Why IT Disasters Happen

Event triggers together with large number of low probability conditions precipitate IT disasters. There are usually many low-probability root causes that can contribute to the initial event becoming a disaster.

A disaster on one site requires the ability to recover at a remote location, a physical air gap away from the primary site. A major problem for ensuring remote recovery is ensuring that data in flight is complete and consistent. Without this confidence, operators try to recover on the original site. There is a technology that can protect and recover data in flight under almost all circumstances. This allows operators and executives to make definitive decisions  very quickly about recovery.

Ensuring zero loss of data-in-flight enables the ability to fail-over frequently and fail-back. Testing the fail-over process should become a regular event that evaluates and improves disaster recovery processes and readiness.

Deliberate outside cyber attacks are a major and growing category of disaster. The cost of these breaches is staggering, and can threaten the existence of large corporations. AI can be of help to both defenders and attackers. IT should deploy a broad range of software and hardware tools, culture changes, recovery testing, and physical air gaps.

After a cyber attack, there must also be “doomsday” copies. These are original raw copies of data and log files in another location with a true physical air gap and no logical connections to the original systems. Continuous testing of recover from these copies is also fundamental.