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training records or the data in your other systems. Preventing monthly. data loss in the event of a disaster is the most fundamental What about the systems you rely on that are managed by requirement. For this, backups are your friend. Do you have your vendors? The principles are all the same as for your own them? How often are they taken? Are they immediately trans- systems. Do THEY do all of the above? How do they prove it ferred off-site to a secure location? Guidelines vary according to you? Do you have direct access to vet that the backups ex- to the size, value, velocity, and complexity of the data, but ist, are in a safe location, and are accessible? Do they maintain generally backups should be very frequent - as often as every redundant systems at a different location and have a process 15 minutes. Also, they should immediately be moved off site for failover in the event it is needed? Can that process be dem- to a location that is physically distant from the live data. To onstrated to you, using your data? This is important enough do this ef? ciently, there are software tools created for exactly that it is a business’ responsibility to not only trust, but verify. this purpose. Contractual promises are great, but not suf? cient.

Next - while backups prevent data loss, they don’t ensure In next month’s Training Tips for Ships I will share some el- that systems are restored quickly. If your LMS datacenter had ements of our DRP processes to shed more light on this topic. a ? re, what is the process for restoration at another datacenter, Until then, sail safely!

and how long would it take? Remember, in the event of a sig-

The Author ni? cant catastrophe, there will be sudden competition for new datacenter space, so ? nding a replacement may be impossible.

Goldberg

Redundancy costs money, but it’s the only reliable remedy in

Murray Goldberg is CEO of Marine the face of a signi? cant event.

Learning Systems which provides

Finally, how often do you test your DRP processes? This software and services to optimize is not the kind of plan that can be written, implemented, and knowledge, skills and behavior in then shelved. That effectively guarantees that it will fail when maritime operators.

[email protected] you need it most. These plans need to be fully tested at least

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