Business Drivers That Mandate:

High Availability

• High availability gives you:– The protection of critical IT resources to provide reliable and

predictable access to business-critical applications

• High availability helps prevent:– Loss of income– Loss of customers– Contract penalties– Litigation– Civil penalties

Source: IT Performance Engineering & Measurement Strategies: Quantifying Performance Loss, Meta Group, October 2000.

• Continuity: Operating conditions/issues that create need for 24x7 access to applications and information

• Compliance: Issues that mandate or provide guidelines for application and information availability and information protection

• Consolidation: Issues that pressure organizations to consolidate IT infrastructure

In today’s world uptime is mandatory….• Issues Mandating Uptime

– Continuity issues:• 24x7 Global Economy• Supply Chain Integration• Web retailing and services• Batch processing (daily, monthly,

weekly, quarterly)

– Compliance issues strongly suggests the preservation of data and data on demand:

• GLB, SOX, HIPAA, SEC• SLAs are now standard

– Consolidation of servers and applications

• Net effect of any server outage is greatly amplified

• Consequences of downtime

– Company:• Revenue loss• Failed audits• Government penalties• Customers are alienated• Liability from civil action• Supply chain failures• Infrastructure failure

– Investors:• Share price drops• Class action lawsuits

– Customer:• May switch brands• May seek compensation for unfulfilled

orders• Could bring action based on SLAs

Threats to Uptime

Planet Earth: Storm/Bill Hezlep © 1982 Time-Life Books, Inc.

Power Failure of August 2003

Infrastructure

Weather

Terror Incidents Since 9/11/2001

Terrorism

7 Day Earthquake Activity October 2005

Tectonic

• Hardware reliability– MTBF

• Software design– Errors in coding

• Planned downtime– HW maintenance– Patch management– Security updates

A Sampling of Continuity Drivers by Market

• Banking: Seconds matter1. Protecting stocks and securities trading,

both retail and institutional.2. Inter-bank fund transferring3. General banking system, including internet

banking4. Credit settlement5. Treasury6. Client information systems

HSBC Discussion

• Manufacturing:1. Shop floor/assembly line control

2. Inventory management

3. Trading partner exchanges

4. Electronic data interchange

Compliance and High Availability

Section 409

Section 404

Sarbanes Oxley

•Safeguard customer data from destruction

•Provide data availability for timely reporting•Develop adequate controls

•Ensure patient information is available on demand•Protect patient information from destruction

Gramm Leach Bliley

Service level agreement

•Ensure availability to avoid contract violationsSLA

IncomeStatement

BalanceSheet

Statement of Change of Financial

Position

Critical Financial Statements: Accurate, Reliable, Available

Business Processes

Financial Applications

IT Infrastructure:Database, OS, System

A look at: Sarbanes Oxley and HA

•Provide data availability for timely reporting•Develop adequate controlsto protect financial data

HA Protects Critical Data &Applications to Ensure theOrganization Can:

Beware of “Other” Compliance Issues• Industry specific• Example: SEC Rule 19b-4

– Applicable to ‘trading members’ of NYSE and NASD– States: – “…(a) Members and member organizations must develop and maintain a written

business continuity and contingency plan establishing procedures to be followed in the event of an emergency or significant business disruption….”

– “….(d) The term "mission critical system," for purposes of this Rule, means any system that is necessary, depending on the nature of a member's or member organization's business, to ensure prompt and accurate processing of securities transactions, including order taking, entry, execution, comparison, allocation, clearance and settlement of securities transactions, the maintenance of customer accounts, access to customer accounts and the delivery of funds and securities. ..”

