Forrester: How Organizations Are Improving Business Resiliency with Continuou...EMC
This analyst report describes reasons why adoption of continuous availability is rapidly increasing, citing research on benefits they believe they can realize in their IT environment.
As the price of storage and bandwidth continues to drop fast, Cloud-based services are becoming more and more attractive to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) which are seeking to reduce licensing costs, avoid recruiting IT staff and focus fully on their core responsibility - growing the business.
When Less is More: Why Small Companies Should Think Outside the(Red/Yellow) B...GFI Software
In their “Sector Insight” research study, Aberdeen Group investigated the considerations small business should take when selecting anti-malware solutions. Read this research paper to learn why Aberdeen recommends small businesses be open to endpoint security solutions from vendors other than McAfee and Symantec.
Business Continuity And Disaster Recovery Are Top IT Priorities For 2010 And ...Citrix Online
“Business Continuity And Disaster Recovery Are Top IT Priorities For 2010 And 2011”
Key Findings:
• Improving business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR) capabilities is the No. 1 priority for SMBs and the second highest priority for enterprises for the next 12 months
• IT plans to spend at least 5% more on BC/DR in the next 12 months (only 11% of enterprises and 8% of SMBs plan to decrease spending on BC/DR)
• BC/DR represents between 6% and 7% of the IT budget
IN THIS E-GUIDE, LEARN HOW TO:
-Bridge the Gap Between C-Suite Executives and In-House IT Teams
-Calculate the True Cost of Downtime
-Zero In On Infrastructure Vulnerability to Data Center Downtime
-Avoid/Recover Accidental Data Deletion and Employee Created Downtime
Forrester: How Organizations Are Improving Business Resiliency with Continuou...EMC
This analyst report describes reasons why adoption of continuous availability is rapidly increasing, citing research on benefits they believe they can realize in their IT environment.
As the price of storage and bandwidth continues to drop fast, Cloud-based services are becoming more and more attractive to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) which are seeking to reduce licensing costs, avoid recruiting IT staff and focus fully on their core responsibility - growing the business.
When Less is More: Why Small Companies Should Think Outside the(Red/Yellow) B...GFI Software
In their “Sector Insight” research study, Aberdeen Group investigated the considerations small business should take when selecting anti-malware solutions. Read this research paper to learn why Aberdeen recommends small businesses be open to endpoint security solutions from vendors other than McAfee and Symantec.
Business Continuity And Disaster Recovery Are Top IT Priorities For 2010 And ...Citrix Online
“Business Continuity And Disaster Recovery Are Top IT Priorities For 2010 And 2011”
Key Findings:
• Improving business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR) capabilities is the No. 1 priority for SMBs and the second highest priority for enterprises for the next 12 months
• IT plans to spend at least 5% more on BC/DR in the next 12 months (only 11% of enterprises and 8% of SMBs plan to decrease spending on BC/DR)
• BC/DR represents between 6% and 7% of the IT budget
IN THIS E-GUIDE, LEARN HOW TO:
-Bridge the Gap Between C-Suite Executives and In-House IT Teams
-Calculate the True Cost of Downtime
-Zero In On Infrastructure Vulnerability to Data Center Downtime
-Avoid/Recover Accidental Data Deletion and Employee Created Downtime
Business Continuity for Mission Critical ApplicationsDataCore Software
Unplanned interruption events, a.k.a. “disasters,” hit virtually all data centers at one time or another. While the preponderance of annual downtime results from interruptions that have a limited or localized scope of impact, IT planners must also prepare for the possibility of a catastrophic event with a broader geographical footprint.
Such disasters cannot be circumvented simply by using high availability configurations in servers or storage. What is needed, especially for mission-critical applications and databases, are strategies that can help organizations prevail in the wake of “big footprint” disasters, but that can also be implemented in a more limited way in response to interruption events with a more limited impact profile.
DataCore Software’s storage platform provides several capabilities for data protection and disaster recovery that are well-suited to today’s most mission-critical databases and applications.
Five Essential Enterprise Architecture Practices to Create the Security-Aware...UBM_Design_Central
Building secure apps and systems requires upfront and close coordination among many groups.
In this slidecast, George Hulme discusses how enterprise architects can drive that coordination and effect the required change that depends on it.
Whitepaper : Building a disaster ready infrastructureJake Weaver
It’s not just hurricanes, fire or other natureal disasters that can bring a business to its knees. Everyday problems such as bad software, misconfigured networks, hardware failures or power outages are much more common. In fact, power failures accounted for nearly half of the declared disasters reported in a recent survey conducted by Forrester
Management of the IT infrastructure begins at its Foundation. Better Understand how that is defined, implemented and leveraged beyond traditional IT management solutions but in an accreative way.
These slides - based on the webinar featuring David Monahan, research director for security and risk management at leading IT analyst firm Enterprise Management Associates (EMA), and David Cramer, vice president of product management for Data Center Automation and Cloud at BMC - reveal key data on data breashes.
Few these slides to:
- Understand the risks of the misalignment between security and operations
- Learn what tools and technology are available to help bridge the gap between security and operations
- Build your game plan to help your organization bridge the gap
Keep your company out of the news and your IT organization running smoothly. See how Intelligent Compliance closes the gap that separates IT Security from IT Operations teams – the SecOps gap. http://www.bmc.com/it-solutions/intelligent-compliance.html
Data is the lifeblood of every organization yet many either fail to backup their data or they are not doing so properly. Losing data can be catastrophic for a business. This white paper explains why backups are important and the challenges they face.
