The Cost of Failure
It is impossible to know in advance the precise cost of a network breakdown. A great deal depends on when the failure happens, to whom, its duration, and how much data is lost. A crash during Christmas can be deadly to a retailer, while one during tax season would be bad news for an accounting firm. The length of time the network is down can add significantly to the cost of a breakdown if you or your customers have contractual or legal performance obligations, a large number of users are high-salaried professionals, or if your revenue is dependent on your network. Perhaps the worst scenario of all is when critical data you thought was safely backed up turns out to be irretrievable. A good rule of thumb is that a catastrophic network failure will cost more than you think.
In case of a major network failure, a sound disaster recovery strategy can make the difference between a glitch in business continuity and a calamity. Progent's IT consultants can help small businesses design and test a sensible disaster recovery plan that incorporates advanced technologies and proven processes to get back on line quickly after a catastrophic network failure while at the same time working within the restrictions of a small-company IT budget.
What Is Involved in Developing a Disaster Recovery Plan?
Disaster recovery planning should address the IT resources needed to maintain business continuity and restore full network functionality with minimal loss of productivity. The plan should anticipate a broad variety of disaster scenarios such as fires, storms, earthquakes, chemical accidents, flooding, loss of key personnel, equipment or system failure, and cyber crime.
You should assess the worst-case impact of each of these disaster scenarios on your network infrastructure and business processes and prioritize the areas that are most critical for you to protect in order to limit business disruption to an acceptable level. For each scenario, you should develop a recovery strategy that addresses your local and remote workers, customers, vendors, facilities, hardware and software, communication services, support contracts, and lead-times for replacing equipment and services and restoring data. Your recovery strategies should include specific action plans, escalation procedures, and data retention and restoration policies. You should also test the plan and train your employees responsible for carrying it out.
Progent's Process for Creating a Business Continuity Plan
Progent has developed an effective and affordable process for helping small business create a viable disaster recovery plan. This process involves seven distinct phases:
Phase 1: Business Impact and Risk Analysis
In this phase, you differentiate between critical and non-critical organization functions. A function is critical if its loss for any significant period of time would result in damage that stakeholders regard as unacceptable. You can't realistically decide that all network functions are critical because you have to consider the probable cost of establishing and maintaining rapid business or technical recovery solutions. You also have to take into account that some functions may be dictated by law. Progent can help you make informed prioritization decisions by assessing the cost and timing issues associated with various recovery strategies.
Once you have identified critical organization functions, you have to establish two values for each function:
Recovery Point Objective (RPO) - the acceptable latency of data that will be recovered
Recovery Time Objective (RTO) - the acceptable amount of time to restore the function
The Recovery Point Objective must ensure that the Maximum Tolerable Data Loss for each activity is not exceeded. The Recovery Time Objective must ensure that the Maximum Tolerable Period of Disruption (MTPD) for each activity is not exceeded.
The Impact and Risk Analysis phase results in the recovery requirements for each critical function. The recovery requirements consist of:
The business requirements for recovery of the critical function
The technical requirements for recovery of the critical function
Phase 2: Recovery Requirement Documentation
After you complete the Business Impact and Risk Analysis phase, the business and technical plan requirements have to be documented before you can move on to the solution design and implementation phases. Progent is experienced in generating this vital documentation quickly and can work with your asset management team, if you have one, to identify available and re-allocatable resources that you can use for disaster recovery.
Phase 3: Solution Design
The goal of the Solution Design phase is to identify the most cost-effective disaster recovery solution that meets the requirements identified in the Business Impact and Risk Analysis stage. For your critical IT applications, this means determining how the minimum application and application data requirements can be restored within the target timeframe. Disaster recovery plans may also have to address areas beyond IT applications. A common example is the requirement to preserve information in hard copy format. Progent's expertise with Microsoft and Cisco technology, business application programming and support skills, experience providing Internet data center consulting and network management services, and extensive background helping small business recover from catastrophic network failures ensure that the solutions Progent proposes take full advantage of advanced technology to keep costs down while maximizing the chances of success.
Key areas defined in the Solution Design phase include:
The crisis management command structure
The location of a secondary work site (where necessary)
Telecommunication architecture between primary and secondary work sites
Data replication methodology between primary and secondary work sites
The application, hardware, and software required at the secondary work site
The type of physical data requirements at the secondary work site.
Phase 4: Implementation
The Implementation phase is the most important part of a business continuity plan and features the execution of the design elements identified in the Solution Design phase. Work package testing may take place during the implementation of the solution. Progent's skills as system integrators come into play in this phase and help minimize the time and cost required to roll out a viable solution.
Phase 5: Testing and Verification of Technical Solutions
Testing and adjusting recovery plans for specific anticipated scenarios is another critical element of a viable disaster recovery program. The complexity of fault-tolerant networks requires rigorous testing to verify that a recovery plan is feasible and that assigned responsibilities are understood. Recovery exercises will show whether backed-up data can be usefully restored, alternative connectivity technology provides adequate performance under realistic loads, fault-tolerant technologies perform failover processes as planned, and IT staff knows what is expected. Testing exercises will help you identify weak points in your recovery plan so that you can make adjustments before disaster strikes. Progent's experience with system design and support ensure that the Testing and Verification phase of a disaster recover plan is thorough and meaningful without being unnecessarily protracted and costly.
Primary areas involved in the Testing and Verification phase of a business continuity plan include:
Application security
Hardware operability check
Application operability/availability check
Data verification
Key questions that are addressed during the Testing and Verification phase of a disaster recovery plan include:
Are all work processes for critical functions documented?
Have the systems used in the execution of critical functions changed?
