You insure your car, your house, even your pet. These measures are taken to protect your valuables from disaster. With data, not only do you have to have it insured (backed up using tapes, hard drives, cloud servers, etc), but you also need to have a Disaster Recovery (DR) plan in place that has been tested for reliability to assist your organization should a disaster occur.
What would it be like if your ecommerce organization’s website crashed for four days? Sounds horrifying right? Well, recently American Eagle® Outfitters experienced a system failure that lasted an unprecedented four days (followed by an additional four days of technical glitches).
An article from CIO Magazine recounted that American Eagle’s website went down when “atypical and concurrent failures [occurred] with IBM’s hosting servers and back up plans as well as with Oracle’s Data Guard utility program.” I’m not saying that websites don’t have their occasional hiccups, but four days is a massive detriment for a company whose ecommerce site is a large part of their business model.
The article quoted Brian Walker, a Forrester Research principal analyst urging other organizations to look at American Eagle as an example. “Get your responsibilities, processes and systems together now, test them, and correct as needed. Having a clear plan in and of itself will pay huge dividends in the event something happens.”
Senior Help Desk Associate at NSK Inc, Alex Straffin echoes the same sentiments. “Any type of Disaster Recovery plan needs to be tested in every way possible BEFORE the disaster actually occurs.” Many clients utilize NSK’s Backup and Disaster Recovery (BDR) solution that is managed by NSK. “We virtualize all of those clients’ servers off-hours for assurance as part of our ongoing BDR model,” says Straffin.
Straffin also notes:
DR plans are becoming more necessary as electronic business and ecommerce continue to expand. This is especially important if your site does not have any failover or redundant server configurations, and you are running high dollar, enterprise level ecommerce websites. A good DR plan will also include periodic verifications to assure that over time, your overall disaster recovery plan remains valid and ready to be put into action if needed.
The Bottom Line
As they say in the Scouts “Always Be Prepared.” Have a DR plan in place, that has been thoroughly tested, so should a disaster strike (knock on wood), you will know exactly what to do to reduce or eliminate downtime.
The Hype of the Cloud
2009 could be called "The Year of the Cloud." The information technology sector has been buzzing with terminology such as "cloud computing" and "virtualization". So what is all the hype about? In order to see why cloud computing has taken the technology world by storm (pun intended); we need to know what it is, how it works, and why it can be beneficial.
What is Cloud Computing?
"Cloud Computing" isn't a technology, but rather a model of computing.[1]A cloud consists of servers, networks, and applications that are available to end users via a network (usually the Internet). So anytime "cloud" is mentioned, it is referring to hardware, software, or services that are accessible from virtually anywhere, with a simple network connection.
"Virtualization" is usually in reference to server virtualization where one physical server actually hosts several virtual servers. In cloud computing, one stand alone server can make an entire data-center complete with servers, networking devices, systems management, storage, and security, look like a single computer. This lets companies buy exactly the amount of storage and security they need.[2]
Public Cloud
Public clouds are offered as a service, usually over an Internet connection. An off-site third party provider hosts and manages the system. Users connect to the system via web applications or services. Public clouds usually charge a monthly usage fee per gigabyte and bandwidth transfer charges.[3] The service is on-demand and users can add or subtract the amount of storage in their cloud simply by contacting the host provider.
Private Cloud
Private clouds are built from software that runs on a piece of hardware at the organization. The difference from a public cloud is that this system is controlled by the organization. The benefits of this system are that a private cloud, although an investment due to the fact hardware is required, costs considerably less than traditional data management systems. Deployments of a private cloud are easier as they are software based, and the system is more secure as the system is within the organization's firewall and managed locally.
Why Go Virtual
There are a multitude of factors as to why a company would want to become virtualized. The most common reason why businesses adapt the cloud model is efficiency. Cloud computing drastically reduces the amount of time, money, and maintenance needed to operate a traditional data management system. With traditional systems; a company has to buy equipment; dedicate space within the office, while providing specific power and cooling needs to house the hardware; and hire administrators to install, secure, and maintain the data system. [4]
The cloud computing model helps to maximize efficiency and minimize cost.
[1] Fogarty, Kevin. "Cloud Computing Definitions and Solutions." CIO 10 Sep. 2009:Web. 27 Feb 2010. <http://www.cio.com/article/501814/Cloud_Computing_Definitions_and_Solutions>.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Maxey, Mike. "Cloud Computing Public or Private? How to Choose Cloud Storage."Cloud Computing Journal (2009): Web. 2 Mar 2010. <http://cloudcomputing.sys-con.com/node/707840>.