Scott Roe from Corporate Risk Solutions, a solution provider at the marcus evans Generation Summit 2012, on protecting utilities from internal and external attacks.
Interview with: Scott Roe, President, Corporate Risk Solutions
These slides - based on the webinar featuring David Monahan, research director for security and risk management at leading IT analyst firm Enterprise Management Associates (EMA), and David Cramer, vice president of product management for Data Center Automation and Cloud at BMC - cover how to set a strategy to protect your organization.
Attend this webinar to:
• Understand the risks of the misalignment between security and operations
• Learn what tools and technology are available to help bridge the gap between security and operations
• Build your game plan to help your organization bridge the gap
Over the past five years, companies of all sizes have been under increased pressure to improve IT efficiency and effectiveness.
IDC customer-based studies show that each year, the average midsize company experiences 15–18 business hours of network, system, or application downtime. Causes of downtime vary, but aging systems can have components or software that fail, while network connections and power grids can fail at any time because of external causes (e.g., weather, construction work, or natural disaster). Outages occurring during business hours result in revenue loss, as orders are dropped, customers move on, and employees cannot access critical applications. IDC research found that revenue losses per hour averaged $75,000. However, the adoption of best practices has allowed midsize companies to reduce downtime significantly in recent years. Solutions that improve system management, protect data assets from loss and unauthorized access, strengthen network security, and ensure availability directly reduce these losses at customer sites.
Business Continuity for Mission Critical ApplicationsDataCore Software
Unplanned interruption events, a.k.a. “disasters,” hit virtually all data centers at one time or another. While the preponderance of annual downtime results from interruptions that have a limited or localized scope of impact, IT planners must also prepare for the possibility of a catastrophic event with a broader geographical footprint.
Such disasters cannot be circumvented simply by using high availability configurations in servers or storage. What is needed, especially for mission-critical applications and databases, are strategies that can help organizations prevail in the wake of “big footprint” disasters, but that can also be implemented in a more limited way in response to interruption events with a more limited impact profile.
DataCore Software’s storage platform provides several capabilities for data protection and disaster recovery that are well-suited to today’s most mission-critical databases and applications.
Five Essential Enterprise Architecture Practices to Create the Security-Aware...UBM_Design_Central
Building secure apps and systems requires upfront and close coordination among many groups.
In this slidecast, George Hulme discusses how enterprise architects can drive that coordination and effect the required change that depends on it.
Whitepaper : Building a disaster ready infrastructureJake Weaver
It’s not just hurricanes, fire or other natureal disasters that can bring a business to its knees. Everyday problems such as bad software, misconfigured networks, hardware failures or power outages are much more common. In fact, power failures accounted for nearly half of the declared disasters reported in a recent survey conducted by Forrester
Management of the IT infrastructure begins at its Foundation. Better Understand how that is defined, implemented and leveraged beyond traditional IT management solutions but in an accreative way.
These slides - based on the webinar featuring David Monahan, research director for security and risk management at leading IT analyst firm Enterprise Management Associates (EMA), and David Cramer, vice president of product management for Data Center Automation and Cloud at BMC - reveal key data on data breashes.
Few these slides to:
- Understand the risks of the misalignment between security and operations
- Learn what tools and technology are available to help bridge the gap between security and operations
- Build your game plan to help your organization bridge the gap
Keep your company out of the news and your IT organization running smoothly. See how Intelligent Compliance closes the gap that separates IT Security from IT Operations teams – the SecOps gap. http://www.bmc.com/it-solutions/intelligent-compliance.html
Data is the lifeblood of every organization yet many either fail to backup their data or they are not doing so properly. Losing data can be catastrophic for a business. This white paper explains why backups are important and the challenges they face.
Scott Roe from Corporate Risk Solutions, a solution provider at the marcus evans Generation Summit 2012, on protecting utilities from internal and external attacks.
Interview with: Scott Roe, President, Corporate Risk Solutions
These slides - based on the webinar featuring David Monahan, research director for security and risk management at leading IT analyst firm Enterprise Management Associates (EMA), and David Cramer, vice president of product management for Data Center Automation and Cloud at BMC - cover how to set a strategy to protect your organization.
Attend this webinar to:
• Understand the risks of the misalignment between security and operations
• Learn what tools and technology are available to help bridge the gap between security and operations
• Build your game plan to help your organization bridge the gap
Over the past five years, companies of all sizes have been under increased pressure to improve IT efficiency and effectiveness.
IDC customer-based studies show that each year, the average midsize company experiences 15–18 business hours of network, system, or application downtime. Causes of downtime vary, but aging systems can have components or software that fail, while network connections and power grids can fail at any time because of external causes (e.g., weather, construction work, or natural disaster). Outages occurring during business hours result in revenue loss, as orders are dropped, customers move on, and employees cannot access critical applications. IDC research found that revenue losses per hour averaged $75,000. However, the adoption of best practices has allowed midsize companies to reduce downtime significantly in recent years. Solutions that improve system management, protect data assets from loss and unauthorized access, strengthen network security, and ensure availability directly reduce these losses at customer sites.
