The main feature is around theannouncement of our SAP Cer­fied disaster recovery offer­

ing. This new offering allowscustomers to reduce risk and

outsource specialist cri cal serv­ices necessary to manage SAP sys­

tems administra on and related services.Con nuitySA will provide the infrastructure, connec v­ity and workplace recovery elements of the offering andBritehouse will provide a suite of services aimed at en­hancing the performance and opera onal managementof the en re SAP stack.

At recent talks hosted by Con nuitySA, we had ChantelLindeman of Frost & Sullivan come in and talk abouthow cloud is changing the business con nuity industry.It was noted that the growing move to cloud compu nghas the poten al to change the way not only that com­panies implement business con nuity and disaster re­covery but also how they see it.

So for those of you that don’t know the key fundamen­tal differences of ISO 22301 versus BS 25999 then Eu­gene Taylor, Managing Director of TaGza (UK) Limited,has taken the me to spell this out to you in laymen’sterms, so turn to page four for more informa on.

This feature also recaps the launch of our mobile datacentre and the launch of our new service for InternetSolu ons clients.

Con nuitySA is commi ed to sustainable developmentand this year we have commi ed and encouraged ouremployees to experience the personal reward of givingtheir me and sweat equity towards our current corpo­rate social investment program, Raising a Roof withHabitat for Humanity.

So lastly don’t forget you can make contact with us inso many ways, besides joining us on our social net­works, like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twi er, you can alsocontact us directly through our website for any querythat you may have.

Remember you are welcome to send us your news andviews and we will be willing to include this in our finalissue of client chronicles for 2012.

Editor – Cindy Bodenstein

cindy.bodenstein@con nuitysa.co.za

marke ng@con nuitysa.co.za

www.con nuitysa.co.za

by Michael Davies – Managing Director, Con nuitySA

Q3 2012Keeping ContinuitySA

clients informed

1

There are a number of exci ng developments in the business con nuityworld and at Con nuitySA, one such development being the new standardon business con nuity, ISO22301, which has now been published. For com­panies that conform to BS 25999 which has been widely u lised un l now,it is important to understand that there are a number of differences betweenthe ISO22301 and BS 25999 standards. What is immediately no ceable isthat the new ISO standard places more importance on business con nuityin organisa ons, which is good news for Business Con nuity Management(BCM) prac oners.

All Links now Interac ve

and Live!

The third issue of Con nuitySA Client Chronicles is filled with news on current developments, expert insights and useful informa on. I would like to take the

me to thank all contributors for their informa on.In this Issue

Business Update:

1 Exci ng mes ahead

2 Con nuitySA andBritehouse announceCer fied SAP disasterrecovery offering

3 ISO 22301 v BS 25999

7 Con nuitySA keepsCANSA up and running

8 Ge ng to grips withVDI ­ PART 2: VirtualDesktop Infrastructureor a well­managed infrastructure?

9 Cloud is changing business con nuity industry

11 Ge ng to grips withVDI ­ PART 3: VDI vstradi onal thin clientcompu ng

12 Con nuitySA Innova­on ­ Book a test from

our website

13 Con nuitySA launches mobile data centre

14 Building towards theFuture

15 Na onal Bandana Day

16 Ge ng to grips withVDI ­ PART 4: VDI vstradi onal thin clientcompu ng

17 Con nuitySA launchesnew service for Inter­net Solu ons clients

19 IT Service Con nuity® Training

Editor’s Note

Exci ng mes ahead

2

Further exci ng developments re­late to where we may be able togo with cloud compu ng and anincreasingly mobile workforce andhow technology progresses to

be er enable BCM solu ons for the evolv­ing work environment.

Recent developments at Con nuitySA arethat we have launched a cer fied SAP dis­aster recovery solu on for SAP users inpartnership with Britehouse and have alsolaunched a bandwidth disaster recovery so­lu on for Internet Solu ons clients. Theseare just two examples of how we are mov­ing forward to provide be er solu ons.

Con nuitySA will con nue to strive to beopera onally relevant and deliver cus­tomised BCM solu ons to our clients. Welook forward to the ever improving BCMservices and products that we can offer inthe future.

Con nuitySA and Britehouse announceCer fied SAP disaster recovery offering

The new offering, which has been cer fiedby SAP AG, allows customers to reduce riskand outsource specialist cri cal servicesnecessary to manage SAP systems adminis­tra on and related services.

Con nuitySA will be providing the infra­structure, connec vity and workplace re­covery elements of the offering out of itsmul ple data centres across Africa. “Themove towards virtualisa on means we canoffer clients virtual resources on demand,which in turn supports this type of spe­cialised, service­based offering,” says Jus nLord. “Many of South Africa’s leading com­panies rely on SAP, so a cu ng­edge butcost­effec ve solu on specifically designedfor SAP is just what the market ordered.”

Si ng on top of the infrastructure layer,Britehouse will provide a suite of servicesaimed at enhancing the performance andopera onal management of the en re SAPstack (applica on, database and servers).Two op ons are offered.

The first op on, “SAP Insight Services”, usesSyslink Xandria to offer integrated monitor­ing of the SAP Produc on (PRD) environ­ment by Britehouse’s specialist SAP Basisteam. The solu on will make a real­ me,customisable dashboard available to clients,allowing them to monitor system perform­ance and receive performance alerts beforeproblems develop. The solu on offering fur­ther provides detailed SAP Centric systemanaly cs and informa on relevant to thestability and opera onal availabilityof yourSAP systems, which includes the OS, DB andSAP workloads. SAP Insight Services, pro­vides customisable system checks and serv­ice level response informa on, in addi on

to system change management and Inventory repor ng and capabili es ad­dressing governance and risk managementrequirements. Without being a SAP Basisadministrator, you will now know what ishappening within your PRD SAP landscape,as and when things change.

