Disaster Recovery Journal Winter 2023

files were corrupted and useless. Execs were panicking. The movie was toast. We know how this story ends because we all got to watch “Toy Story 2.” I’ll get to the point –there was a saving grace, but it was entirely fortuitous. Another techni cal director had been working from home on the film and, by chance, had a two week-old version backup to her home computer. Data Recovery: Procedures, Not Tech The rate of change in technology sug gests that a story from 1998 would be neolithic history. It’s astonishing how rel evant this story remains to the often-tragic world of data loss and recovery. Today, all businesses should know how crucial it is to have a plan to backup and protect their data. Most, like current-day Pixar, even have such a plan in place. But when push comes to shove, many backup plans amount to an unvalidated technical solution – a security blanket that, while soothing, accomplishes nothing. The truth about data recovery is that it’s not exclusive to a specific technology. As important as the solution is, it needs a broader supportive architecture of policy and procedure to accomplish an effective backup plan. Behind all this thinking lies one crucial question, and the answer can only be “yes” or “no.” If your systems failed, could you recover your data and restore access to your files? Your customers may need to learn the answer to this question. If so, here are five reliable methods to ensure sound backup procedures. Schedule Regular Testing To return to “Toy Story 2” for a moment, the key vulnerability in the story is that the backup system was unverified. Pixar had a plan in place and backups from which they could recover their work. There was just one problem: it needed to be fixed. There are many reasons for recovery failure, including bad software and poor implementation. The solution to them all is the same – test the strength and efficacy of one’s systems, and do so regularly.

Five Reliable Methods to Verify Your Backup’s Integrity By FLETUS POSTON III B ack in 1998, Oren Jacob, assis tant technical director at Pixar, watched in horror as “Toy Story 2” files were deleted before his eyes. By a crazy stroke of luck, he happened to be looking at file directories right when they started to vanish. After months of work on a highly antic ipated sequel project with a hard deadline, it had disappeared in real-time. In a cin ematic moment, the team made a frenzied call to pull the plug on the central server to stop the hemorrhaging. When the produc ers rebooted the project, 90% of the movie was gone. It was a catastrophe. But luckily, Pixar had scrupulous backups. The team never tested the ideas, but they were supposed to work, so all was well. Not so fast! As they began to work from the backups, the team quickly realized the Rounding Up a Backup

32 DISASTER RECOVERY JOURNAL | WINTER 2023