Server virtualization upends this serial relationship. With server virtualization, a
hypervisor dynamically creates multiple, isolated software instances, or virtual machines
(VMs), on a single server. This abstraction allows multiple workloads to simultaneously
share the server's resources. By interleaving the ebb and flow of multiple workloads,
server utilization rates can be dramatically and permanently improved. In addition, server
sprawl can, for a period of time, be reversed.
Business Continuity Management (BCM) and Continuity of Operations (COOP) is a multi-dimensional practice requiring a balance of investment against risk to the enterprise.
WhiteHat Security, the Web security company, today released the twelfth installment of the WhiteHat Security Website Security Statistics Report. The report reviewed serious vulnerabilities* in websites during the 2011 calendar year, examining the severity and duration of the most critical vulnerabilities from 7,000 websites across major vertical markets. Among the findings in the report, WhiteHat research suggests that the average number of serious vulnerabilities found per website per year in 2011 was 79, a substantial reduction from 230 in 2010 and down from 1,111 in 2007. Despite the significant improvement in the state of website security, organizational challenges in creating security programs that balance breadth of coverage and depth of testing leave large-scale attack surfaces or small, but very high-risk vulnerabilities open to attackers.
The report examined data from more than 7,000 websites across over 500 organizations that are continually assessed for vulnerabilities by WhiteHat Security’s family of Sentinel Services. This process provides a real-world look at website security across a range of vertical markets, including findings from the energy and non-profit verticals for the first time this year. The metrics provided serve as a foundation for improving enterprise application security online.
Strategic Information Management Through Data ClassificationBooz Allen Hamilton
This white paper presents a comprehensive approach to information management programs. It outlines how data growth directly affects the risk posture of critical corporate information assets. In addition, it defines common problems caused by gaps in information management programs as well as consequences associated with immature methodologies.
GLOBAL ASSET, INC. (GAI) Global Asset, Inc. (GAI) is a fin.docxbudbarber38650
GLOBAL ASSET, INC. (GAI)
Global Asset, Inc. (GAI) is a financial company that manages thousands of accounts across Canada, the United
States, and Mexico. A public company traded on the NYSE, GAI specializes in financial management, loan
application approval, wholesale loan processing, and investment of money management for their customers.
GAI employs over 1,600 employees and has been experiencing consistent growth keeping pace with S&P averages
(approximately 8%) for nearly six years. A well-honed management strategy built on scaling operational
performance through automation and technological innovation has propelled the company into the big leagues; GAI
was only recently profiled in Fortune Magazine.
The executive management team of GAI:
CEO
John Thompson
Vice Presidnet
Trey Elway
Executive
Assistant
Julie Anderson
Executive
Assistant
Kim Johnson
Executive
Assistant
Michelle Wang
CFO
Ron Johnson
COO
Mike Willy
CCO
Andy Murphy
Director of
Marketing
John King
Director of HR
Ted Young
Figure 1 GAI Management Organizational Chart
BACKGROUND AND YOUR ROLE
You are the Computer Security Manager educated, trained, and hired to protect the physical and operational
security of GAI’s corporate information system.
You were hired by COO Mike Willy and currently report to the COO. You are responsible for a $5.25m
annual budget, a staff of 11, and a sprawling and expansive data center located on the 5
th
floor of the
corporate tower. This position is the pinnacle of your career – you are counting on your performance here
to pave the way into a more strategic leadership position in IT, filling a vacancy that you feel is so
significantly lacking from the executive team.
There is actually a reason for this. CEO John Thompson believes that the IT problem is a known quantity –
that is, she feels the IT function can be nearly entirely outsourced at fractions of the cost associated with
creating and maintaining an established internal IT department; the CEO’s strategy has been to prevent IT
from becoming a core competency since so many services can be obtained from 3
rd
parties. Since the CEO
has taken the reigns two years ago, the CEO has made significant headway in cutting your department’s
budget by 30% and reducing half of your staff through outsourcing. This has been a political fight for you:
maintaining and reinforcing the relevance of an internal IT department is a constant struggle. COO Willy’s
act of hiring you was, in fact, an act of desperation: the increasing operational dependence on technology
combined with a diminishing IT footprint gravely concerned Jacobson, and he begged to at least bring in a
manager to whom these obligations could be delegated to. Jacobson’s worst nightmare is a situation where
the Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability of the information system was compromised – bringing the
company to its knees – then having to rely.
There is no getting around it, if a business today loses accessto its data, it is soon out of business. There are many reasonswhy an organization could find its access to reliable, securedata compromised—everything from a missing laptop to acorporate merger to a hurricane (see Figure 1). Then there are the legal and compliance requirements. In fact, many
organizations that never previously considered themselves tobe potential targets for hackers, or maintainers of sensitivecustomer data, now find themselves every bit as responsiblefor compliance as banks, hospitals and other traditional sub-jects of compliance regulations.
"𝑩𝑬𝑮𝑼𝑵 𝑾𝑰𝑻𝑯 𝑻𝑱 𝑰𝑺 𝑯𝑨𝑳𝑭 𝑫𝑶𝑵𝑬"
𝐓𝐉 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐬 (𝐓𝐉 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬) is a professional event agency that includes experts in the event-organizing market in Vietnam, Korea, and ASEAN countries. We provide unlimited types of events from Music concerts, Fan meetings, and Culture festivals to Corporate events, Internal company events, Golf tournaments, MICE events, and Exhibitions.