“SAP Insight Services reduces the workloadadministra on and daily Basis tasks, withmonitoring policies, capacity managementand custom checks in real me,” says War­ren Small, a director at Britehouse. “Thefocus here is on preven ng disasters fromoccurring by truly understanding what’sgoing on in the SAP environment. Clientswho take this op on would then be respon­sible for their own disaster recovery servicesand business con nuity, but the informa­

on from SAP Insight Services would makethat process much quicker and more effec­

ve.”

The second op on is a fully managed andoutsourced solu on,”SAP Managed Serv­ices”. In this case, the Britehouse SAP spe­cialist DR team, in conjunc on withCon nuitySA would assume responsibilityand control of the SAP environment andwould perform the con nuity processesand administra ve func ons necessary torestore the SAP instances within the Con ­nuitySA infrastructure.

“This op on extends the value proposi onto include the skilled resources needed tobring up the SAP environment quickly andsafely—something that’s essen al givenhow reliant companies are on their enter­prise systems,” says Small.

“This is an extremely cost­effec ve way toachieve peace of mind: it’s offered at amonthly cost with no hidden extras, it iseasy to scale, and includes necessary frequent tes ng cycles to conform to yourgovernance and risk management require­ments.”

Small points out that by automa ng themonitoring process, the new offering freesin­house IT staff from performing laborioussystems checks, thus making them availableto perform work that adds value within theenterprise. Addi onally now these internalstaff members can channel their efforts anda en on to performing internal op misa­

on work, as the monitoring and real­ mesystem analy cs is being provided andcatered for.

“This is a specialised solu on aimed at theSAP environments, which is arguably themost business­cri cal in the company,” saysJus n Lord. “The combina on of remotemonitoring and analysis plus the fully man­aged disaster recovery services eliminatesa primary worry for CIOs.”

By Jus n Lord

Con nuitySA, the leading African business con nuity provider, and Britehouse are jointly offeringa solu on for managing the performance of SAP systems combined with disaster recovery services. Britehouse, a member of the Dimension Data group, is a business process automa onand applica on pla orm specialist company. Britehouse is the first and only Partner in AfricaSAP Cer fied in Cloud Services and an advanced partner in SAP Hos ng Services.

Building structures vary and therefore so willtheir maintenance requirementsLet’s first look at the structure of the two documents and then examine a few examplesof fundamental differences.

So – not only are the structures different but there are addi onal language and considerably varying format requirements whichmay well a ract different approaches during compliance assessments.

Those aligned or cer fied to BS25999 who might assume they could just copy and paste to comply with ISO22301 would beadop ng a very dangerous approach.

25999:• Sec on 3: Establishing and managing the BCMS (Scope,

Objec ves, Policy, Resources, Competencies, Embedding, Documenta on)

• Sec on 4: Understanding the Org (BIA, Risk assessment, Strategy, Developing a Response, Exercising, Maintaining, Reviewing)

• Sec on 5: Internal audit, Management review

• Sec on 6: Preven ve and Correc ve ac ons, Con nual improvement

22301:• Sec on 4: Context of the Organisa on, Needs of interested

par es, Determining Scope,

• Sec on 5: Leadership

• Sec on 6: Planning

• Sec on 7: Support (Resources, Competence, Awareness, Communica on, Documented Informa on)

• Sec on 8: Opera on, BIA, Risk Assessment, Strategy, Procedures

• Sec on 9: Performance evalua on

• Sec on 10: Improvement

3

ISO 22301 v BS 25999Beware the Myth!Having recently implemented a BCMS aligned with the recently published ISO22301 andhaving spent the past 4 years taking companies through cer fica on to BS25999 I amdelighted to have this opportunity to reflect on some key differences between the two.

At the outset let me dispel the myth that 22301 is 25999 with a bit more wrapping – itisn’t!

This misunderstanding may stem from the fact that 22301 and 25999 are both BusinessCon nuity Management Systems standards with good basic principles but the “similar­ity” ends there.

In defence of 25999 though, it did set the pla orm for sound global business con nuitymanagement principles which were fundamental in the founda on for compiling 22301.

By Eugene Taylor MBCI, Managing Director, TaGza (UK) Limited,

Wa ord, Hertswww.TaGza.Biz

So, more trees will need to be cut down …Documenta on! Documenta on! Documenta on!The fundamental difference is that compliance to 22301 requires a load more documentary evidence.

Have a look at sec on 8 of 22301 and you will no ce there are now more onerous requirements on documented processes – quite afew of which were not requirements in 25999. Be especially wary of sec on 7 which has a lot to say about documented informa on.

In fact, 22301 men ons “documented” evidence requirements all over the place – some 27 clauses in contrast to 24 clauses in 25999.Don’t be fooled by this hint implying only a “li le more” as the clauses requiring “documented” anything in 22301 are much moredetailed and prescrip ve.

4

For example:25999:4.1.1.1 Understanding the Organisa on: BIA: There shall be a defined, documented andappropriate method for determining the impact of any disrup on of the ac vi es thatsupport the organisa on's key products and services (see 3.2.1).