[4] "Seeding the Clouds: Key Infrastructure Elements for Cloud Computing." IBM. Feb.2009. IBM Corporation. 26 Feb. 2010. <http://www-935.ibm.com/services/in/cio/pdf/oiw03022usen.pdf>.
Modern Business Information and Applications
"Gone are the days, when software developers locked their
customers into closed, proprietary packages and ransomed
updates and fixes. We’re focused on delivering applications
which stimulate cost-effective software systems expansion in
our clients’ business processes."
Applications can co-exist with modern business information and data such as RSS feeds, document repositories, email and wiki messaging systems. Application organization and integration with standard office tools is again, a matter of web page editing. Applications can easily be converted to web services for delivery of information to alternate devices and locations.
Internet “web mashups” can be easily inserted into web-based applications, so that users have access to familiar and required tools such as Google, trip-mapping, street-level mapping and GPS, flight informations, stock quotes, and the list goes on. Dialing and telephone software can easily be integrated into web applications, to automatically highlight phone numbers for dialing, and to make free or inexpensive calls over VOIP internet.
We could wrap it up, but wait, there’s more. Web services or purchased databases can be used to auto-complete addresses, check and replace shipping addresses, provide geographical distance searches on contact data, perform real-time stock, credit or D&B retrievals, and even data-mine for free-text phrases on the web. All by editing web pages, rather than loading the source of a compiled Windows application into a professional developer’s editor, making careful changes to forms, and then re-distributing the modified application back to every user’s machine. I think we are communicating the difference.
There’s one thing to remember, here. When talking about open architectures which share data and manipulation-tools between your purchased business applications—it’s not just the 3 or 7 or 12 or 42 applications you have installed in your office. It’s thousands, all moving at the speed of business. Who knows what valuable product or service is going to hit the market for your business, tomorrow?
Now, we can say it: A best decision would be: Use appropriate languages to develop for your server base (Microsoft or Linux) and develop for the web. Integrate your applications with your corporate intranet and public web site, where appropriate.
At NSK, we’re excited about all these technologies. Sometimes, we’re a bit intimidated (we’d be crazy if we weren’t), but we’re very good at rising to the challenge of our fast-changing landscape and exceeding expectations for the quality and performance of our delivered products.
Written by Keith Mitchell, Senior Developer at NSK Inc
Wh
at would happen if your data was lost or you lost internet for the day? If a hurricane hit and your information was gone, would you be able to continue performing your everyday business tasks? If not, how long would it take to recover your business? These questions are overwhelming, but important to ask yourself when it comes to threats to your business.
Whether you are the CEO or the CIO of your company, it is important to acknowledge the value of having an established business continuity plan. It is difficult to believe that something drastic enough to disrupt your everyday business activities could take place, but it is often when we assume things could never happen to us that they do.
Many U.S. companies encounter computer system failures annually. A lot these failures last for over a day, which can significantly affect profit and customer relationship management (CRM). Also, it has been found that many businesses do not have a plan in place in case a disaster was to occur. That being said, there could be an even greater impact if disaster struck because many businesses depend on each other to operate efficiently and profitably. The potential domino effect that businesses would experience in the worst case scenario would be devastating.
On a lighter note, let’s just say that your email server was down for a day for whatever the reason may be. You might say, “But we could use the phone.” That is true, but consider how heavily businesses depend on databases, and rightfully so. Using them is easier and faster than going through a Rolodex of contacts, and they organize every piece of information regarding a single contact. You are going to want to make sure you have a plan in place and also seek help from IT professionals or an IT team in order to lessen the impact of disruption.
Assessing how vulnerable you are to being impacted by disaster or data loss is an important step in planning for business continuity. Here are a couple of questions that may make you think about how important a continuity plan is to your specific business:
-What activities are most important to your business?
-Can you survive without them or do you have an alternative?
-How much of your business’ productivity depends on computers/databases/internet?
Chances are that you feel concerned if you have not already established a plan, which isn’t surprising since most of America’s businesses rely on computers. Here are some steps you can take to make sure you are prepared in the case of disruption:
In your company, who plays a crucial role in everyday business? If a certain person in your company was to no longer be there, would you have a backup?) Include solutions in your plan. Identify places for equipment rental and back-up supplies
Implement off-site data backup or seek IT support and IT consulting.
Map out an alternate location where would you move offices to temporarily if needed?)
Have this plan set in stone
Additionally, you need to be sure every employee is informed of the plan, so it would be a good idea to conduct information sessions or send out newsletters regarding the business continuity plan.
Written by Melissa Cocks
NSK Inc.
75 Kneeland St.
Suite 201
Boston, MA 02111