𝐓𝐉 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐬 provides unlimited package services including such as Event organizing, Event planning, Event production, Manpower, PR marketing, Design 2D/3D, VIP protocols, Interpreter agency, etc.
Sports events - Golf competitions/billiards competitions/company sports events: dynamic and challenging
⭐ 𝐅𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐬:
➢ 2024 BAEKHYUN [Lonsdaleite] IN HO CHI MINH
➢ SUPER JUNIOR-L.S.S. THE SHOW : Th3ee Guys in HO CHI MINH
➢FreenBecky 1st Fan Meeting in Vietnam
➢CHILDREN ART EXHIBITION 2024: BEYOND BARRIERS
➢ WOW K-Music Festival 2023
➢ Winner [CROSS] Tour in HCM
➢ Super Show 9 in HCM with Super Junior
➢ HCMC - Gyeongsangbuk-do Culture and Tourism Festival
➢ Korean Vietnam Partnership - Fair with LG
➢ Korean President visits Samsung Electronics R&D Center
➢ Vietnam Food Expo with Lotte Wellfood
"𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲, 𝐚 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐣𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐲. 𝐖𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐞 𝐚 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬."
Improving profitability for small businessBen Wann
In this comprehensive presentation, we will explore strategies and practical tips for enhancing profitability in small businesses. Tailored to meet the unique challenges faced by small enterprises, this session covers various aspects that directly impact the bottom line. Attendees will learn how to optimize operational efficiency, manage expenses, and increase revenue through innovative marketing and customer engagement techniques.
Accpac to QuickBooks Conversion Navigating the Transition with Online Account...PaulBryant58
This article provides a comprehensive guide on how to
effectively manage the convert Accpac to QuickBooks , with a particular focus on utilizing online accounting services to streamline the process.
Personal Brand Statement:
As an Army veteran dedicated to lifelong learning, I bring a disciplined, strategic mindset to my pursuits. I am constantly expanding my knowledge to innovate and lead effectively. My journey is driven by a commitment to excellence, and to make a meaningful impact in the world.
Explore our most comprehensive guide on lookback analysis at SafePaaS, covering access governance and how it can transform modern ERP audits. Browse now!
India Orthopedic Devices Market: Unlocking Growth Secrets, Trends and Develop...Kumar Satyam
According to TechSci Research report, “India Orthopedic Devices Market -Industry Size, Share, Trends, Competition Forecast & Opportunities, 2030”, the India Orthopedic Devices Market stood at USD 1,280.54 Million in 2024 and is anticipated to grow with a CAGR of 7.84% in the forecast period, 2026-2030F. The India Orthopedic Devices Market is being driven by several factors. The most prominent ones include an increase in the elderly population, who are more prone to orthopedic conditions such as osteoporosis and arthritis. Moreover, the rise in sports injuries and road accidents are also contributing to the demand for orthopedic devices. Advances in technology and the introduction of innovative implants and prosthetics have further propelled the market growth. Additionally, government initiatives aimed at improving healthcare infrastructure and the increasing prevalence of lifestyle diseases have led to an upward trend in orthopedic surgeries, thereby fueling the market demand for these devices.
What are the main advantages of using HR recruiter services.pdfHumanResourceDimensi1
HR recruiter services offer top talents to companies according to their specific needs. They handle all recruitment tasks from job posting to onboarding and help companies concentrate on their business growth. With their expertise and years of experience, they streamline the hiring process and save time and resources for the company.
Affordable Stationery Printing Services in Jaipur | Navpack n PrintNavpack & Print
Looking for professional printing services in Jaipur? Navpack n Print offers high-quality and affordable stationery printing for all your business needs. Stand out with custom stationery designs and fast turnaround times. Contact us today for a quote!
3.0 Project 2_ Developing My Brand Identity Kit.pptxtanyjahb
A personal brand exploration presentation summarizes an individual's unique qualities and goals, covering strengths, values, passions, and target audience. It helps individuals understand what makes them stand out, their desired image, and how they aim to achieve it.
RMD24 | Debunking the non-endemic revenue myth Marvin Vacquier Droop | First ...BBPMedia1
Marvin neemt je in deze presentatie mee in de voordelen van non-endemic advertising op retail media netwerken. Hij brengt ook de uitdagingen in beeld die de markt op dit moment heeft op het gebied van retail media voor niet-leveranciers.
Retail media wordt gezien als het nieuwe advertising-medium en ook mediabureaus richten massaal retail media-afdelingen op. Merken die niet in de betreffende winkel liggen staan ook nog niet in de rij om op de retail media netwerken te adverteren. Marvin belicht de uitdagingen die er zijn om echt aansluiting te vinden op die markt van non-endemic advertising.
[Note: This is a partial preview. To download this presentation, visit:
https://www.oeconsulting.com.sg/training-presentations]
Sustainability has become an increasingly critical topic as the world recognizes the need to protect our planet and its resources for future generations. Sustainability means meeting our current needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs. It involves long-term planning and consideration of the consequences of our actions. The goal is to create strategies that ensure the long-term viability of People, Planet, and Profit.