22301:8.1c Opera on: The organiza on shall determine, plan, implement and control thoseprocesses needed to address the risks and opportuni es determined in 6.1 and to meetrequirements, by keeping documented informa on to demonstrate that the processeshave been carried out as planned.

8.2.1a The organiza on shall establish, implement and maintain a formal and docu­mented process for business impact analysis and risk assessment that establishes thecontext of the assessment, defines criteria and evaluates the poten al impact of a dis­rup ve incident.

These quirky li le twists in the language make the demand on compliance evidencemuch more voluminous, 25999 merely requiring a method while 22301 requiring infor­ma on and process – both of which could become subjec ve issues.

Just a li le warning! There are some clauses that require evidence but don’t specify“documented evidence” however when reading the clauses there appears no other wayto provide “evidence” ­ other than by documented means.

To the board we go …This bit I really like! Sec on 5 of 22301 clearly requires “board level” leadership commitmentand this means BCM cannot be shoved in some cupboard and brought out convenientlyeach year to be dusted off.

At this point it might be worth men oning the “notes” within 22301. Whilst many of theclauses are clearly prefixed with references there are also a number of “notes” within 22301and my guess is that auditors will use those for compliance requirements. So, while someclauses in 22301 may not reference requirements previously evident in 25999, the “notes”capture similar “indica ve requirements”. Watch them!

No more holidays for BC Prac oners!For those looking to apply a BCMS for the first me and take the 22301 route life should bepre y peachy as 22301 has a very nice structure which could well define the implementa onapproach.

For those who have been aligned or been cer fied to 25999 there will be a significant risein workload to meet the requirements. Removing the reference to “25999” in governancepolicies, associated BCMS documenta on, awareness and training material will be a taskon its own.

But – this is a good me to take advantage of 22301 to improve a BCMS which is currentlystructured under 25999. For instance the Policy and Governance structures now have aclear focus on leadership commitment and that may well improve the recogni on and pro­gramme delivery of BC within organisa ons.

This will also be a good me to look at the organisa on’s BC community resourcing to ensurecapability able to fit the requirements of 22301.

ISO 22301 v BS 25999

5

Are we be er off?Clearly 22301 is be er structured and more specific on what is requiredthan 25999 as it flows in a way one might typically implement a BCMS.While it may require more from prac oners ini ally, much of it ought tostructure a simpler methodology for addressing rou ne maintenance of22301.

The key improvements of 22301 which will encourage be er methods ofaddressing resilience building and enhanced capability is the clear require­ment of leadership involvement and commitment.

Because sec on 4 is a lot more specific about interested par es, productsand services, there will be greater clarity on scope and understanding ofwhat cons tutes a component of the BCMS. That in itself will be an enablerfor the leadership teams to be more focussed on strategy.

Ah, the strategy word! Interes ngly enough strategy is emphasised in25999 under “management review” (5.2.3c), whereas in 22301 this nowhas its own sec on (8.3.1) and follows the BIA sec on within the structureof 22301. This I agree makes sense!

In par ng ……Read 22301 very carefully – it tends to say the same thing in a number of places which doesn’t mean you have to have a correla ngnumber of documents or processes as you will just create duplica on.

For example:4.1b, 5.2, 5.3b, 6.2, 8.2.2, 8.2.3d, 8.4.1, 8.5, 9.1.2c and 9.3 all have some reference to Business Con nuity Objec ves.

22301 is a good standard, but by no means complete on its own if you want to develop your organisa on’s resilience. Nonetheless22301 is a valued component to support your business “firewall”.

Good luck!

Don’t ignore changes in language.There is no men on of “embedding” in 22301 – promise! So does that mean that lovely outer ring in the diagram we have beenproudly showing off over the past few years is now gone? Well – actually the whole diagram has gone! (Ref: BS25999­2:2007 figure2 page 3). No! Embedding has not gone.

Quite simply the language in 22301 has changed (really to synchronise with other standards) and because ISO have a way of doingthings that compel consistency across the various disciplines which have applicable standards. Quickly skim through the ISO/IEC Di­rec ve, Part 1 Consolidated Supplement if you really want to know a bit more.

25999 has a specific clause requirement for “embedding” (25999: 3.3a) while 22301 qualifies “embedding” under various clausesbut ul mately expects top management to do this by ensuring the BCMS requirements are integrated into the business processes(22301: 5.2).

Yes – that reminds me. 22301 requires certain processes and that these are documented (more trees to cut down). More importantly(and subtle in many clauses) 22301 also requires informa on which supports processes and structures to be documented.

ISO 22301 v BS 25999

6

7

With that in mind, the organisa on con­tacted Con nuitySA, Africa’s leadingprovider of business con nuity solu ons,several years back. Con nuitySA has al­ways been an enthusias c supporter ofCANSA and readily agreed to provideCANSA’s head office and other offices inGauteng with a business con nuity solu­

on as part of its corporate social invest­ment programme. At the same me,CANSA requested its provincial offices tomake similar arrangements.

“CANSA does a remarkable job in the fieldof cancer control and we realised that itwas vital to keep it up and running what­ever disasters might occur,” says LouiseTheunissen, general manager: Client Serv­ices, Con nuitySA. “Non­profit organisa­

ons like CANSA have exactly the samebusiness con nuity needs as the biggestcorporate, but many of them simply don’trecognise the need un l it’s too late.”

