[wellylug] Disaster IT in New Orleans & Emergency

[Mark Foster]

On Thu, 6 Oct 2005, Rob Giltrap wrote:

> Adam Bogacki wrote:
>
>> Jumbophut ..
>> 
>> (1) I thought Wellylug might be interested in the experience of people 
>> involved in IT disaster recovery in New Orleans - we could be in the
>> same situation if the Wellington fault moves at any time, or the
>> active Boo Boo fault from Cape Palliser to the South Island generates
>> a tsunami in our direction.
>> 
> Actually, I am involved in the IT disaster recovery in New Orleans and I can 
> tell you it's going to take a lot more than a Live Linux CD to solve those 
> problems.
>
> There are many many companies who need to try and recover archival data from 
> tape cartridges that have salt crystals built up on the physical media very 
> nasty!
>
> Rule #1 - Salt water and IT gear doesn't mix well
> Rule #2 - Basements are great places for storing stuff you don't care about
> Rule #3 - Backup and archive tapes contain stuff you DO care about
> Rule #4 - Your UPS and power distribution circuitry is more stuff you should 
> care about
> Rule #5 - Your computer room contains more stuff you should care about
> Rule #6 - President Bush is NOT the only stupid person in America, There are 
> plenty to choose from
> Rule #7 - You can always replace computers, storage, computer rooms & power 
> infrastructure it just takes time
> Rule #8 - In Many/Most cases you cannot replace your DATA!
>

Rule #9 - Offsite Backups and DR Sites are your friend.

The basement is unfortunately an excellent place for heavy plant equipment 
requiring regular refuels (read: generator plant equipment) and is 
therefore a logical place for large power and UPS installs. Most of the 
time.

Its also a good place in the event of high winds, tornados, and pretty 
much anything that doesnt involve the physical destruction of the 
building.

I would say flooding is probably one of its major drawbacks, thus the 
importance of fail-over capability and off-site data backups...

Mark.