Leading companies such as Nike, Toyota, and Siemens are prioritizing sustainable innovation in their business models, setting an example for others to follow. In this Sustainability training presentation, you will learn key concepts, principles, and practices of sustainability applicable across industries. This training aims to create awareness and educate employees, senior executives, consultants, and other key stakeholders, including investors, policymakers, and supply chain partners, on the importance and implementation of sustainability.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Develop a comprehensive understanding of the fundamental principles and concepts that form the foundation of sustainability within corporate environments.
2. Explore the sustainability implementation model, focusing on effective measures and reporting strategies to track and communicate sustainability efforts.
3. Identify and define best practices and critical success factors essential for achieving sustainability goals within organizations.
CONTENTS
1. Introduction and Key Concepts of Sustainability
2. Principles and Practices of Sustainability
3. Measures and Reporting in Sustainability
4. Sustainability Implementation & Best Practices
To download the complete presentation, visit: https://www.oeconsulting.com.sg/training-presentations
Discover the innovative and creative projects that highlight my journey throu...dylandmeas
Discover the innovative and creative projects that highlight my journey through Full Sail University. Below, you’ll find a collection of my work showcasing my skills and expertise in digital marketing, event planning, and media production.
Discover the innovative and creative projects that highlight my journey throu...
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1. IBM Global Technology Services May 2011
Thought Leadership White Paper
Proactive technical support:
The overlooked essential in
business resilience
Combine hardware and software technical support with business
continuity and disaster recovery plans
2. 2 Proactive technical support: The overlooked essential in business resilience
Contents In fact, in light of the risks associated with business disruptions
in today’s climate, responses to the IBM Global IT Risk Study—
2 Introduction a comprehensive online survey of 556 IT managers and others
4 Addressing risk driven by business, events and data primarily involved in their business’s IT functions—uncovered a
surprising paradox. Fifty-four percent of respondents said their
5 Redefining the requisite elements of business resilience overall approach to mitigating IT risk was good. However, only
23 percent of respondents believed their organizations were well
6 Foundational business continuity for today’s
prepared for hardware and software system failures. And when
infrastructures
asked to list the kinds of risk issues they had dealt with in the
8 Beyond foundational resiliency: transferring risk previous 12 months, respondents ranked systems failures second
only to security breaches.1
10 Essential characteristics of a business resilience vendor
As the respondents’ experiences would indicate, hardware and
11 IBM’s business resilience capabilities
software support are critical to an effective business resilience
12 For more information strategy. Yet organizations often spend their time focusing on
other, albeit equally important, elements of business continuity,
including a range of provisions to avert interruptions—from
Introduction normal business events to unforeseen catastrophes. These provi-
Today’s business environments are at their most complex.
sions include backup servers, data mirroring, data backups,
Enterprises continue to undergo rapid change while facing the
offsite data storage and disaster recovery. While all of these ele-
heightened impact of business disruptions and coping with a
ments are critical, they can fall short of meeting daily needs for
volatile financial and regulatory landscape. The possibility for
system availability. Without hardware and software viability,
business disruptions has increased exponentially, and so have the
organizations are only as strong as their weakest link.
ramifications. Yet when planning for business continuity, many
organizations overlook the importance of technical support.
For example, one of the basic tenets of business resilience is
Hardware and software failures are often perceived as routine
maintaining data and service availability, both of which are
occurrences, but without a proactive management approach,
directly threatened when software and hardware failures occur.
they can quickly evolve into full-blown disasters with significant
Unplanned outages can create far-reaching consequences that
financial and reputational consequences. For this reason, success-
impact long-term revenue streams, brand reputation and sur-
ful organizations reinforce their business resilience strategy with
vival. The potential impact may be more prevalent than previ-
proactive hardware and software technical support. As shown in
ously thought. In fact, a March 2011 report on UK businesses
responses to the 2010 IBM Global IT Risk Study, many others
revealed that more than 80 percent of business interruptions in
still do not.
2010 were due to hardware failures. The report also revealed
that more than 50 percent of hardware failures were a result
of inadequate maintenance in place to protect equipment
against failures.2
3. IBM Global Technology Services 3
Software errors can be equally damaging. In late 2009, a major What are the provisions for releasing fixes and updates for
online reseller saw its site crash, just in time for holiday shop- microcode and business-critical applications, and for ensuring
ping, due to a software error that collided with a surge in web that these are applied at every endpoint where the applications
site traffic.3 In January 2009, Google’s search engine erroneously are in use? Security patches can require distribution in near real
notified users that every web site worldwide was potentially time. Is the organization prepared to do so?
malicious, including its own. A programmer’s misplaced forward
slash (/) was to blame.4 In another case, a software problem con- What is the plan to prevent servers that house customer-
tributed to a rail car fire in a major underground metro system facing web services from crashing?
in 2007 when software designed to monitor performance did not
detect overheating.5 The 2003 North America blackout was trig- This white paper will discuss the foundational elements of a
gered by a local outage that went undetected due to a flaw in the strong business resilience plan, which must holistically include
monitoring software.6 not only the generally established capabilities for business
continuity and disaster recovery but also hardware and
Even with these numerous occurrences, effective hardware software support.
and software support—while often addressed within the
organization—are often not included as part of a comprehensive
business resiliency plan; in many cases business continuity is
In a recent survey of 200 disaster recovery
managed in one silo, and hardware and software support in decision makers and influencers conducted
another, hindering cross-infrastructure visibility and leaving the
jointly by Forrester and the Disaster Recov-
business exposed to risk.
ery Journal (see Figure 1), when asked,
Organizations must be able to answer questions like: “What was the cause(s) of your most recent
What would happen if a Microsoft Exchange server on
disaster declaration(s) or major business dis-
which corporate emails are stored were to crash? Are there pro- ruption?”, twenty-four percent of respondents
visions for server technical support and maintenance, in addition cited IT hardware failure, second only behind
to backup servers?
power failure. Eleven percent of respondents
How long, if at all, would business operations continue if an cited software failure as the culprit.7
email server became unavailable?
