How can I tell if I have a critical server?

• Large number of users (i.e., hundreds of users)
• Stores legally protected information (e.g., grades, Social Security number)
• High Availability/maximum uptime (e.g., 7 x 24 availability, little downtime tolerated)
• Financial impact due to downtime (i.e., thousands of dollars)
• Downtime impacts reputation of the University
• Difficult to resume operation if data is lost or corrupted (e.g., many coordination and synchronization issues)
• Backup and retention (e.g., daily backup with retention greater than 1 year)

Examples of critical servers:

• Enterprise level services that are used by all campuses or significant to one or more campuses
• Servers storing significant amount of legally protected data
• Availability is critical or important
• Designated credit card processing servers
• Important collegiate and department servers
• Servers on disaster recovery plans

Scoring: One factor=maybe; two factors=probably; three factors=certainly

For more information on identifying and reporting critical servers, see http://www.umn.edu /oit/security/criticalserv.html