Human error is increasingly the cause of enterprise data disasters

Kroll Ontrack is warning organizations to be aware of an apparent trend for human error to be the main factor responsible for enterprise data disasters. Ontrack Data Recovery experts attribute the increase in human error incidents to more complex storage systems coupled with depleted resources to replace equipment, train IT staff and maintain optimal staffing levels.

"While advanced storage options such as virtualization and cloud computing offer corporations storage optimization, human processes are still at the root of these solutions, instructing the technology as to how to perform," said Jeff Pederson, manager of Ontrack Data Recovery operations, Kroll Ontrack. "The complexity of these systems often require a steep learning curve, and with reported IT spending at a low (down 6.9 percent in 2009 according to Gartner, Inc.), human error is increasingly common."

Typical human error cases handled by Kroll Ontrack include:

* Pulling the wrong drive. While trying to replace a failed disk in a RAID array, a healthy disk is accidently removed.

* Reformatting a disk. During a server migration, the wrong SAN LUN is accidently reformatted.

* Restoring corrupt/old backup data. A server containing a business-critical database is deleted by mistake and is restored with a corrupt or incomplete backup prior to realizing the backup is not sound.

* Rebuilding a bad array. Following a multiple drive failure in a RAID array, an attempt to force the failed drives back online and rebuild the configuration is made, whereby damaging or corrupting the data on the array.

* Deleting data. Files, volumes, virtual machines or a SAN LUN is deleted by accident and there is no backup or the backup is old or corrupt.

www.ontrackdatarecovery.co.uk

•Date: 19th Nov 2009• Region: UK/World •Type: Article •Topic: IT continuity
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