– While the rule does not specifically state high availability, best practices would require its use for mission critical applications

Consolidation Amplifies the Need for High Availability

• Competitive Pressure– Operating Costs– TCO– BPO

• Mergers and Acquisitions• Security

– Reduce access points– Management of vulnerabilities

• Audit/Compliance

• Less means more…..risk• As application servers combine, the net affect of outages is amplified

Potential Impact of Single Server Outage

Impact to Servicesand/or Operations

Server Count

Summary of Continuity Issues

ConsolidationContinuity Compliance

• Competitive Pressures

• M&A• Security• Audit/Compliance

• 24x7 Global Economy

• Supply Chain Integration

• Web retailing and services

• Batch processing (daily, monthly, weekly, quarterly)

• US legislation• EMEA legislation• Industry Regulations• SLAs

• Control risks:– Limit outages of services

and production– Survival of catastrophic

events– Reduced risk of

consolidation projects

• Reduce liabilities– Reduce liability of

compliance– Reduce liability of SLAs

• Enterprise resiliency

• Predictable operations

Key Considerations for HA

10 Tips for HA Planning• Tip 1: Keep Your Customers Happy

– Focus on keeping your goods or services flowing to your customers.

• Tip 2: Be Prepared for the Short and Long Term

– When a natural or man-made disaster occurs, the time to recover your primary facility could be hours, days or months.

• Tip 3: Identify Critical Short- and Long-Term Application and Information Resources

– In a short-term disaster, keeping clients happy may require a completely different scope of application and information resources than a long-term disaster.

• Tip 4: Understand the Impact of Industry Regulations and SLAs

– Be sure to understand the implications of regulations, standards and contracts on your organization’s operations.

• Tip 5: Consider Consolidating Your Resources– An aspect of consolidation is the fusing of your high

availability solutions in a way that “virtualizes” the hardware, software and data being protected.

• Tip 6: Have Simple Plans That are Updated Frequently

– The simpler, the better. The best plans forego lengthy narratives and focus on the specific actions that staff must take to affect a recovery.

• Tip 7: Execute a “Role Swap” At Least Once a Year

– To avoid any problems during such nerve-racking times, perform a “role swap.”

• Tip 8: Have Contact Information for 24x7 Support For All IT Vendors

• Tip 9: Practice, Practice, Practice– Keep your staff knowledge crisp and make

recovery second nature by practicing recovery procedures often.

• Tip 10: Choose Your HA Vendor Wisely– Make sure the vendor has the resources required

to provide you the support you need, when you need it.

1. Contingency planning on a tight budget1. Full service vendor and utilize system optimization.

2. What are the key issues in implementing new business continuity and security systems?

1. It is extremely important to select an enterprise solution with ease of use, scalability, multiplatform support and 24x7 world-wide service.

3. How to avoid false starts1. Leverage technology and services that have been

proven in real-world scenarios.

4. How to select vendors to see you through to success

1. Choose vendors who have the experience, resources and the support and R & D to match your typical and peak demands.

5. Compliance — the most important issue facing every public company and the fastest-growing budget category

1. Understand HA is a fundamental element of compliance as data availability and protection of data from destruction are fundamental requirements to achieve compliance.

6. How to crunch budgets and meet new disasters1. Utilize an enterprise solution with central

management, systems optimization to reduce investment and ongoing costs

Key Issues of Business Continuity Professionals“Where to Save and Where to Spend?”

Key Point in Planning: Uptime Impacts Virtually All Major Corporate Initiatives

“Continuity” “Compliance” “Consolidation”

Audit Readiness Liability and RiskManagement

M & ACustomer

Satisfactionand QoS

Reduce G&A

No downtime

High Availability

Key Technology and Vendor Considerations

1. Central management of multi-platform HA system groups

2. Multi-layered data integrity– No lost transactions, corrupted IP

3. Easy to use; single button activation, GUI administration– Reduces administration requirements– Reduces staff and training requirements

4. Scalability– Solution can grow with business

5. Autonomics– Significant reduction in maintenance and

tuning of application

1. Support

2. Education

3. Technology Development & Operations

4. Long-Term Outlook

5. References

• Business Continuity - High Availability since 1990– Software / Methodology / Services – Systems Management / Data Archiving since 1995

• Global Coverage and Expertise – Offices in USA / Europe / Asia Pacific – Over 200 Partners in 70 Countries

• Worldwide Reference Base – Over 2,000 customers / 12,000+ licenses – 55% of the Global 100 – Certified Worldwide Support Centers

• Strategic IBM Global Business Partner – IBM named iSeries HABP

www.visionsolutions.com