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Copyright © 2009 Illuminata, Inc.
TM
IBM's Business Continuance
Bundle for SMEs
Spotlight When discussing business continuance with small- to medium-enterprise (SME)IT professionals, it is common to encounter the following scenario: The ITprofessional knows that the company is at risk if there is a prolonged disruption tonormal IT operations. However, when it comes to securing the financial and staffresources required to put an adequate business continuance capability in place, itJohn Webster seems undoable. If it's proposed, the company's CFO balks, saying that such a plan2 July 2009 is essentially an insurance policy and the company buys insurance policies onlywhen it can afford them. "And right now, we can't afford one."
It's a flawed argument because an insurance policy is a shared risk agreement,whereas there is no capability to share risk when it comes to keeping thecompany's data flowing. Under an insurance policy, an insurer pays after a loss isreported. If your customers lose access to your online ordering system for aprolonged period, no one will pay your company back for the resulting loss ofrevenue.
It's a well-reported fact that companies can and do suffer severely when thenormal functioning of their IT infrastructure is disrupted. Loss of revenue iscommon. And although less common, severe IT outages can result in businessfailures. And we're not just talking about financial risk. Disruption tohealthcare systems, for example, can put patients at risk.
Data is now the life blood of all business, including small andmedium-sized businesses. Therefore, we believe thatprotecting ongoing availability to the company'sIT-based business processes by itsemployees and customers is in facta fiduciary imperative.
There are many ways toapproach businesscontinuance from an ITperspective, including:
. Data protection systems (data backup to disk and/or tape) includingcontinuous data protection
. Implementation of redundant systems, both on-site and off-site
. Off-site data vaulting
. Outsourcing of all or specific processes related to IT functioning
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Here we look at a new IBM approach to business File restoration is a GUI-based drag-and-dropcontinuance for SMEs: a one-price-takes-all process, while access to full volumes can be restoredbundled solution that features hardware, software, within minutes. The ability to "roll back" to a fileand optional services. or volume copy that represents the state of the dataat a particular point in time is also supported.IBM Comprehensive Data Protection Express DS3000 disk arrays - The DS series of IBM diskA recent trend among IT vendors is pre-integration arrays is externally attached RAID storage thatof a diverse set of components and services, supports direct connection to a host server viaintroduced to the market as solution offerings. This storage area network (SAN). The DS3200 is pricedis particularly true of vendors targeting the small into the bundle with three different DS 3000 modelto medium enterprise (SME) business segment, options (3200, 3300, 3400). Depending on thewhere there is a perceived need for simplicity in model, these arrays can be either SAS or FCboth acquiring and implementing IT to solve attached, be configured with FC and/or SATA disk,specific, important, readily-identifiable problems. and can scale to 100+ TB of disk storage usingAs noted, IT availability is a critical component of expansion units.business survivability. However, we estimate that at System x server - IBM's System x server runningleast 60 percent of small- to medium-enterprises the Microsoft Windows Server 2003 operatingcurrently lack a functioning business continuance system is included as a dedicated FastBack server toplan. This is likely due to three reasons: which the DS series disk is directly attached.. IT administrators don't have the time toimplement an adequate business continuity Optional services include:capability. Implementation Services for Disk Systems -. IT administrators lack sufficient understanding Installation and setup services specifically for thein this area to build the required capabilities. Comprehensive Data Protection bundle providedeither by IBM or an IBM certified business partner. Senior management believes it can't afford toaddress this exposure, or doesn't ... [download for more]