Accubid Security Keys, Security Server and Disaster Recovery

[HPITguy]

Hello

I've exhausted all I can think of and can't find an answer. What does everyone have in place for disaster recovery? Our database is backed up thoroughly, and I don't have a concern there. What about your security server? Worst case scenario and the office falls into a sink hole, I can spin up a cloud VM to host the database, users can connect remotely, I can spin up another server for the licensing, but if the USB key with the licenses falls into the same sink hole, is there any way of recovery or means to keep things turning?

 

[PaulMmn]

This is for a major corporation. Problems can range from a plane landing on the building to a water leak dripping on the computers!
Data files are on a system that mirrors and RAIDs the data, so a single point of failure is less likely to cause problems. Computers are backed up to tape daily. Backups include a complete copy of the production system, including its operating system. Tapes are moved off-site 5 days a week.
Computer room has a UPS system that holds the systems up for up to 1/2 hour or so. Within a minute of a power glitch, we have a generator in the back yard, and it self-tests every week. Maintenance of the generator is under contract.
Personnel can access the computer system from home-- this was enabled when Covid-19 hit.
We have a duplicate IT installation about 15 miles from the main office. If a plane hits our main building, our data will be available within a day-- assuming anyone survives the disaster!
Licenses on our system are supplied by operating system and software package vendors. Assuming they're still in business, we can get copies from them. We don't currently encrypt our backups, so the missing USB key isn't an issue. However, the solution is to keep a copy off-site with the same company that handles our backup tapes, but in a separate container.
TESTING! Like the submariners say-- a submarine dive isn't successful until the boat returns to the surface!
Because of programmer requests, we have a decent flow of tapes being randomly returned from off-site storage to restore data that the programmers need. We're confident that we can actually -use- our backups!
With our duplicate location, we're reasonably confident that we'll survive any problems.

 

[zbang]

Cost vs risk.
I rather dislike physical artifact keys just for the reason that they break or can be lost. I'd certainly ask the vendor what to do in those circumstances and if the answer is "buy another one" I'd be looking for a new vendor.

 

[PaulMmn]

Don't forget-- Disaster Recovery is an insurance policy! How long can your company afford to be without computer resources?