Are the documented work checklists meaningful and accurate for staff?
Do the documented work process recovery tasks and supporting disaster recovery infrastructure allow staff to recover within the predetermined recovery time objective?
Phase 6: Treatment of Test Failures
In this phase you resolve any issues or concerns that arose during the Testing and Verification phase. Any changes in the solution design that come about during this phase should be reflected in the associated disaster recovery documents. Progent's experience with disaster recovery solution design and implementation help keep test failures at a minimum and speed up remediation, saving clients time and money.
Phase 7: Handover
The handover of a turnkey disaster recovery solution includes three activities:
- The first activity in the Handover phase is to confirm the accuracy and completeness of the information contained in the written manual and the distribution of the documentation to the client's staff. Staff members whose roles are identified as critical for disaster response and recovery are provided training to ensure that they understand what they are expected to do and know how to do it.
- The second activity is testing and verification of technical solutions established for recovery operations.
- The third activity is an all-hands testing and verification of documented organization recovery procedures.
Other High Availability Solutions Provided by Progent's Experts
Progent's Microsoft and Cisco-certified consulting experts can assist your company build an affordable, fault-tolerant IT architecture that addresses critical challenges covering a broad array of networking solutions and operations such as:
Non-stop Internet Access
Progent's Cisco-certified IT consultants can show you how to design an economical, 24x7 Internet connection architecture that can achieve 24x7 Internet connectivity via a broad array of fault tolerant Internet network solutions including high availability BGP, transparent fail-over, and redundant ISPs. Progent can provide Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert consultants to show you how to apply the latest techniques for fault tolerant Internet connectivity to implement an economical, fully redundant Internet network with automatic failover and other capabilities to create zero-downtime Internet connections. For more information, visit Non-stop Internet Connectivity Architecture.
Windows Server 2008 Failover Clustering
The server cluster feature set built into the high-end versions of Windows Server 2008 has been radically redesigned to simplify the installation, configuration, and management of clusters that provide improved levels of system availability, protection, performance, and versatility. New or improved capabilities include cluster validation, revamped setup and deployment, unified cluster management, redesigned cluster architecture for maximum availability, better protection and quorum structure, minimization of failure points, more storage and RAM capacity, and improvements for multi-site clusters. For details, visit Windows Failover Clustering Help.
Microsoft 2003 Cluster Server
Progent provides Microsoft Windows Cluster Server consulting to help your organization utilize non-stop clustered servers designed to provide 100% operation. Windows cluster servers for high-availability systems include Microsoft Windows Cluster Server, Microsoft SQL Cluster, and Exchange Cluster. By showing you how to build non-stop server clustering environments powered by Microsoft Windows Server Cluster 2003, Progent’s certified Windows professionals ensure that your high availability server clusters are set up to optimize the competitive value of your information network. For more information, visit Windows Server Cluster Expertise.
Non-stop Load Balancing
Progent offers fault tolerant load balancing consulting covering network load balancing, load balanced programs, LAN/WAN infrastructure routing, and content dispatching products including Cisco Content Engine. High availability load balancing products for which Progent offers consulting services include Microsoft Windows 2003 and 2008 Server Network Load Balancing Manager, Citrix Metaframe and Presentation Server, Cisco CSS, Cisco Content Engine and ACNS, and F5 Networks BIG-IP. For details, see Fault Tolerant Load Balancing.
Fault Tolerant Data Centers
Progent's Data Center professionals can show you how to select fault-tolerant data centers that meet the specific requirements of your company. Fault tolerant co-location sites are particularly appealing to small businesses due to of their low cost and convenience compared to taking a do-it-yourself approach. Trying to design an on-site data center that offers even a basic level of fault tolerance is financially prohibitive for the majority of small companies. Progent is ready to show you how to reap all the advantages of high-availability colo sites by providing a full range of consulting and maintenance services. For more information, see Non-stop Colocation Expertise.
24x7 Inter-office Connectivity
Progent’s branch office network infrastructure engineers can help small businesses create non-stop interoffice connectivity solutions via redundant system architectures with automatic failover. Progent’s Cisco-certified CCIE network engineers can design and deploy high-availability Inter-office networks based on fault tolerant EIGRP network routers or non-stop OSPF deployment of Cisco routers. Progent can demonstrate how multi-path connectivity and automatic fail-over offers affordable non-stop interoffice networking. For more information, go to Non-stop Inter-office Networking.
System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) Backup and Restore Consulting and Support Services
Progent's certified Data Protection Manager engineers can assist your company to create a practical disaster recovery plan, design a cost-effective zero-downtime IT architecture, deploy a DPM-powered backup and recovery solution, thoroughly test your DPM system, educate your administrative staff or local consultants how to manage DPM, or handle complete information technology outsourcing such as off-site hosting of DPM machines in Progent's secure data center. To learn more, visit Microsoft DPM Consulting.
Why Pick Progent for Business Continuity Planning and Fault-tolerant Networking Consulting?
Because Progent is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and offers professional application support for a wide variety of small business software programs, Progent is able to help clients to arrive at efficient information technology solutions that optimize the productivity of your information system. As a Registered Partner for Cisco Systems, Progent offers the expertise of certified consultants and specialists with expertise in architecting, installing and troubleshooting infrastructure solutions built on Cisco technology. The extent of Progent's IT experience and Progent's sensitivity to the needs of small and midsize companies make Progent a great resource for building and running an affordable, fault-tolerant network.
How You Can Access Progent's Consultants for Business Continuity Planning Support
If you wish to ask Progent about professional assistance for workplace recovery planning, phone 1-800-993-9400 or e-mail fault-tolerant-help@progent.com.
