Method for data disaster recovery assessment and planning

1. A computer implemented method for assessing and planning a change to an existing data disaster recovery (DR) comprising:

providing an application stored in memory and comprising instructions executable by a processor and wherein execution of said instructions by said processor causes said processor to perform operations comprising:

providing a graphical user interface (GUI) comprising first and second windows arranged adjacent to each other and wherein said first window comprises a catalog of components used to generate data disaster recovery (DR) configurations and said second window displays said generated DR configurations;

generating a first DR configuration in said second window, wherein the first DR configuration corresponds to a configuration for a physical DR site;

increasing a capacity of the first DR configuration by adding components to said first DR configuration by dragging and dropping components from said catalog into appropriate locations of said second window, so as to create a first expanded DR configuration;

calculating metrics for said first expanded DR configuration;

reporting and displaying said first expanded DR configuration metrics results in said second window;

generating a second DR configuration, based on the first expanded DR configuration in said second window, wherein the second DR configuration further comprises a backup process;

adding components to said second DR configuration by dragging and dropping components from said catalog into appropriate locations of said second window;

calculating metrics for said second DR configuration;

reporting and displaying said second DR configuration metrics results in said second window;

comparing said first and second DR configuration metrics results in said second window;

selecting an optimal configuration for first expanded DR configuration or second DR configuration based on a hierarchical ranking of one or more metrics.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1 wherein said components comprise at least one of sites, arrays, workloads and processes.

3. A computer implemented method for assessing and planning a change to an existing data disaster recovery (DR) comprising:

providing an application stored in memory and comprising instructions executable by a processor and wherein execution of said instructions by said processor causes said processor to perform operations comprising:

providing a graphical user interface (GUI) comprising first and second windows arranged adjacent to each other and wherein said first window comprises a catalog of components used to generate data disaster recovery (DR) configurations and said second window displays said generated DR configurations;

generating a first DR configuration in said second window, wherein the first DR configuration corresponds to a configuration for a physical DR site;

adding components to said first DR configuration by dragging and dropping components from said catalog into appropriate locations of said second window, so as to create a first expanded DR site;

calculating metrics for said first expanded DR configuration; and

reporting and displaying said first expanded DR configuration metrics results in said second window,

wherein said metrics comprise one of capital expenses, annual operating expenses, time to recovery, expected annual cost of downtime, expected annual cost of data loss, data reliability and uptime, and wherein said method is performed as part of data storage system data recovery processing.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 1 wherein said metrics results are presented as graphics or text.

5. A system for assessing and planning data disaster recovery (DR) for an entity comprising:

a processor;

memory coupled to the processor;

an application stored in said memory and comprising instructions executed by said processor, and wherein said instructions comprise:

instructions for providing a graphical user interface comprising fust and second windows arranged adjacent to each other and wherein said first window comprises a catalog of components used to generate data disaster recovery (DR) configurations and said second window displays configurations;

said generated DR instructions for generating a first DR configuration in said second window, wherein the first DR configuration site corresponds to a configuration for a physical DR site;

instructions for increasing a capacity of the first DR configuration by adding components to said first DR configuration by dragging and dropping components from said catalog into appropriate locations of said second window, so as to create an expanded first DR configuration;

instructions for calculating metrics for said first expanded DR configuration;

instructions for reporting and displaying said first expanded DR configuration metrics results in said second window;

instructions for generating a second DR configuration, based on the first expanded DR configuration in said second window, wherein the second DR configuration further comprises a backup process;

instructions for adding components to said second DR configuration by dragging and dropping components from said catalog into appropriate locations of said second window;

instructions for calculating metrics for said second DR configuration;

instructions for reporting and displaying said second DR configuration metrics results in said second window;

instructions for comparing said first and second DR configuration metrics results in said second window, and wherein said instructions are executed as part of data storage system data recovery processing; and

instructions for selecting an optimal configuration for first expanded DR configuration or second DR configuration based on a hierarchical ranking of one or more metrics.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein said components comprise at least one of sites, arrays, workloads and processes.

7. The system of claim 5 wherein said metrics comprise one of capital expenses, annual operating expenses, time to recovery, expected annual cost of downtime, expected annual cost of data loss, data reliability and uptime.

8. The system of claim 5 wherein said metrics results are presented as graphics or text.

9. The computer implemented method of claim 4 wherein each of said sites comprises configurable parameters for name, address, description, purchase cost, operating cost, average unscheduled downtime per year, disaster frequency, mean time between major disasters, and network reliability.

10. The computer implemented method of claim 4 wherein each of said arrays comprises configurable parameters for name, purchase cost, operating cost, volumes, capacity, storage type, ratings and processes.

11. The computer implemented method of claim 4 wherein each of said workloads comprises configurable parameters for name, restart time, recovery time, update rate, data value, volumes, cost of downtime, and processes.

12. The computer implemented method of claim 4 wherein each of said processes comprises configurable parameters for name, data backup type, data backup frequency, operating cost, purchase cost, buffer size, mirror type, space efficiency and data backup policies.

13. The computer implemented method of claim 12 further comprising adding a new a component to said catalog by transferring a component configured in any of said DR configurations from said second window to said first window.