4. 4 Proactive technical support: The overlooked essential in business resilience
“What is the cause(s) of your most significant disaster declaration(s)
or major business disruption?”
Power failure 44%
IT hardware failure 24%
Network failure 15%
Winter storm 14%
Human error 13%
Flood 13%
IT software failure 11%
Fire 6%
Other 5%
Hurricane 4%
Tornado 2%
Earthquake 1%
Terrorism 1%
We have not declared a disaster or
36%
had a major business disruption
Base: 200 disaster recovery decision makers and influencers at business globally (multiple responses accepted)
Source: Forrester/Disaster Recovery Journal November 2010 Global Disaster Recovery Preparedness Online
Figure 1: A 2010 Forrester/Disaster Recovery Journal survey revealed hardware failures were ranked second only to power failures as the most common source
of a recent disaster or business disruption.
Addressing risk driven by business, events Most business resilience strategies address business-driven
and data events, such as audits, new product rollouts, future marketing
A comprehensive, successful business resilience strategy includes promotions, or failure to meet industry standards. They also
provisions for ensuring continuous business operations and address event-driven risks, such as natural disasters, regional
around-the-clock global service delivery, providing the ability power outages, acts of war or economic downturns. In fact,
to act with speed and agility when an unforeseen event strikes. organizations today may be the best prepared to manage the lat-
To accomplish this, organizations must address all potential chal- ter, understanding the need to quickly react to revenue shortfalls
lenges to business resilience, which can be divided into three and drastic shifts in business goals.
categories: business-, event- and data-driven events.
5. IBM Global Technology Services 5
The missing piece for many business resilience strategies is in Redefining the requisite elements of business resilience
effectively and proactively addressing the possibility of data- Most business resilience plans have mainly focused on business
driven events, such as data corruption, disk failure, application continuity and disaster recovery, including provisions for backup
outages and network problems—which can sometimes be traced servers, data mirroring and failover to protect data after failures
to software or hardware system failures. The reality is that if occur, but in order to prevent failures, organizations must take a
organizations have a strong business continuity program that more holistic approach by incorporating hardware and software
includes network, application and data security but inadequate maintenance and support into the overall business resilience
levels of technical support, they are putting the business at risk plan. Both prevention and remediation are critical, yet often the
on a day-to-day basis. An operating system without the latest two are addressed by separate IT teams. This makes it difficult
patches and fixes installed can spread a virus to backup servers, to provide a cohesive approach to business resilience that can
for example. Likewise, an older version of microcode on a server cover enterprise and work area risk, IT stability, recoverability of
can cause failures when new applications are installed. the IT infrastructure, data backup and disaster recovery—as well
as availability of critical data and business applications. It is these
last two, data and application availability, that require a compre-
hensive hardware and software support strategy that can meet
Indian bank speeds time to market by combining disaster
the demands of enterprises facing rapid change and a volatile,
recovery with IT infrastructure maintenance
highly regulated marketplace—a marketplace that depends on
A regional bank in India wanted to provide “anywhere bank- the secure and continuous flow of information. Uninterrupted
ing” services to customers to secure competitive advantage, business operations, and even ongoing business strategy, hinge
yet its small IT team was unable to manage the undertaking on the ability of hardware and software to enable the transforma-
alone. The bank engaged IBM to build a comprehensive
tion of data into that information. Addressed separately, technol-
business resilience plan that combined disaster recovery—
ogy, software and hardware, and even the data they contain,
including procedure documentation and drill support—and
become useless. Integrating the layers of business resilience, and
IT infrastructure maintenance, including 24×7 comprehensive
monitoring and management services for servers, storage, addressing hardware and software support within those layers
networks, security, backup and databases. The combined (see Figure 2), is essential.
disaster recovery and infrastructure maintenance strategy
reduced the bank’s upfront capital expenditure for web-
facing systems. It also eliminated the need for multivendor
coordination, enabling the bank to better use existing IT
staff and ultimately increase time to market for new service
delivery. Total cost of ownership went down while ROI
increased.
6. 6 Proactive technical support: The overlooked essential in business resilience
Risk mitigation strategies Freight railroad increases efficiency and flexibility with
new business resilience plan
Business Data Event
driven driven driven A North American freight railroad that services 23 states
and two Canadian provinces relies heavily on 24×7 applica-
tion availability but lacked a disaster recovery facility. The
Strategy and vision company worked with IBM to establish data mirroring
capabilities that would help them achieve near real-time
Organization recovery point objectives, as well as hardware and software
maintenance and support across multiple vendors.
