Key Considerations for Disaster Recovery

A P R E C I S I O N S O L U T I O N S G R O U P W E B I N A R

Key Considerations for Disaster RecoveryFinding the Right Solution For Your Enterprise

Key Considerations for Disaster Recovery

Presenters• Larry Dube – President – PSGi – One of 3 founders of PSGi which has been providing

software and managed services for Manufacturers and distributors for 13 years.

– 28 years of experience with the Poweri platform and its predecessors

– 29 years of overall experience helping manufacturers and distributors receive the highest ROI with their ERP solutions


Presenters• John Hamel – Principal – TurningPoint Systems– A seasoned technology executive with 25 years of

experience – As the Principal of the Infrastructure division, John oversees

and manages all aspects of the infrastructure division including sales services, and product solutions for Turning Point Systems.

– Prior to joining Turning Point Systems John has a long history of sales success including sales and sales management positions with IBM and Technology Solution Providers.


Agenda• DR overview • Assessing your business requirements • DR testing • DR Solution Strategies • Q+A


Disaster Recovery Preparedness Council 2014 Survey

• 73 percent of the respondents are failing to take adequate steps to protect their assets.

• 63 percent of the respondents said their disaster recovery budgets are not enough, or worse, underfunded

• Those with adequate funding, the disaster recovery plans that have been established remain untested.

• Of those that do test their plans, it's an annual test, and they'll often fail their own tests.

– CSO Online, May 5, 2014


DR Challenges

• blog.net-essence.co.uk


Examples• NHS: a computer meltdown at Scotland’s biggest

health board caused this autumn led to 500 operations and appointments being postponed. A major IT glitch with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s servers meant doctors and nurses were unable to access vital patient information. Luckily no patient lives were endangered during the system failure.


DR Overview


DR Overview


DR Overview • Disaster Recovery – A set of policies and procedures that will enable your

company to continually do business in the face of a disruption in your IT infrastructure that supports your primary business systems.


DR Overview • Business disruptions often are not the result of

disasters– Air conditioner leaks – Mold– Anything that prevents access to your business system

• True Disasters – Fire – Power outage – Natural disaster


DR Overview • DR Policies – …. Allow your company to continually do business

• This could mean policies and processes that are manual• This could mean technical solutions • This definitely means a coordinated effort between the business

and IT• This definitely means a complete plan that is tested across affected

organizations


DR Overview • Downstream Affect– Have you considered the downstream affect of an outage.

• You may have decided that you can work around a 24 to 48 hour outage but if data is not being delivered to your supply chain what happens at those other locations

• We are so interconnected now, we need to consider DR in a wider playing field– Perhaps there are questions you should be asking of your key

suppliers


Business Requirements


Top Down Design• Determining those tier one business processes– Essential processes that allow you to do business – Interdependencies for those processes (people and

functions)– What applications support those functions– Can any of the work be done manually– How long can it be done manually

• Build your recovery time definition


Assessing Your Business Requirements • Tolerance for downtime– Companies often believe they’ll be able to last a day, two

days, three days… but rarely have they tested those assumptions. In almost every case, their true tolerance for downtime is very little.• Have your assumptions been tested • Have business stake holders agreed to the down time • Have you looked at downtime by application


Assessing Your Business Requirements • The cost of downtime – A less efficient workforce – Can you truly accomplish time sensitive tasks necessary to

do business – Do you have a method of accounting for all transactions

• After operating for years without testing your manual processes you may be surprised at what you cannot do


Assessing Your Business Requirements • Email

– 2 hours – You must be able to communicate– Tier 1

• Customer delivery facing apps – 2 hours – You must not lose revenue– Tier 1

• Master Data Maintenance – 24 hours – No real impact to customers unless a new product is introduced– Tier 2 – may not need to have immediate access and the business will continue

• HR – 48 hours – important to employees but the business will continue– Tier 3

•


DR Testing


DR Testing• Is your test plan sufficient– Business processes are increasingly relying on connectivity

to outside systems, and there is more dependency on interfaces and integrations.• Windows servers in data centers, cloud-based systems, banking

systems, freight company systems, etc.– DR Testing Playbook

• Do you have a documented playbook to execute the DR plan • Does it cover the IT infrastructure and business processes• When was it validated


DR Testing• Test Tier 1– Too often only the core systems are tested – Too often only a cursory test is done to ensure the system

is simply up and running

– Questions to ask: • Simulate a day’s activity • Do the applications interfaced and integrated to your core

applications function properly


DR Testing• Most tests focus on the systems and if they will

operate when they are back up and running • Test the processes that are needed while the systems

are down– “Test” people and processes, too

• What processes will you use to get back up to speed?• How will affected employees manage their workflows during and

after downtime?• Where will they get their information

– Is it stored on a server that may be down.


