Hello to the HDDGuru forums community. The question I'd like to pose to this forum is "what is the scope of building DR capability within a company?"

More specifically, what would the scope of training be to take a professional systems administrator and get them the training and equipment to perform DR operations?

Another option would be to hire someone with the requisite experience, but for now we don't have sufficient current demand. Using larger professional firms is obviously availble, but I'd rather not fund their profit margins as much. That, and we're in the storage field so there are likely a few "tricks" we can play that will assist us with data recovery.

I've looked at the product offering and training from Salvationdata, but there are no prices. Reviews on this forum appear mixed on thier offerings.

We have plenty of space, ESD benches, and have local use and availability of clean room facilities.

I'm located in Silicon Valley, California.

Thanks in advance for any advise,

JW

Your money and time would be better spent implementing
a backup plan with redundancy and avoid the need for DR.
DR firms exist for no other reason than businesses and ppl
don't do proper backups.

Agreed. This would be like trying to learn to be a doctor/surgeon instead of taking proper workplace safety precautions.

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You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.

There are several components to a data recovery company.

1. Tools. I think BlackST posted a list in the past. PC3000 UDMA + DE = $15000, PC3000 SCSI (if you are working with SCSI RAIDs where more than one drive failed) + DE = $15000, microscope, oscilloscope, clean room equipment, imaging equipment, rework stations - it adds up...I have to buy it in pieces as we are getting more and more clients.
2. Parts. You need to stock PCBs, donor drives, and lots of them. This only comes from high volume of work. You also need to know parts compatibility and that information, while available, is scarce and very distributed.
3. Staff. You need someone with both EE and CS background who can understand various file systems. Ability to program embedded systems is a plus. That person should ideally have ability to read research in Russian and Chinese. Can you hire someone who is an equivalent of a multilingual neurosurgeon for less than 6 figures for that role? I doubt it.
4. Training and R&D. It never ever ends. You'll spend several thousand dollars on training and airfare alone, which will get you basics. Then you have to keep up with all the research as manufacturers continually make our lives more complicated. This is quite literally a "black art" that relies heavily on reverse engineering. Vendors eventually integrate solutions into their tools, but there is often a period of exclusivity when only a few people in the world can solve the problem. That, my friend, is what you are paying for when you refer to our rates. As you know, in every IT company a ton of unbillable time is spent on R&D and training. What happens when your staff realizes he can quit and compete with you for a lot more money?

I didn't even mention marketing.

In summary, unless you think you will do more than let's say $120,000 worth of work per year, it may not be the best suggestion to setup an internal data recovery company. My recommendation would be for you to concentrate on your core business and let us concentrate on ours.

We are in Silicon Valley, so let's chat sometime. I think you'll like our proposal. We offer not just data recovery, but also post-recovery data reintegration (Exchange, domain controllers, SQL, Linux stuff etc). You can consider this posting biased, but it's the truth.

It depends.... how much will you pay me for example ? Everyone and everything has a price .

!Thats what i like it DR Field

Hi jw408,

Setting up a Internal DR Team for an organisation would be only advisible if at all there is high volume of DR cases.

Unfortunately There is no one who would give you proper DR training infact it is not practically possible as one need to know bit history of HDDs and be upto date with HDD technologies.

Purchasing specialized devices/softwares like : PC3000 , salvation will not make you a immediate DR master,to use them you need indepth knowledge of HDDs and filesystems.

These are not simple click and install apps.

You need to spend lot of time...sleepless nights... repairing/doing DR .... then only you can gain the knowledge.

Unless there is enough DR requirement in your organisation, I suggest you take the help of Profession DR companies or indivisuals.


Cheers,

I have an opposite point of view : IF they know exactly what are their assets (i.e. brands and models of the drives owned and so on) they MAY have an internal department for in-house repair. In big and very large organisations they have a disaster recovery unit and at least the bigger part of the tools needed for first diagnose and attempt to solve the issue. It's not a bad idea. You can have either a full-time worker or a priority call on-demand contract with an external.
They don't have to train nobody and they have a binding relationship with the person in charge. Maybe they only have to buy the necessary equipment. It's a modified outsourcing. As an expert, sometimes other firms / laboratories ask me to go and solve an issue or do a job, I go, I use their premises and/or I take the necessary proprietary equipment, I do the job, I make an invoice/bill and I get paid. Everyone's happy. (NOTE : there are situations where data or equipment CANNOT be moved and/or there are security/confidentiality issues)

The "scope" is that as more and more people release information to the net, this industry should expect more posts like this. Average pc users to IT people opening up recovery shops, lowering the quality, lowering the chances for real professionals, and taking money away from you as well. Count me out of it. Pretty soon data recovery will be a community college class. Certain discussions should take place behind closed doors.

_________________
Buy your friends Toshiba\Hitachi and your enemies Seagate.

JW,

DR is not a trade that your Systems Admin is going to be able to pickup in a few weeks or a few months. It's not like learning new server technology where plenty of books and courses are available. DR is pretty much a full time gig with a long learning curve; which frankly not every systems admin or IT professional has the time, skill and talent to learn. There is a reason why there are only few DR companies in comparisson to IT Service firms.

Nevertheless, if they need to build their in house dept., having the $ and needing training, why not? If they want to spend thousand hundreds $, why not? For me it's a job to do. Jw, if interested pm me.