Processes
Afterward, the railroad incorporated all its equipment and
Technical support
applications, from IBM and other vendors, into a comprehen-
sive business resilience plan. The transition was so seamless
Applications and data that customers and supply chain partners requested that
additional applications be included in the plan. By adding
Technology new technologies like virtualization into their data center, the
railroad established data center portability, self-healing and
Facilities greater flexibility during business recovery.
Business resilience
Foundational business continuity for
Figure 2: To maintain the continuous flow of information required to support today’s infrastructures
uninterrupted business operations, each layer shown above must be inte- Best-in-class companies take a holistic approach that combines
grated within a comprehensive business resilience framework that provides
for business-, event- and data-driven events. Hardware and software support
planning, prevention and remediation to help solidify ongoing
should be addressed within the technology, applications and data, and business operations. Yet this may be easier to accomplish in the-
processes layers. ory than in practice. The challenge is that today’s data center is a
mixture of vendor products and platforms, and is more difficult
to support in a coherent way. Faced with staffing and budget
limitations, few organizations can maintain a stable of experts on
every platform and product on which they do business. This
adds complexity to maintaining not only data availability, but
also security and consistent resilience policy enforcement.
7. IBM Global Technology Services 7
With this in mind, a comprehensive business resilience strategy ● Appropriate system redundancy, ranging from onsite backup
built for the needs of today’s IT infrastructures should include: servers and storage to offsite mirrored systems with automatic
failover
● A tested and proven business resilience program and plan that ● Security, privacy and data protection to guard against internal
addresses business continuity, disaster recovery and hardware threats (such as data theft) and external threats (such as viruses)
and software support ● Technical processes, including change management and appli-
● Support for regulatory compliance and governance cation testing, that help prevent system failures
requirements ● Hardware maintenance and support for multivendor
● Consistent policy enforcement across departments, corporate environments
divisions and global locations ● Software maintenance and support that provides fast access to
● Offsite data center and work area recovery capabilities, deeply skilled expertise
including alternate employee workspaces ● Remote support capabilities (including execution of fixes and
● A tested and proven data backup and archiving system with patches) and web self-service to provide access to technical
offsite storage expertise, help prevent failures and speed problem
determination and resolution.
IBM’s Modular Support Services Are Designed to Optimize Your
Support Today and Tomorrow
Support Continuum Integrated infrastructure
availability management
Single point of accountability
Adaptive service levels
Integrated hardware and
Multi-vendor support
software support
Contract and inventory
Preventative hardware and
management
software support
Client value
Customized support
System monitoring and
automated services
Hardware support Managed support
Software support
Remote Support
Web self-service Enhanced support
Support
Foundation Proactive Preventive
Figure 3: Hardware and software support is a foundational component of business resilience. Organizations can further enhance business continuity by adding
capabilities such as system monitoring and integrated infrastructure availability management.
8. 8 Proactive technical support: The overlooked essential in business resilience
Beyond foundational resiliency:
IT services provider leverages single contact for disaster transferring risk
recovery No matter the approach to developing a business resilience strat-
A company that provides a passenger service system and egy, every organization must first understand its risks and then
data center services for one of the largest airlines in take action to mitigate those risks. For risk mitigation, it is
Indonesia had a local backup system in place but no disaster sometimes more cost-effective and strategic to transfer the risk
recovery solution, which the company needed to implement to a skilled vendor rather than invest in the skills training and
prior to their initial public offering. The company engaged capital outlays that may be required to maintain consistent and
IBM to create a comprehensive disaster recovery solution high-functioning business operations in the face of a business-,
with ongoing disaster recovery support, including a data event- or data-driven event. In this case, managed support (see
center and disaster recovery center facility, 24×7 managed Figure 3) can help organizations achieve enhanced IT availability
services, and mainframe maintenance. Today, the company
to support the continuous availability of business operations.
has a single point of contact for hardware and a majority of
its software and operating systems, services and communi-
cations; a comprehensive disaster recovery solution; and a Organizations seeking advanced capabilities for business conti-
secure environment for its IT equipment. nuity and disaster recovery may require:
Event-driven managed services to meet recovery time and
recovery point objectives after a business disruption, including
Japanese business achieves one-day disaster recovery
fast backups, restores and critical data archiving, to help mitigate
and critical hardware support
business impact. Other capabilities that may be required include
Previously, the largest publication distributor in Japan workload balancing, limiting data loss via email recovery and
managed the recovery of its bookstores’ operating systems supporting workforce resiliency through emergency
and applications in-house—a time-consuming, resource- notifications.
intensive process. The company needed to accelerate the
recovery of mission-critical files and applications during fre-
Outsourced recovery of IT and business infrastructures, includ-
quent unplanned outages. Today, IBM provides file recovery
support and disaster recovery services for the company’s ing work areas, from disruptions to help reduce costs and time-
applications, operating systems and hardware within one frames related to lost employee productivity. Capabilities for
business day. IBM also provides ongoing maintenance and maintaining continuity of critical systems, protecting against loss
software troubleshooting services. The company has of key business data and employee productivity, and meeting
improved service levels, and outsourcing enables the distrib- regulatory compliance mandates can help prevent business
utor’s IT team to focus on core competencies while reducing disruptions.
recovery costs.