CANSA’s forethought was vindicated on 4 June 2012 when early arrivals at the or­ganisa on’s head office in Bedfordview,Johannesburg, no ced a fire burning in

the Marke ng & Communica ons office. Amaintenance contractor who happened tobe onsite helped ex nguish the fire, whichthen subsequently reignited. By the methe fire brigade finally arrived 40 minuteslater, the Marke ng & Communica onsarea had suffered extensive damage, withprinters, laptops and other office equip­ment rendered useless.

The blaze was apparently caused by anelectrical cable in the ceiling that over­heated. The fire brigade advised that thesec on of the building affected by the fireshould be evacuated for at least a week asthere was the danger of toxic fumes andsmoke residue. The damage to the buildin­galso had to be repaired, and new equip­ment purchased and installed.

Thanks to the agreement with Con nu­itySA, CANSA’s head office staff was notgreatly affected by this disaster. From thenext morning, at the price of a commuteto the Con nuitySA Recovery Centre inMidrand, they were supplied with officespace equipped with Internet and phoneconnec ons, plus standard office servicessuch as photocopying, fax and prin ng.

“Our facili es are designed for just this sortof eventuality, so we were able to provideCANSA’s head­office team with everythingthey needed to keep the organisa on running, down to adequate parking, refreshments and friendly service!” saysCon nuitySA’s Theunissen.

“Con nuitySA were wonderful hosts andwent out of their way make us feel athome. They never spared anything to cre­ate a comfortable working environment forus and their staff was all friendly and effi­cient. When there was a query or need,they were quick to respond,” says SueJanse Van Rensburg, CANSA’s CEO.

Janse Van Rensburg says that all busi­nesses—and par cularly non­profits—should profit from CANSA’s experience.Staff members need to know where thefire ex nguishers are and what to do in theevent of a fire. Office keys should be clearlymarked and accessible, and emergencynumbers posted in a prominent place andstored on cell phones. The fire escapes andtheir keys need to be accessible and, ofcourse, a valid electrical cer ficate needsto be in place along with appropriate insur­ance.

“Most of all, all businesses need a sensiblerecovery plan that’s well understood before disaster strikes—and a businesscon nuity provider like Con nuitySA toprovide the office space, technology andall the other services you might need whilerepairs are being done,” says Theunissen.“A disaster is always disrup ve but, withthe right planning and assistance, its impact can be minimised.”

Con nuitySA keeps CANSA upand runningThe Cancer Associa on of South Africa (CANSA), plays a vital role in helping millions of South Africans reducetheir cancer risk and coping with cancer diagnosis. It’s Care Centres and Clinics provide comprehensive care tocancer survivors, caregivers and their loved ones across the country, including counselling and support groups,specialist care of wounds and complica ons as well as the provision of medical equipment. This is one organ­isa on that simply cannot go offline or lose data.

8

Let me elaborate a li le further on thisconcept. Take aside the costs of movinginto a VDI environment, a lot of organisa­

ons are looking to VDI because it is per­ceived to be easier to manage andsupport. While this is true in some re­spects, it is not really introducing toomany new concepts. As men oned before,simply moving 400 desktops into a virtualenvironment is not really solving manyproblems; you s ll have 400 versions of of­fice to deploy and 400 desktops to providesupport to. In fact now you have to sup­port 400 thin clients or machines beingused with the connec on broker, so it mayadd to support costs.

Lets look at some of the benefits from asimple VDI solu on:

• Easy of desktop deployment, because adesktop template can be created withall the relevant so ware pre­installed

• Fast deployment mes because theimage is normally stored on decentspeed storage which would be deployedin the virtual environment

• Ease of access because thin client tech­nologies are used, a user can use anythin client or machine to access theirdesktop environment. So if your ownthin client is not working, you can moveto another users machine and con nueto work.

Unless it is me for desktop replacementin the business, the costs of VDI could beseen as quite prohibi ve to obtain bene­fits that don’t really add too much value,and more o en than not the virtual envi­ronment has to be upgraded to cater forthe addi onal load of a VDI solu on.

Now it is me to throw some controversialideas around. Tradi onal desktop environ­ments can be more agile and streamlinedif they are managed properly.Over manyyears, Microso has worked hard on im­proving its Ac ve Directory offering to pro­vide organisa ons with the ability tocontrol devices on the network. In factthere is almost nothing you cannot controland configure on a windows desktopthese days by using group policies withinAc ve Directory. So lets take a look at thebenefits listed above and provide somesolu ons that already exist within mostMicroso based corporate networks:

• Windows Server provides the ability fordeployment of worksta ons with quitea decent amount of accuracy by usingWindows Deployment services. A fairamount of ini al configura on is re­quired, but once mastered, machine de­ployment is easy and works well.

• Many technologies exist within grouppolicies to aid terminal server deploy­ments, one of which is roaming profiles,which enables a profile to move wher­ever the user logs on from. In a terminalserver environment this means what­ever server a user may log on to.

Who is to say you can’t use this technol­ogy in a normal desktop environment. Doa decent amount of planning and userscan work in a hot desk scenario and workfrom any desktop. The technology is therebut o en seems to have been forgo enabout.

When it comes to so ware deploymentand the management of so ware, regard­less if you are using VDI or a tradi onal

desktop environment, addi onal so wareis needed; they may be something similarto Microso System Center Configura onmanager. The VDI vendors such as Citrixand VMware include technologies to assistwith so ware management and deploy­ment in their more premium bundles ofVDI solu ons.

