Project Proposal - Backup and Restoration Process

[Samiuela Loni Vea Taufa]

Encouraged by Saia's presentation on Gotnet, and knowing how many of the business' out door were seriously hit by the data loss form last year.

Please comment on the attached Backup and Restore Proposal.

Most interesting would be to get some feedback from you people whether

(a) the question being addressed by the Project is appropriate/legitimate
(b) are you satisfied with what you have in place at your work

Thanks,


Sam T

Purpose:

To develop and implement a Backup and Restore Service to ensure critical data is archived, secured and restorable within defined timeframes and costs for Ministries and Agencies. Backup and Restore is a critical component of IT Continuity Management, the proactive management for returning service effectively, expeditiously in the event of disaster.

This project proposal is for the creation of an archiving policy and process that is consistent with operational and legal requirements for Business and Government. It will be cognizant of variable legal requirements. Project outcomes will include a Best Practise Backup and Restore process and trials to include valuation of the Risks to data stored at participating organisations. 

The resultant Backup and Restoration process will be available to interested Business’, Ministries and Government Agencies using metrics based on Service Level Agreements to meet data recovery requirements within agreed timescales, security, quality, and cost targets.

Need:

Continuity Management is a critical component of Good Governance, and Good Management practises. Simply defined, Continuity Management is pro-actively preparing an organisation to survive and remain operational in the event of a disaster.

The destructions of November 16^th, 2006 signified the real danger of IT Services being destroyed, the Tsunami waves that have pounded Asia is a constant reminder of the vulnerability of Tonga to Natural Disasters. The need already exists for Continuity Management to be put in place. 

By beginning our Continuity Management assessment with Data Backup and Restoration Services we select a critical component of IT Continuity Management from which to effectively initiate and assess preparedness for disaster.

Rationale:

Continuity Management is a broad subject with which we have little knowledge or skills. By selecting a component of Continuity Management, Backup and Restoration Services, we have narrowed the scope of what we need to up-skill management and staff.

By beginning with Backup and Restoration Services we provide a functional component of Continuity Management with which we can later useas a base for a more complete implementation of Continuity Management.

Feasibility:

Success and failure have equal probability of occurring.

 

The literature defines this type of project as Type 2 “Product Development,” which is classified as having a clear set of goals, although with methods that are unclear at the beginning of the Project. We do not have literature support for improving probabilities for success in this particular project category.[i] 

• Goals are initially well defined, but the methods of achieving them are not (eg product development projects)
• Functionality of the product is known but how it will be achieved is not known
• Point of the project is to determine how to achieve the goals
• Not possible to plan activities because the project will determine them
• Milestone planning is used where the milestones represent components of the product to be delivered
• Water Projects as they are like a turbulent stream.  They flow with a sense of purpose, but in an apparently haphazard way.

In general, if the sponsor and owner provision sufficient organisational support, and resources, this project should be reclassified as having a good chance of success. In particular, a significant contributor to increasing probability for success is to define the methods for delivering the Backup and Restore Process.  Probability for success is greatly improved through. 

·         well defined metrics for assessing goals

·         well defined methodologies

·         methodologies have sound theoretical underpinnings (shortcomings should be known and appreciated)

·         methodologies are Best Practise (application is well understood and documented)

There already exists various levels of IT Competencies for areas of Backup and Restoration Services, and a number of tools already exist to simplify implementing the physical processes of backing up and restoring data. Our difficulty will be with the development of our IT Service Management and IT Governance to ensure that appropriate levels are applied such that we maximise probabilities of success with every service delivery.

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[i] Turner and Cochrane, Goals and Methods Matrix, 1993

-- 
Samiuela LV Taufa
sa...@nomoa.com -or- samt...@gmail.com
www.nomoa.com; www.tongatapu.net.to
Ph: +676()62-717 Fax: +676()24-099

[Priority IT Solutions]

I like this.

 

This would be a great starting point. It shouldn't be difficult to get buy-ins for this project considering what happened last yr.

 

Just adding to the discussion:

 

a) Yep, from what I've seen around here (read -> at work) there is no known/documented Backup and Disaster recovery process (company wide) to be found. Perhaps there is but it's not readily available anywhere. The outcome of this project would highlight the need for such a policy/process in place.

 

b) We're slowly moving towards thinking about Data Backup and disaster recovery with every IT related project. For instance, We have an exact mirror image of our Billing Live database at one of our backup servers and nicely located at a different physical location. This was a requirement that had to be put in place to safe guard against 1. Loss of critical data ( i.e. no billing data = no revenue) and 2. Any unfortunate circumstances where our servers might get physically damaged.

 

This is just one project out of a number of IT related projects here that needs this type of backup in place.

 

Hope that helps.