Backup Plan

Full backups of shared data, are taken nightly and stored to tape on a daily basis. Multiple copies of production data are stored securely in geographically dispersed locations. Backup recovery is employed on a regular basis as part of regular quality assurance cycles. Current production backups are restored onto identical production hardware that is part of the test environment. This enables Edusoft to ensure the integrity of production backups while testing against production quality data.

Backup Process Automation

All critical customer and application data is located on redundant storage to protect against any single equipment failure causing the loss of data. Important data that must be backed up includes snapshots of every database and an archive of the common files used/modified by the live application. The database backups are taken in full using a transactional database archive utility native to the industry-standard database platform Oracle. These archives are platform independent, which reduces maintenance of the recovery process and increases the longevity of the data.

Schedule
All production data is backed up using an automated backup system. This system runs nightly with minimal impact to system usage. A snapshot of every database and the file system is taken and collected into a single set of backups every night.

Migration Offsite
All production data is stored offsite using Iron Mountains Off-site Vaulting service. This service assures data is always safe and secure. Iron Mountain customizes pickup, delivery, and tape rotation schedules. Backup media is transported in environmentally controlled and secured vehicles to one of Iron Mountain vaults. Specially screened and trained personnel manage the vaults and ensure data is protected from contamination, exposure, and security threats at all times. These vaults feature uninterruptible power supplies, noncombustible construction, gaseous fire protection, and sophisticated access-control security systems. Data backup tapes are stored off-site on a weekly basis. In addition, all production data is migrated to secure storage in the San Francisco office each week, and office data is migrated to production storage after backup, resulting in a redundant set of backups in multiple locations.

Backup Retention
Daily backups are maintained for two months, at which point weekly backups (Saturdays) are maintained for six months. Monthly backups (last Saturday of month) are maintained for two years. Yearly backups (last Saturday of year) are maintained indefinitely.

Backup Storage
Production backups are stored on tape and on production backup servers, which are located in a secure cabinet at the outsourced co-location services facility. A copy of each backup is also duplicated through a secure connection to the San Francisco office for geographically redundant storage. Backup archives are stored at Iron Mountain, and on a secure server in the San Francisco office with restricted physical access.

Recovery Process
The recovery process for application files uses standard extraction utilities. Database archives can be restored using the standard Oracle restore utility. The recovery process is practiced as part of the weekly release process for application testing purposes. This regularly validates the integrity of the backups files and the backup process.