness, published by the consultancy Forrester in 2013.
As we’ll show you right away, servers and storage systems usually grab all the attention when running a DRP. However, a suitable prevention protocol should include a local area network (LAN) infrastructure, as well as a list of steps to carry out its reestablishment in the event of a fall.
Failures in hardware and storage systems
Once you have multiple levels of redundancy in critical components, such as network drivers or multiple power supplies, you may feel much more protected. Even so, failures in the Storage Area Network (SAN) are among the major causes of disasters among organizations.
Often, they have a large storage network and all virtualized servers within it. The technology Disasters is that when the SAN falls, the entire data environment of the organization also does.
Human failures
In fact, human error is also a leading cause in 13% of IT disaster cases.
As you can imagine, the casuistry among human errors is very varied. However, accidental deletion of a server’s file system is one of the most common causes, both for novice and experienced IT experts. Safeguards used to warn users of deleting or overwriting files are often ignored by users. When it comes to critical information, the absence of a data backup and recovery system becomes a painful situation.
Software failures
The main reason underlying software failures is the lack of monitoring and checking for the patches and updates they receive. This can lead to corruption of certain applications and the consequent dropping of systems.
On the other hand, the use of outdated and poorly maintained operating systems is also behind many of the software failures that trigger an IT disaster.
Malicious attacks and computer viruses
Surprisingly, such phenomena are much less concern than those noted above. The recent software disasters lies in the consequences of them.
If the fact of suffering a disaster of information systems cause a great loss of credibility and confidence on the part of the clients, doing it as a consequence of a cyber-attack is usually mediate terrible.
In addition, unlike the randomness of previous cases, this type of attack is also often heavily measured, so that information lost or stolen is critically important.
On the other hand, it should be noted that these attacks can originate both outside an organization and inside, regardless of the malicious will of employees.
Finally, we cannot avoid the presence of viruses, malwares and famous software disasters like ransomwares is also a constant and growing problem that threatens the daily operations of many organizations. The biggest problem with this type of digital infection is that the files may appear intact until the moment you attempt to access them.
Natural disasters
Although they also have a lower statistical presence but natural disasters often have devastating effects on the information systems of any organization.
Your IT buddies probably think of phenomena such as the earthquake and tsunami that swept the coast of Japan a few years ago. However, more common events – such as floods or small local fires – may end up seriously affecting relevant media within your company’s IT structure.
If you want to prevent any of these phenomena from jeopardizing the viability of your company, you need to have a Disaster Recovery System. There are many alternatives in the market. From traditional disk and tape backup solutions, consolidated solutions based on native snapshots of the storage systems themselves (eye not replacing the backup but complement it), to advanced cloud backup systems.
We advise you to carry out an analysis of the reliability of your organization’s backup system, to identify the vulnerabilities and logistical requirements of your business. This way you will be able to choose the best solution for that purpose.
