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Booklet:
Operations Section: Risk Mitigation and Control Implementation Subsection: Storage/Back-Up |
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Management’s
primary objectives in providing data storage solutions are to ensure the
integrity and availability of data, particularly mission critical data.
Management and institution customers should receive current, complete,
and accurate data. Management also needs to implement a storage solution
that is manageable from an administrative perspective and usable and accessible
from the customer and end-user perspectives. Storage solutions should
be appropriately scalable to allow for future growth.
Management’s primary defense against such risks is proper planning.
There should be written standards that ensure consistent application of
data management standards. Management should choose data storage solutions
after careful consideration of configuration options, vendor options,
cost/benefit analyses, and anticipated institution growth. Management
should maintain an inventory of data sets and primary locations, so it
is aware of the scope and breadth of its data storage systems. Management
should also be aware of the impact an outage will have on each business
line application at any point in time in order to implement appropriate
recovery operations. Where feasible an institution should develop redundancy,
either through duality in storage architecture or secondary on-site copies
of data, to minimize the need to use off-site back-up materials.
An institution should back up and store its data and program files in
a secure off-site location to allow restoration of systems, applications,
and associated data in the event normal processing is disrupted by a disaster
or other significant event. Management should develop a rotation scheme
that addresses varying storage durations as well as how to transport and
store multiple formats of media at the off-site storage location. Another
consideration is the ability to retrieve media stored off-site in a timely
manner. In the event of a disruption, management should not have to reconstruct
data from more than one business day. The process of designing strategies
for the back-up of program and data files should begin with a comprehensive
inventory of all of the institution’s systems and data. The inventory
should include a risk assessment of the criticality of the applications
and the associated data. This will provide management with the information
necessary to determine what back-up methodologies are appropriate for
the institution.
The primary risk associated with data and program back-up is the inability
to recover systems, applications, and data in case of a disaster or other
disruptive event. This can be caused by incomplete or sporadic performance
of back-up procedures, unreliable back-up media, or the inability to access
off-site back-up material. Written standards should document back-up methodologies,
delineate responsibilities of appropriate personnel, and ensure uniform
performance throughout the institution. Management should maintain inventories
of back-up media stored off-site and periodically perform physical inventories
to ensure all required back-up material is available. Procedures should
include verifying adherence to the back-up schedule and reviewing actual
back-up copies for readability. Similarly, management should periodically
test back-up copies by actually using them to restore programs and data.
For further details on back-up processes, refer to the IT Handbook’s
“Business Continuity Planning Booklet”, specifically the sections
on off-site storage, software back-up, data file back-up, and back-up
and storage strategies.