IT Disaster Recovery

At Stanford University, our dedicated IT staff play a pivotal role in ensuring the resilience and continuity of our institution’s mission to excel in teaching, research, and administrative operations through robust disaster recovery planning. This is why Stanford University IT (UIT) launched its Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) program in 2018 under the Business Affairs Initiative, which has since grown into a standardized, operational framework.

CardinalShield IT Disaster Recovery (ITDR) leverages UIT’s well-established DRP program, offering a seasoned, templated approach to crafting comprehensive disaster recovery plans tailored to your unique services and applications. CardialShield, the university’s purpose-built tool, ensures that your system or application infrastructure—whether housed at Stanford or elsewhere—is equipped with a ITDR plan that will be activated in the event of an unforeseen disaster.

A comprehensive ITDR plan provides Stanford University with a strategic advantage in managing risk, protecting data, and preserving institutional integrity. Key benefits include:

• Data Protection: Regular backups and secure storage safeguard critical academic, research, and administrative data against cyberattacks, hardware failures, and natural disasters.
• Minimized Downtime: ITDR plans ensure that detailed restoration procedures are ready in case of outages, allowing for swift recovery during peak academic periods and minimizing disruption to learning and operations.
• Natural Disaster Preparedness: Earthquakes or other events can severely impact infrastructure. Through ITDR planning, vulnerabilities are identified and mitigated with strategies like redundant systems and off-site backups.
• Utility Failure Contingency: Power or cooling failures are addressed through preparedness plans that include backup power solutions and infrastructure resilience.
• Enhanced Cybersecurity: By proactively identifying vulnerabilities, ITDR plans support stronger data protection measures and ensure secure recovery in the event of a cyber incident.
• Improved Recovery Time Objectives (RTO): Clearly defined procedures shorten recovery timelines and prioritize restoring mission-critical services.
• Operational Continuity: ITDR plans ensure that teaching, research, and administrative functions can continue with minimal interruption, even during major IT disruptions.
• Cost Efficiency: Rapid recovery reduces the financial impact of service downtime, prevents data loss, and avoids potential penalties from regulatory non-compliance.
• Stakeholder Confidence: Demonstrating preparedness reinforces trust among students, faculty, staff, and external partners.
• Reputation Protection: A swift and effective response to IT incidents protects Stanford’s reputation, maintaining public trust and institutional credibility.

All services requiring IT infrastructure, either Stanford’s or an external vendor’s, and irrespective of service criticality or number of users, should have a formal Stanford ITDR plan that serves as a key resource in the event of a disaster. CardinalShield ITDR is focused solely on IT systems, services, and applications, data recovery, and restoration of service functionality. Disaster recovery plans include detailed procedures for data backup, system recovery, application reintegration, and key communications.