9. IBM Global Technology Services 9
Security-rich, automated protection of critical business data failures and remove complexity. As new solutions are added to
through onsite and offsite cloud-based services to reduce the the infrastructure, they create additional points of failure. Proper
need for infrastructure build-out to protect and store massive change orchestration across hardware and software updates and
amounts of data. maintenance is crucial.
Auditable compliance with general and industry-specific regula- A single point of accountability across vendors based on consis-
tory requirements to help track data access and prove data pro- tently agreed upon and continuously monitored service levels,
tection to avoid violations. Unproven security policies and which can significantly improve availability management and
procedures for widely distributed data can open the door to speed time to resolution by avoiding finger pointing during
public disclosure requirements. problem isolation.
Holistic support focused on application availability for the end Proactive monitoring to minimize or eliminate the business
user rather than isolated server and storage availability. A view impact of technical problems by continually tracking the health
into how hardware availability affects software availability, which, of the IT infrastructure via real-time dashboards, which can help
in turn, greatly impacts business continuity, is critical. anticipate future problems and notify IT to take preventive
action.
Deep technology expertise, including an understanding of the
inter-relation between applications and infrastructure compo- Contract and inventory management capabilities, which are
nents, especially in complex environments such as virtualization. essential to maintaining compliance and controlling IT asset
Today, services and resources are distributed across what had costs. License compliance and inventories can be tracked auto-
been isolated domains—which means older management tools matically, removing manual, inaccurate oversight while avoiding
may be ineffective. Deep expertise and insight can prevent over-purchasing and under-licensing.
hardware and software failures from impacting business-critical
services. Customized support, which is especially relevant for multivendor,
multidomain environments where complex dependencies can
Integrated hardware and software capabilities, including cross- wreak havoc on administrators who do not have the insight or
platform and multivendor technical support and proactive time to manage this type of infrastructure.
microcode and release management, which can help prevent
10. 10 Proactive technical support: The overlooked essential in business resilience
● Globally consistent services, from simple break-fix to compre-
Data storage company transfers risk to improve service hensive, end-to-end support capabilities, so that every location
delivery can access immediate expertise to resolve events
● The ability to anticipate problems and provide proactive guid-
A data storage company that provides hardware devices
ance to meet required service level agreements
and data management software to customers in virtually
every industry had previously provided ongoing product
● Proof of potential cost savings via outsourced support that may
support via internal resources and a network of seven indi- include remote support tools and staff as well as management
vidual third-party maintainers (TPMs) in the United States of contracts, warranties and asset inventories
and dozens of TPMs worldwide. Product support was poor, ● Understanding of global business needs and IT strategies, an
and the business suffered. The company integrated its cus- essential characteristic for organizations focused on maintain-
tomer relationship management system with IBM’s, allowing ing competitive advantage
IBM service representatives and engineers to respond to ● Remote and automated tools, which can help control the
technical support calls and requests for on-site support. labor costs of maintaining the IT infrastructure and also speed
Providing customers with a single point-of-contact and a sin- problem resolution
gle workflow for all calls reduces the number of interactions ● Proactive monitoring and event notifications to prevent busi-
while improving service quality. The cost savings for the first
ness disruptions
year was approximately US$8 million, with a possible cost
● Parts replacement capabilities, on time, at the right locations
savings over five years of more than US$40 million.
Assessing risk
Essential characteristics of a business
An effective business resilience plan must begin with a
resilience vendor thorough risk analysis:
Organizations looking to solidify business resilience should care-
fully consider the capabilities of the vendor(s) with whom they ● Rank threats based on past occurrences, the amount of
choose to work. A business resilience vendor should be able to potential revenue loss, damage to the brand, compliance
provide: risks and single points of failure
● Prioritize safeguards, including provisions for hardware
and software support, business continuity and disaster
● Global leadership in technical expertise, including broad infra-
recovery
structure competence and deep, multiplatform technology ● Conduct a cost-benefit analysis for a quantitative risk
skills assessment
● Highly responsive, international support for the full scope of ● Determine next steps based on threat severity, selected
IT infrastructure operations, both current operations and safeguards, and the cost and ease of implementation.
operations scoped for near-term and long-term expansion
Take the IBM risk self-assessment
11. IBM Global Technology Services 11
IBM’s business resilience capabilities For technical support, IBM provides nearly 15,000 technicians
Through IBM, organizations can obtain all the foundational and support personnel, 400 parts distribution centers and more
capabilities needed for a solid business resilience strategy than 80 support centers located worldwide, so that organizations
, including business continuity, disaster recovery and hardware can expect responsiveness no matter where they are located,
and software technical support, that can fully address business-, including 24×7 service logistics network availability. For business
event- and data-driven risks to the business. In addition, continuity support, organizations can look to IBM’s extensive
IBM can provide proof of potential cost savings of between infrastructure investments; more than 1,800 dedicated business
5 and 40 percent, depending on the current state of the support continuity professionals; more than 150 business resilience cen-
environment and how much support is out-tasked.8 IBM’s depth ters located worldwide; and the depth of knowledge drawn from
of expertise—across multiple vendor platforms—and breadth of more than 50 years of business resilience and disaster recovery
resilience capabilities are designed to support today’s complex IT experience with more than 12,000 disaster recovery clients—all
infrastructures. of which has led respected industry analysts to recognize IBM as
a leader in business continuity and resilience.