Backup and Disaster Recovery (Policy 93)

Purpose

Data backups and disaster recovery planning are essential to re-establish the normal operations of the University’s identified production enterprise systems in the event of a disaster, data breach, or other extended interruption. Compliance with this policy will help ensure that critical University data and systems are able to be restored when needed.

1. Replication – In the context of Governors State University’s backup and disaster recovery processes, replication is the act of copying data to the University’s disaster recovery site at Illinois State University. 
2. Disaster – Any situation that presents the possibility of an extended outage or interruption of University identified systems or data. 
3. ERT – The Emergency Response Team is responsible for declaring and reacting to University emergencies.

1. Scope

   This policy applies to identified Enterprise-wide University systems and data as classified in this policy.

2. Responsibilities

   All system and application owners are responsible for the data under their purview, including ensuring for appropriate backup, recovery, and operational continuity, and for developing associated procedures.

3. System And Data Classification

   For the purposes of backups and disaster recovery, systems and data shall be classified per the Disaster Recovery System Classification Standard.

4. Backup and Replication

   University-hosted systems and data shall be backed up and/or replicated to the University’s remote disaster recovery site as directed by their classification in the Disaster Recovery System Classification Standard.

5. Disaster Recovery

   The University has established and shall maintain a disaster recovery process to ensure that University-hosted systems are able to be restored in the event of an extended outage or disaster. The process is documented in the Disaster Recovery Run Book and is updated at least semi-annually.

6. Testing

   Using a mock disaster exercise, the disaster recovery process is tested semi-annually against the Disaster Recovery Run Book. Results of each test is recorded and the Run Book is updated as necessary based on the results of the test.