The point I am trying to make? With a li lebit of effort spent with technologies thatorganisa ons may have already purchasedgoes a long way to improving support pro­cedures and user experiences. It is not al­ways necessary to invest and implementnew technologies to solve issues or addfeatures. It seems as though IT supportand deployment teams have go en a li lelazy with assis ng organisa ons to stream­line processes and be more agile or dynamic.

I have wri en quite a bit about VDI usingthin client technologies to enable users toconnect to their virtual desktops to bringabout the rich desktop experience of sayWindows 7. Through this me and inves­

ga on of VDI from IT owners, perhapsthrough all the blurb and hype, somethinghas been overlooked. That li le somethingis simply called Terminal services, or for afew more enhancements, Citrix Xen App.They are both thin client technologies,both require fewer resources than a VDIsolu on and offer similar benefits. Sowhat is wrong with tradi onal thin clientcompu ng? We will cover than in the nextar cle….

In the opening ar cle of this series I covered a background informa on into the world ofvirtual desktop infrastructures (VDI), including concepts and a brief explana on on theworkings and benefits of the technology.A bit of a teaser was le at the end about the op­

on of having a well­managed infrastructure instead of a VDI environment.

Ge ng to grips with VDI ­ PART 2

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure or a well­managed infrastructure?

By Sco Orton, Co­founder and sales director of Triple4.

Want to discuss this with me call me on083 600 2536 or emailsco .orton@triple4.co.za

9

“The growing move to cloud compu ng has the poten al to change the way not only that companiesimplement business con nuity and disaster recovery, but also the way that they see it,” says ChantelLindeman, Frost & Sullivan’s Business Unit Leader for ICT Africa. Lindeman recently presented Frost &Sullivan research into cloud compu ng and its impact on business con nuity to delegates at the launchof the new SAP disaster recovery offering from Con nuitySA and Britehouse.

Frost & Sullivan predicts that the world­wide cloud market will grow from $41 bil­lion in 2011 to more than $241 billion by2020. However, adop on rates are cur­rently slower than expected because ven­dors have yet to turn those unconvinced bythe cloud value proposi on (37%, accord­ing to 2011 research) into believers. In ad­di on, 40% of respondents said they hadeither never heard of infrastructure as aservice or were not very familiar with theconcept. Lindeman notes that the believers(22%) s ll remain worried about security.

In South Africa, says Lindeman, cloud dom­inates discussions and the media but adop­

on rates are low. Frost & Sullivan researchindicates that the local market understandsinfrastructure as a service (IaaS) and cansee its effects on the bo om line—conse­quently, this sector is showing steadygrowth. By contrast, so ware as a serviceremains a niche market at present.

“Pla orm as a service (PaaS) is new to theSouth African market but, in my view, thatis the one to watch over the next fiveyears,” Lindeman says. “PaaS underpins thereal value that the cloud model can offerbusinesses looking to reduce costs and be­come more agile, and once the market un­derstands that, we will see strong growth.”

Cloud is changing businesscon nuity industry

The key driver of the cloud market in South Africa con nues to be the evolu on of thedata centre environment, with virtualisa on the key technology development. Companiesare used to outsourcing their data centre requirements, and this trend has penetratedthe small to medium­sized enterprise market as business struggles to keep up with newtechnology and respond to energy insecurity.

10

“These data centres have tradi onally offered disaster recovery and business con­

nuity services, and the growth of virtuali­sa on and cloud­based storage is changingthe model drama cally,” says Lindeman.This change will, she says, hold back thecon nued growth in tradi onal disaster recovery services and is already influencingthe offerings of the market leaders, such asCon nuitySA, which has the biggest marketshare (21%) by some margin.

Lindeman says that business con nuity hasalways been a grudge purchase because itsbusiness case has always been based onnega ve factors. “Much like ea ng yourvegetables, you know you have to back upyour data,” she observes.

“However, as disaster recovery moves intothe cloud, that reality is changing and customers can now benefit from real­ meinforma on­sharing whilst achieving thecost benefits of scale.”

Jus n Lord concurs, “Our ability to use vir­tualised storage and processing power tooffer business con nuity/ disaster recoveryas a service is changing the equa on,” heexplains. “It’s helping CIOs to move busi­ness con nuity off their balance sheets tobecome a pure opera onal expense, andit’s also making that dedicated processingand storage capacity available for the pro­duc on environment as well.

In this way, the disaster recovery capability can also make a posi ve contribu on to thecompany during the 99% of the me it is not being used for its primary purpose.

“The one thing that is holding companies back from wholesale adop on of this con nu­ity­as­a­service model is the availability of cheap bandwidth. Once that has been sortedout, we will really begin to see the power of this model.”

Cloud is changing business con nuity industry

Ge ng to grips with VDI ­ PART 3

Believe it or not, even in this technicalage, some IT managers/owners have notheard about thin client technology orknow what it's true capabili es are. MostIT persons and even lots of users havebeen exposed to remote desktop servicesor RDP, simply because it has become astandard for remotely managing theserver environment or providing themeans to connect from a remote loca onto efficiently work. Quite o en however,the e up between RDP and thin clienttechnologies is not realized, which raisesconfusion.

So lets give a bit of background on thinclient technologies. Thin client technologyhas been around for some me now, infact it dates back to before MicrosoWindows NT3.51 days, which is a verylong me! Citrix were the pioneers in thistechnology, even licensing the technologyto Microso . So the technology has beenaround for quite some me, but what isit? Well let me explain a li le.

