White Paper - e-Continuity: The New Imperative

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White Paper

e-Continuity:

The New Imperative

With users now expecting round-the-clock access

to business processes, organizations must make an

enterprise commitment to business and IT continuity.

Executive summary

In today’s global economy — where

online transactions are completed in

seconds, e-mail messages are delivered

in minutes, and the business day never

ends — technology users are coming

to expect 24 x 365 access to virtually all

IT-based business processes.When disap-

pointed by a service interruption or an IT

outage, users can be harshly unforgiving.

Despite this reality, many organizations

maintain an outdated approach to

business continuity.While blithely

promising the world 24 x 365 service,

they rely on reactive strategies that only

provide for the recovery of business-

critical processes and underlying IT

assets after a service interruption

occurs. As a result, they put themselves

at tremendous risk of revenue loss,

decreased profitability, brand erosion,

legal liability, and other costs that can

arise from service interruptions.

To ensure true continuity for core busi-

ness operations, organizations need to

take a more pervasive and proactive

approach to continuity planning and

implementation. Commitment to

continuity must be ingrained at

every level of the organization and

be reflected in the IT infrastructure

and operations.

Planning efforts need to anticipate

the significant changes — such as the

growth of SANs, wireless commerce,

and ASPs — that will continually

reshape the IT environment during

the next three to five years.

Faced with these challenges, enter-

prises should consider engaging a

trusted advisor who can help them

respond successfully to the new busi-

ness imperative:“Be online, all the

time, and everywhere!”

International Data Corporation, Continuity Services: New Rules, New Opportunities, February 2000.

Summary of content (8 pages)

PAGE 1
White Paper e-Continuity: The New Imperative With users now expecting round-the-clock access to business processes, organizations must make an enterprise commitment to business and IT continuity. Executive summary In today’s global economy — where online transactions are completed in seconds, e-mail messages are delivered in minutes, and the business day never ends — technology users are coming to expect 24 x 365 access to virtually all IT-based business processes.
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Yesterday Today ASP SSP Company I. Trends and drivers that impact continuity Company ISP Powerful forces have transformed the business landscape during the last five years. These include globalization of the economy, deregulation of key industries, wide adoption of Internet technology, and the accelerating pace of change. Taken together, these developments have profound implications for business continuity. Customer Customer SC Customer Customer Figure 1.
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> Costly emergency measures to restore normal operations including emergency infrastructure repairs and contracting for use of temporary infrastructure Subsequent costs may include rapid loss of share value, steep regulatory penalties, and legal liability as customers or business partners seek compensation for their losses. Intangible costs, such as brand erosion, can be equally devastating.
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’80s ’90s ’00s Business Focus Traditional Dot.com e-Business Requirements Restore, Recover High Availability 24 x 7, Scalable Driven by Regulation e-Commerce Competition Magnified by Disaster Absence of “Bricks & Mortar” Dependence on Computers Recovery Expectation Hardware Hardware, Data Hardware, Data, Applications Days/Hours Minutes/Seconds Minutes/Seconds Decision Optional II. The evolution of business continuity Mandatory Figure 2.
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24 x 7 e-Business Process/Application Continuation: External Continuity Process/Application Continuation: Internal Operational Recovery > Fibre channel technology, which makes it possible to rapidly transmit large volumes of data over distances Recovery > Disaster-tolerant clustering, which uses redundant infrastructure in geographically dispersed locations to greatly reduce the risk and duration of any potential service outage Protection > Zero latency solutions that make enterprise data instantaneous
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Dimensions of Disaster Tolerance Data Transaction Event Application Time Recovery Point > Requirements for data availability, integrity, and security Customer > Desired recovery point for a transaction/ interaction, following a service interruption Figure 4. Determining “acceptable loss” for an online greeting card company To prioritize investments, an organization first needs to define the acceptable level of loss for each of its business-critical applications.
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continuity and recovery. Strategies must address country-specific factors such as the extent and reliability of the infrastructure, the prevalence of cross-border remote hosting and network management arrangements, cultural differences that affect a user’s tolerance for service interruptions, and the level of effort and expense required to remedy customer dissatisfaction.
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Appendix A: Glossary Alternate site: A location, other than the normal facility, used to process data and/or conduct critical business functions in the event of a disaster. Electronic vaulting: Transfer of data to an offsite storage facility via a communication link rather than via portable media. Typically used for batch/ journaled updates to critical files to supplement full backups taken periodically.