During our review, we attempted to reconcile the Colorado Springs Utilities detailed listings of media stored offsite with the detailed listings of media provided by the offsite storage vendor. We noted two errors out of small sample and suspended further testing. Although the listings were dated, they appeared to have been created at or about the same time. It did not appear to us that Colorado Springs Utilities had done a periodic reconciliation of this information. If backup media presumed be stored offsite is not actually available, recovery of applications and data may not be accomplished in the event of an outage.
we recommend that Colorado Springs Utilities periodically reconcile the offsite vendor's inventory of media stored at the vendor's offsite facility with the inventory of media Colorado Springs Utilities track as being stored offsite. Any differences should be investigated, reported and corrected.
Colorado Springs Utilities agrees with this recommendation. A procedure will be developed and implemented for periodic reconciliation of the offsite vendor's inventory of media stored at the vendor's offsite facility with the inventory of media Colorado Springs Utilities tracks as being stored offsite by March 31, 2013. The reconciliation process will occur quarterly, and will be integrated into Colorado Springs Utilities' Enterprise Backup Procedures policy, QBD CCS-11058