Thin client technology provides the abilityto establish a remote session with aserver, where all processing and re­sources are taken care of by the serveropera ng system.Now that can be anyMicroso server based opera ng systemthat supports remote desktop services orterminal services, or in more recent

mes, Windows Server 2003, WindowsServer 2008 or Windows Server 2008R2being the obvious choice.

The client, which could be anything froma hardware thin client to a Windows ma­chine running a desktop opera ng sys­tem, simply receives screen updates fromthe server and sends keyboard andmouse strokes to the server (There are afew others steps, but I am trying to be asnon­technical as possible). A full desktopexperience (similar to VDI) or individualapplica ons can be presented to the user.

The applica ons being used are actuallyinstalled on this server opera ng system.For instance if Microso office is part ofthe business tools that are used, it wouldbe installed locally on the server. No busi­ness applica ons are installed on theclient.

A single server can handle mul ple ses­sions thus accommoda ng mul pleusers, and thin client technology can bebranched out to mul ple servers for re­silience.

With hopefully a li le bit be er under­standing of the core workings of how athin client environment works, we canmove onto some key advantages. One ofwhich is so ware deployment or so ­ware rollout.

VDI vs tradi onal thin client compu ngIn the previous ar cle I le you with something to think about withregards to management of a virtual desktop environment versus man­aging desktops through tradi onal techniques using the likes of grouppolicies, which are inherent in Microso Ac ve Directory. I also le abit of a hanger with regards to using tradi onal thin clienttechnologies versus a virtual desktop infrastructure. Let me expand on this concept a li le.

11

12

Let's assume 100 users are u lizing thinclient technology and are deployedamong four servers.If a a new applica onneeds deployment, the applica on onlyneeds to be installed on those fourservers, making it a rela vely simple roll­out.In a tradi onal desktop environmentor a simple VDI environment, the applica­

ons would need to be installed on 100separate desktops or VDI machines whichwould take significant me. I men onsimple VDI environment, as more ad­vanced solu ons are more easily de­ployed; they do however come at a cost.Another key advantage of thin client tech­nology is the ability to get the most out ofa hardware investment.Over the yearsthe ability to get more and more usershoused on a single server has increased,whereas in a VDI environment, each desk­top opera ng system requires CPU andmemory requirements which adds addi­

onal overhead onto the virtual environ­ment. An advantage that favours both VDI

and a thin client solu on is the ability towork from in the office or at a remote lo­ca on and have a similar working experi­ence, providing Internet bandwidth issufficient.

Lets summarize a li le, It is possible togive a user a full desktop in a thin clientserver environment, where the data re­mains safe, without having to managehundreds of individual desktops, so waredeployment is easy and the hardware in­vestment is not prohibi ve. Surely then,the ques on needs to be asked, how isVDI be er than tradi onal thin clienttechnology which has been tried andtested for years? To be honest, it isn't, itis simply a new spin on the technologyand used in a different way. Certain VDIproviders such as Citrix s ll use thin clienttechnology to present a desktop to theuser, they just gave it a new name likeShared desktop.

So if a unified user experience is needed,or you want to avoid confusion amongusers, then maybe VDI with a moderndesktop opera ng system is the way togo. Is it worth the addi onal cost andmanagement? I am not so sure. What ifyou could house desktops in the cloudand present secure individual desktops todifferent organisa ons, now wouldn’tthat be a useful spin on the technology?Guess what? I will cover that in the finalar cle of the series.

VDI vs tradi onal thin client compu ng

Want to discuss this with me call me on 083 600 2536 or email sco .orton@triple4.co.za

Con nuitySA is con nually looking at

innova ve ways for you, our clients to

easily and effec vely reach us, so here

is the latest way.

Please click here to visitour website, Triple4.

CLIENTS can now Book a Test from our website.All you need to do is go onto our website home page www.con nuitysa.co.za

Click on the banner below and book your test.

This process goes through to our Service Desk, who will then finalise the process with you.

We will inform you of any addi onal ways you will benefit and this will be Coming Soon...Watch this space!

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Con nuitySA, Africa’s leading provider of business con nuity services, has launched a mobile datacentre service to give clients a new way to mi gate IT risk. Market take­up has been quick, with thenew mobile unit already in use at a client site. “Businesses are very vulnerable to IT risk,” says Mark Beverley,general manager for service delivery at Con nuitySA. “Now, how­ever, IT failure no longer means that the whole company has torelocate to the disaster recovery site. If the disaster is solely relatedto IT, we can restore the IT onsite via the mobile data centre, thusensuring minimal disrup on.”

Beverley explains that IT failure accounts for a high propor on ofthe disaster declara ons among Con nuitySA clients.

Con nuitySA’s mobile data centre is housed in a container—butone that was specially designed for local condi ons a er extensiveinves ga on of interna onal units.

“Our unit is designed to fit onto a standard 14 metre trailer, so itcan be transported to the client site with minimal delay,” says Bev­erley. “Unlike interna onal units, however, the cooling system isintegrated into the design—and it’s tough enough to cope withAfrican condi ons. The container is also painted white to reflectheat.”

The unit can accommodate 12 fully populated APC racks each with5 kilowa s of power. The racks are removable in case non­standardracks are needed by a customer.