DR Strategies


DR Strategies• Let business requirements drive the solution• There are many solutions for you to choose from

– Only your business tolerances can guide what will work for you. – Tape– Evault– Replication– ….

• Any solution can work as long as it matches your business expectations– But does your current plan match your business expectations


Top Down Design• Determining those tier one business processes– Essential processes that allow you to do business – Interdependencies for those processes (people and

functions)– What applications support those functions– Can any of the work be done manually– How long can it be done manually

• Build your recovery time definition


DR Strategies• DIY

– Where is your DR location • What systems are included • What communication capabilities are included • How fast can that location be made available to you • Can you get people there quickly

– What media are you using • What is the process to get full backups to your location and reloaded

– What processes do you have to make up the gap during down time


DR Strategies• Hybrid – DIY with help – If a 3rd party datacenter is used to your DR location

• What processes are necessary for your DR location to communicate with your ancillary systems

• How long will it take to get those communications up and running– Do you use full replication to your own datacenter

• What is the cost of maintaining those environments – Have you consider application license issues


DR Strategies• DIY– Pros

• Total control– Cons

• Internal staff time and cost • Overall cost of hosting your own solution now is more in most

cases


DR Strategies • What about the cloud– No need for large cash outlays for equipment – You do not need to worry about the IT infrastructure

• Only your business requirements – Available servers to recover to – to – fully replicated

environments – Ready-to-go communication to your locations– Faster testing times – Fewer personnel requirements


DR Strategies• Outsourced DR

– Range of possibilities• Backing up your data to the cloud• Off-site as needed • Fully replicated image of your operating environment

– Some similar concerns • Can you access your ancillary systems • How long will it take to make that happen • If you are not replicated – how long will it take to get the system up and

running – Typically your personnel are not needed.

• Verify your application licensing


DR Solutions • Backing up your data to the cloud– Be aware of back up recovery sets – Does the solution provide technology that can truly

provide fast restores – What is the solutions own back up processes – What guarantees can you get on our restore times – Are there people available to help design our back up

process for the fastest saves and fastest restores.


DR Strategies • With a reputable DRaaS provider you get:

– A proven solution for DR • You can rely on the systems being available • You can rely on processes that are tested • You know that other companies are successful using the same

methods – Your personnel are not tied up doing DR work and can focus

on strategic business items– Reduced concern over any level of disaster – Working with a team that has done it before– Overall cost can be less than a DIY solution


DR Strategies • Ask some questions – its not all sunshine and roses:– Is your data securely transferred to the cloud– Are users authenticated and does your provider offer two

level authentication if needed – Does your provider meet regulatory requirements – Do you have the bandwidth to transfer data appropriately

to the cloud – Do you have the bandwidth to handle your user base if

they need to access systems in the cloud.


DR Strategies• We find few people truly understand the business

tolerance for downtime• We find very few companies fully test their DR

solution• We find business processed during down time have

not been considered or not tested • We find businesses overcomplicate their DR plan by

trying to do too much with too little.


DR Strategies• Overall, most companies don’t have the human

resources, time or capital to manage a truly viable DR plan


Business Continuity Services Cloud-Based Disaster Recovery Solutions for IBM Power I Environments

TurningPoint Systems offers a customized, complete, best-of-class, turn-key, cloud-based business continuity solution that will meet your Recovery Time (RTO) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPO), and your budget.

Economical, Turn-key IT Recovery Solution— No hardware to buy, no software to install, no new systems to learn. Your staff works on your business’ core needs, while our specialized staff assures the continuity of your critical business functions.


Questions

?


Contacts

Larry DubePresidentPrecision Solutions Group, Inc.(877) 677-5776 Ext [email protected]

John HamelPrincipal

TurningPoint Systems(978) 373-8773

[email protected]

Date post:	13-Apr-2017
Category:	Business
Upload:	david-kravitt
View:	99 times
Download:	0 times