Chapter 11 Redundancy and Disaster Recovery in terms of Security

 

Chapter 11

Redundancy and Disaster Recovery in terms of Security

Objectives:

• Implement rights, permissions, and policies in security.
• Implement a disaster recovery plan and procedures.

What is Redundancy ?

    An engineering phrase called redundancy refers to "the duplication of important system components or functions with the purpose of boosting system reliability, typically in the form of a backup or fail-safe, or to increase real system performance." 

What does redundancy mean in an IT context?

    REDUNDANCY

    In computer science there are four major forms of redundancy:

•     Hardware
•     Software
•     Information
•     Time

    

Hardware Redundancy

• We'll most likely be talking about hardware redundancy when we discuss incorporating redundancy into an infrastructure project.     
• Hardware redundancy is simply the addition of a duplicate device or component within the system. This takes over when a primary device or component fails. The goal is to ensure that there is no downtime.
• The most popular kind of redundancy is using hard disks. A straightforward configuration would involve routinely copying the primary drive to the backup drive.

Server Redundancy

• In some businesses the computing environment includes server redundancy. To enable this, a replica of the server is created with the same computing power, storage, applications and other operational parameters.
• A redundant server is kept offline. That is, it powers on with network/Internet connectivity but is not used as a ‘live server’.
• In case of failure, downtime or excessive traffic at the primary server, a redundant server can be implemented to take the primary server’s place or share its load.
  

Network Redundancy

• Network redundancy is primarily implemented in enterprise network infrastructure to provide a redundant source of network communications.
• It serves as a backup mechanism for quickly swapping network operations onto redundant infrastructure in the event of unplanned network outages.

Internet Redundancy

• One form of network redundancy is Multi-Wan, which is available through some firewalls. 
• Multi-Wan provides the ability to have multiple internet connections into a single site.
• Creating redundancy within your networks and for your critical business data is one of the main ways to ensure your organization continues to function if an unexpected outage were to occur.
               
  
  
  

Disaster Recovery

• Effective disaster recovery strategies can mean the difference between maintaining up time and experiencing a problem that could cost you and your company millions of dollars.
• The steps to having a successful DR strategy are similar regardless of industry or company footprint
• These steps are the basic building blocks of an effective DR plan. Notice that “test” appears on this list twice – and for good reason.
• Create a DR plan.
• Test the plan.
• Make sure to back up data in offsite servers.
• Create redundancy
• Test the plan again