Racks are secured during transit, and the unit also contains linksto power (mains or generator) and fibre­op c networks. The mo­bile unit was also designed to provide a certain degree of resiliencegiven that it is likely to be placed in an uncontrolled environment.

“Aside from the design of the container, we have also developedthe skills to configure the equipment and get the unit connectedquickly to the power supply and network once it’s on site,” Bever­ley notes.

Subscribers to the service can either supply their own equipmentor use equipment supplied by Con nuitySA. If they are also usingCon nuitySA for replica on or other backup services, the equip­ment could arrive with data already loaded.

“The unit is designed to be as flexible as possible so we can giveclients what they need,” concludes Beverley. “We think this offersclients a great way to keep their IT systems up and running withouthaving to move the whole workforce. The market is respondingwell to this innova on, making it likely we will commission addi­

onal units in me.”

Con nuitySA launches mobile data centre

14

Building towardsthe FutureWith corporate social investment becoming ever morestrategically focused, it made business sense to Con nu­itySA to align our corporate social investment spend withour core business strategy and impera ves.

With this approach it moved our corporate social investment outof the charitable sphere into one with true partnerships with ben­eficiaries so as to bring about long term sustainable developmentto the benefit of all.

With this in mind and with the fact that we wanted to encourageour employees to experience the personal rewards of giving their

me as well as sweat equity towards something of value, this ishow Con nuitySA decided to get involved in Raising a Roof withHabitat for Humanity.

This CSI program is completely in line with our company strategyand values, not to men on that we are completely commi ed tosustainable development. Our company strategy is to provide In­frastructure (a home) to our clients to ensure their future and se­curity and our one company value is to live the Triple F (Feel good,Family, Fun) dream, so in turn we wanted to provide a Home to afamily to ensure their future and security.

The benefits to Con nuitySA for being a part of a CSI program likethis;

• Contribu on to Sustainable Community Development

• Enhancing business performance

• Improving Employee Morale

• Providing outstanding opportuni es to build rela onshipswith business partners

• Increasing customer goodwill and loyalty

• Providing a safe and construc ve community building experience

• Provides a highly credible channel for effec ve Corporate SocialInvestment

• Helping stabilise the economic and social environment

In September 2012 Con nuitySA will be giving our sweat equityand living our Triple F dream and building a home towards somebody’s future.

About Habitat for HumanityHabitat for Humanity South Africa brings people together to buildhomes, communi es and hope. Habitat for Humanity South Africahas an ac ve volunteer programme that has seen thousands ofvolunteers working on Habitat for Humanity South Africa sites in34 communi es across South Africa. Habitat for Humanity SouthAfrica has ac ve community, youth, corporate and church pro­grammes running across the country which give opportuni es forvolunteers to give of their me, sweat and energy to work side­by­side with homeowner families to build their homes.

For more informa on on Habitat for Humanity and how your or­ganisa on can get involved visit, www.habitat.org.za

Con nuitySA will share our experience around our build in thefourth quarter of Client Chronicles.

15

Na onal Bandana Day– 12th October 2012

In addi on to living our company values Con nuitySA are alwayslooking at ways to reach out.

www.roundtable.org.zawww.sunflowerfund.org.za

This year we are also ge ng involved with Roundtable and the Sunflower Fund project for Na onal Bandana Day. Na onal BandanaDay takes place on the 12th October 2012.

Con nuitySA will have bandanas for sale and taking orders from our clients for this worthy cause. By suppor ng and buying a bandanayou can help young leukaemia sufferers. We challenge our clients to get involved and purchase your bandana’s for your staff today.That’s not all we also urge you to wear your bandana on the 12th October to stand in solidarity with any Leukaemia sufferers who havelost their hair due to their chemo­therapy treatment. For only R20 per bandana you are sure to make a difference to this worthy cause.

It does not stop there, with this we ask you to take pictures and share your stories and send them to us and we will publish it in ournext issue of client chronicles and we will also send this onto the Sunflower Fund to let them know that your organisa on got involved.So join in now to “Share a li le to Save a Life”.

For more informa on on how you can place your orders for your Bandana’s please contact Bradley Janse van Rensburg atbradley.vanrensburg@con nuitysa.co.za.

Your contribu on can makea huge difference.

16

Having a server environment in thecloud or in a data centre seems like agood idea, it makes for ease of access,more simple disaster recovery and al­lows a business to grow on demandmore easily then when hosted on prem­ise. Would these benefits stretch to thedesktop environment as well? It cer­tainly sounds like a good idea to be ableto add new desktops on demand when­ever new users join your organisa on,no need to worry about users data get­

ng lost when a laptop or desktop getsstolen because the data is safely storedin the cloud and the ability to have acomplete agile IT environment and com­pany strategy.

But before it sounds too good to be true,as usual, there are some drawbacks andthings to consider. Looking at pu ngyour desktop environment into the cloudis not for all companies. Lets imagine youhave mainly office bound users and yousubscribe to a desktop environment inthe cloud. All desktop machines wouldbe housed in a data centre somewherewith access from the Internet. If the In­ternet goes down for whatever reason,you have an en re office with unproduc­

ve users who cannot connect to theirwork environment. Also despite thedesktop being in the cloud, a thin clientdevice or notebook is s ll needed to con­nect to this desktop, so addi onal costconsidera on is needed.

Saying that though, it is not impossibleto house desktops in the cloud for an of­fice bound environment. It is vitally im­portant to have a good quality highspeed redundant Internet connec on toensure that down me is reduced anduser experience is kept sound.

