Business Continuity Appliances Making the Business Case

1. Business Continuity AppliancesMaking the Business Case

2. What Is A Business Continuity Appliance? ABusiness Continuity Appliance is a self-contained server optimized to quickly take over if your company’s servers fail or become unavailable due to a disaster The appliance takes regular snapshots of your entire computing environment In the event of a server failure, the appliance quickly virtualizes the failed servers using the most recent snapshot of the backed up data and applications to restore close to normal operations Appliances can also be synched with servers at other company locations or offsite data centers. In the event of a natural disaster, these remote servers can make your computing environment available via Internet connections When the emergency is over, the computing environment can be restored to existing or new servers – as well as to virtual environments and workflows -- so your business can resume normal operations

3. Why You Need A Business Continuity Solution Severe data loss can lead to business failure Two-thirds of small and midsize businesses have business continuity/disaster recovery plans in place – according to an InformationWeek/bMighty.com study 40% of small and midsize businesses have had to execute at least part of their business continuity/disaster recovery plans, according to the InformationWeek/bMighty.com study Many small businesses rely on inconsistent and insecure manual tape back-ups. In the event of server failure or disaster, tape-based systems can lose a day or more of business data and can take hours or days to restore full functionality The cost of business downtime when your company is offline can be surprisingly high

4. Lots Of Things Can Go Wrong Business Continuity Appliance

5. Business Continuity Appliance Use Cases Size: Small to midsize companies (or branch offices) with anywhere from 1 server and 10 users to a dozen servers and hundreds of users (larger installations may require multiple appliances) Current Backup Solutions: Small businesses relying on tape backup, larger companies looking to bolster their business continuity plans Tolerance For Downtime: Companies that can’t afford to be offline for more than a few minutes Tolerance For Lost Data: Companies that can’t afford to lose a day’s business data IT Sophistication: Companies with IT staff or partners able to help set up and restore servers and applications Homogenous IT Environment: Companies with all key systems on a single platform (i.e., Windows)

6. Business Continuity Appliances - Advantages • Single, turnkey, integrated hardware/software purchase • Relatively easy to set up • Few or no additional software licenses required • Single point of contact for support • Backups made automatically as often as every 15 minutes • Ability to choose point-in-time backup • Tape backups must be handled manually, usually daily at best • “Sandbox” environment allows IT to test disaster-recovery and business continuity • Saves IT staff time and effort • Frees resources for profit generating tasks

7. Business Continuity Appliances - Advantages • Able to restore full computing environment in minutes • Tape can take hours or days to get new servers up and running • May be able to replicate computing environment to remote servers or appliances for disaster recovery and continuity • Relatively easy to restore complete environment, including activity during outage • To bare metal (original or dissimilar hardware) • To virtual environments • Much cheaper than high-end server clustering

8. Business Continuity Appliances – Disadvantages • More expensive than tape backup. But requires less labor and provides more timely restoration of data • May not be able to handle heterogeneous computing environments, spanning Windows, Macintosh, Linux, etc. • Installation can take from a few hours to four days, depending on appliance vendor • Offers reduced performance for a limited time when running as a virtualized server • Not a long-term replacement for existing servers • Can’t mix and match hardware and software preferences • May not provide real-time backups – a key factor for transaction-oriented architectures • May not back up desktops or other devices

9. Alternatives To Business Continuity Appliances Business Continuity Appliance Tape-based backup - Common in smaller companies. Inexpensive. But typically requires manual intervention. Lengthy backups; may lose days of data Server Imaging - Software for Windows, Linux or virtual environments. Requires additional hardware and storage Disaster Recovery software - Similar to server imaging. Allows you to rebuild on another platform. Assumes redundant server and storage Replication - Facilitates duplication of data such as transaction records onto offsite or local data storage. Provides an additional level of protection Redundant Server Clusters - Offers fast restoration and compatibility. But expensive. Requires purchase of disaster recovery software

10. Evaluating Business Continuity Appliances CHECKLIST File/Folder/Volume Restore? Bare metal restore • Same and different hardware? Virtualization? • Time required? • Additional hardware/software required? Wizard-based interface? Support for multiple operating systems? Backup Frequency? Offsite synchronization/archiving? Encryption? MS Exchange Granular Restore (mailbox and message-level recovery)?

11. Our Company’s Business Case Business Continuity Appliance Identify your biggest disaster / business continuity risks. How likely are they? Risk 1.___________________________________________ Likelihood____% Risk 2.___________________________________________ Likelihood____% Risk 3.___________________________________________ Likelihood____% Our current approach to business continuity and disaster recovery: ____________________________________________________________ Costs (including hardware, software, tapes, offsite storage/service, IT staff time, etc.):_________________________________________________________ What is our estimated business cost (loss) when business systems are unavailable? Per hour______ Per day_________ • Note: Include costs of non-productive employees, lost revenue What is our estimated cost for unrecoverable data loss? • Per Hour _______ Per Day_______ Est. cost of appliance(s):___________________________

12. bMighty.com Resources Business Continuity Appliance Disaster Preparedness For Small And Midsize Companies • The complete InformationWeek Analytics / bMighty Analytics Report How to Coordinate Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Planning 9+ Steps to Disaster Recovery Planning for Small and Midsize Companies Disaster Recovery Requires More Than Data Recovery Mid-Market Hero: 'Big Boy Technology' For Disaster Recovery Helps Snag New Business Search bMighty.com for Disaster Recovery Appliances

13. Industry / Web Resources Business Continuity Appliance InformationWeek’s Business Continuity blog Business Continuity Planning checklist, PDF from AT&T. BS25999 Business continuity standards, from the British Standards Institute. Business Continuity Certification. Most useful for larger companies. Audit your business continuity plan, with help from the ISACA. Validate your training and preparation for a server failure or a disaster. IT Security and Risk Management – a college course covering assessment and mitigating risks along with reporting requirements