August 10, 2015 | Devon Wilson | Disaster Recovery

  As the IT department for many small businesses over the last 25 years, I’ve had to configure and manage a variety of user and security management solutions. With Windows NT server, Microsoft introduced Active Directory. At the time, server hardware was barely better than a desktop. IT departments spent more money per system for […]

July 22, 2015 | Devon Wilson | Backup, Disaster Recovery

  With technology rapidly changing, it is difficult for credit union IT managers to keep up. The entire landscape has changed over the past 10 years with virtualization becoming so widely adopted. Additionally, with the rapid growth of data and the demand for up-time due to internet and mobile banking, backup windows are shrinking. Many […]

June 15, 2015 | Devon Wilson | Disaster Recovery

Component Seven: Test, and Test Often Once you’ve implemented your disaster recovery solution you are on the right track towards positioning your credit union for success in the event of a disaster. However, IT is not static, it is ever changing. Therefore, it is important you implement the processes to adapt as circumstances change. Whether […]

June 8, 2015 | Devon Wilson | Disaster Recovery

Component Six: Reassess Now that we have made it this far, you now know what a successful disaster looks like. You also know specifically the components that need to be recovered to have a successful disaster. You have also established how long you are willing to be out of commission and once up, how much […]

June 1, 2015 | Devon Wilson | Disaster Recovery

Component Five: In-House vs Outsource Ok, let’s recap. You’ve defined what a successful disaster looks like, the components needed for recovery, how much time you are willing to be down and how much data you are willing to lose, and you’ve established a budget to accomplish all of the above. Now, you need to determine […]

May 26, 2015 | Devon Wilson | Disaster Recovery

Component Four: Cost Analysis You now know what our vision of a successful disaster looks like. You’ve assessed our needs and you have defined the RTO’s and RPO’s necessary to meet the overall objective. You now need to outline how much you should spend in order to achieve the desired results. Many credit unions allocate […]

May 18, 2015 | Devon Wilson | Disaster Recovery

Component Three: RTO’s and RPO’s What are RTO’s and RPO’s you ask? RTO stands for Recovery Time Objective, which defines the acceptable amount of time you are willing to be down. Since there are so many moving parts in a recovery, this is very granular. Each and every component will need to have a defined […]

May 11, 2015 | Devon Wilson | Disaster Recovery

Component Two: Needs Assessment Now that you’ve defined success, you need to determine specifically what components need to be up and operational in order to achieve success. This requires building a team that includes representatives of all major departments in your credit union. I have come onsite at credit unions to review and discuss their […]

May 4, 2015 | Devon Wilson | Disaster Recovery

Why seven you ask? I would like to tell you there was deep thought put into the title but really, it was simply a matter of outlining the framework on how to be successful should your credit union ever experience a disaster and it comes down to seven key components. In 1949 Edward A. Murphy […]