The most a rac ve proposi on for adesktop in the cloud is organisa ons thathave many mobile users and want tokeep business cri cal data safe, butdon’t want the expense of housing theequipment and virtual environmentthemselves. Using a virtual desktop inthe cloud seems very ideal in this situa­

on, because access to your work ma­chine is available from anywhere aninternet connec on is available, the datais safely stored in a data centre, and ifthe correct mix is chosen, your desktopenvironment can be on the same net­work as your server environment whichwould offer high speed connec ons be­tween your desktops and servers.

The main downside to any desktop inthe cloud solu on is the frustra on thatoccurs when Internet connec vity gets abit wobbly and the user experience is af­fected, or the inability to work at all. Remember in a tradi onal work environ­ment, even if your Internet connec on isunavailable, you can work locally on yourown worksta on. When your desktop ishoused in the cloud, you may not beable to work at all. Some VDI vendorsoffer offline desktop capability whereyour desktop can work when no Internetconnec vity is available and the desktopsimply synchronises when Internet isavailable again. Again sounds all good,but in prac ce with the speed of Internetconnec vity locally are not always an op on.

So what am I really ge ng at here?

I think VDI may just be ready for thecloud with the technologies that it isbased on.

It is best suited for organisa ons with amobile workforce and a few key guide­lines should be stuck to when looking atinves ng in the technology:

• The VDI provider that is chosen mustsupply the best of breed technologythat is out there to provide a goodclass of service

• Just because your data is in the Cloud,it does not mean it is safe, ensure asound backup strategy is s ll adheredto

• Ensure that internet connec vity is ofgood quality as the service relies on it

• Make sure the desktops that areclouds based can be supported effi­ciently or that your support staff/out­sourcer can support the environmentefficiently.

To summarise the various ar cles that Iwri en is quite a challenge as I havethrown about some nice conflic ng in­forma on and arguments for the virtualdesktop technology that is available.Bo om line when looking at this moderntechnology, do a good amount of re­search and marry that research to yourown business. Don’t invest in the tech­nology just because it is the in thing,make sure it is right fit for your environ­ment and that it truly does add value.

In the previous ar cles that I have wri en for this series I have le a bit of a cliff­hanger leadinginto the next idea or thought. The last ar cle on VDI vs. tradi onal thin client compu ng was notdifferent. I men oned the possibility of housing a desktop in the cloud and if the current marketis ready for it. So is housing a desktop in the cloud a good idea or bad? Let’s find out.

VDI vs tradi onal thin client compu ng

Ge ng to grips with VDI ­ PART 4

Want to discuss this withme call me on 083 600 2536or emailsco .orton@triple4.co.za

17

Con nuitySA launches new service forInternet Solu ons clients

In an industry first, Con nuitySA has developed abusiness con nuity solu on aimed at corporatesthat use mul protocol label switching (MPLS) networking provided by Internet Solu ons.

Con nuitySA has established a fibre gigabitper second link to Internet Solu ons, whichgives Internet Solu ons clients bandwidthon demand for disaster recovery purposes.The link effec vely makes Con nuitySA anextension of the Internet Solu ons net­work.This means that the new service canbe seamlessly integrated into clients’ exist­ing MPLS networks. It also means a quickerturnaround me for implementa on.

“We no ced how many of our clients werepu ng in point­to­point links between ourfacili es and Internet Solu ons,” says Sha­heen Kalla, technical consultant at Con nu­itySA, and leader of the development team.“It made more sense to offer Internet So­lu ons clients the benefits of a single largepipe between Con nuitySA and InternetSolu ons.”

From Con nuitySA’s point of view, it’s ob­viously much more efficient to manage one

network link than it is to manage mul plelinks each dedicated to a customer. Eachcustomer is logically separated on the linksomething seen in overseas markets on“hostlinks” or NNI’s. (Network to NetworkInterfaces)

“Some of South Africa’s leading organisa­ons use Internet Solu ons’ MPLS net­

works and they are constantly looking forways to perform the replica on and backupthey require for enterprise­grade businesscon nuity,” Kalla notes. “Our new solu onintegrates that capability seamlessly ontotheir exis ng networks.”

The new offering allows clients to purchasededicated bandwidth on this link for thepurposes of business con nuity. The newsolu on uses cu ng­edge technology toallow clients to “burst” up to five mestheir dedicated capacity when replica onsor backups are in progress, or when a dis­

aster is invoked—at no extra cost. Whilethe solu on is tailored for each client, Kallasays that there are economies of scale asthe bandwidth is purchased in bulk from In­ternet Solu ons.

The service is “always on”, which meansthat clients can also use their dedicatedbandwidth to access their compu ng ca­pacity at Con nuitySA, whether real or vir­tual, for ac vi es outside of businesscon nuity. “This trend is transforming busi­ness con nuity infrastructure from a pureoverhead into a business asset that can beused for day­to­day produc on ac vi es,”Kalla observes.

The new solu on has immediate capacityfor up to 10 clients, and has been designedto scale up to 150 clients.

18

Should you have any enquiries as to how you can make a difference or would like to be included in regularly communica on, please contact Louise Theunissen (MBCI)(PMP), BCI Board Member Mobile: +27 82 928 7158 or Mail to: louise.theunissen@con nuitysa.co.za

BCI Forum South Africa

Upcoming BCI Forum Date for 2012

28 November 2012

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