Mistakes in 2013 are lessons for 2014

It is a popular saying that we learn through making mistakes. But what if we were able to educate people prior to making mistakes so that they can be prevented altogether? Surely when it comes to disaster recovery of IT infrastructure, in this fast moving technologically advanced world it is too risky to take chances and let other businesses overtake you as your systems fail. But we see time and time again businesses becoming distracted with the money making side of their operation that protecting a legacy of reputation and success seems to be thrown on to the back burner.

As we approach the end of 2013, it is time to focus on one of the major lessons learned from disasters that occurred this year, so that we can minimize the effects if similar disasters take place in 2014.

One of the best examples to focus on is the disaster centralized around the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), namely the IT outage that occurred earlier this month which caused havoc among customers and business practices.

Unfortunately for RBS the IT outage occurred on one of the busiest online shopping days of the year, often referred to as ‘Cyber Monday.’ During the three hour downtime, more than one million customers were unable to use their debit cards to make card payments, withdraw cash from ATMs or use their online banking facility.

It definitely wasn’t the first time the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) experienced an IT outage but by adopting a BMR solution in to their business continuity plan for the future, it can hopefully be the last!

This incident followed a number of IT failures for RBS as another system outage took place earlier in the year from a hardware failure which prevented customers from accessing online banking, using ATM's and carrying out point of service payments. 

Even further, these incidents follow RBS’s largest catastrophic IT meltdown which took place in June last year, where payments were held up and balances were not updated for over a week.

While analysts have already described RBS’s technology as outdated and question its resilience, the new CEO for RBS has even admitted that RBS has neglected its technology by failing to have invested properly in its systems for decades.

After being footed with a whopping £175 million bill in compensation to their customers, and a huge dent in their reputation, it really is time for RBS to invest properly in state of the art technology and software that protects their IT infrastructure.

Let this be a lesson to all businesses who have not invested in protecting their systems yet, and even those who do not carry out regular tests that the software solution in place can be relied upon if a disaster strikes.

Do not follow in the footsteps of RBS. Instead, invest in protecting your systems today. Cristie Software: predictable recoveries in an unpredictable world. To find out more contact a member of our sales team on: +44 1453 847000 or by using any of the links below:

Read what the Cristie Ball predicts for Cloud Computing in 2014;

Last year it was predicted that the rate of cloud adoption and migration would rise in 2013 and we can see that the Cloud has been brought to popularity.

As we reach the end of 2013 here are our top 5 predictions from the Cristie Ball for cloud and virtualization in 2014:

• Cloud adoption will continue to grow as businesses become serious about the Cloud as a business tool, with saving time and money being the strongest influences. Check out the links for more information.

• There will be a growing enterprise use of the public cloud as more and more enterprises are becoming increasingly comfortable and trusting of the security and scale of public clouds.

• Efficiently managing and storing information that may never be used again will be a huge issue for IT managers and administrators, especially with the costs associated with VM sprawl. It will become increasingly easier to lose control of the volume of virtual machines so it will be vital to implement successful policies in order to gain control.

• Adoption of the private cloud will continue to grow at a slower pace and mainly among finance and healthcare industries where there are compliance and security issues that require on-site data hosting.

• The quantity of Big Data in the Cloud will rapidly increase, especially with businesses requiring more and more storage for data. This will be particularly important for social media providers who will need a way of handling all the data as social networks and niche networks continue to grow. Social media will act as a big driver for cloud adoption in 2014, and we will see the beginning of Big Data-as-a-service.

Get yourself ahead of the game and migrate your systems today with:

CloneManager™ provides users with a facility to monitor and manage their server infrastructure and to pro-actively clone machines to other resources: physical; virtual or cloud. This allows users to optimize resource allocation, migrate machines to different environments and provides disaster recovery (DR) capabilities. 

For information on any of Cristie Software's disaster recovery software solutions contact the sales team on: +44 1453 847000 or by using any of the links below:

The disastrous effects of IT downtime!

By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.

The ability to create solutions to problems before they exist will keep you miles ahead of the game when disaster strikes. Try to think outside the box when it comes to identifying disastrous situations that could occur. If it can go wrong, it will. Being over cautious and paranoid about the minutest of errors that may arise will help to keep you in control of your business. Even the smallest unintended consequences can cause serious damage. Constantly asking yourself ‘what if?’ will allow you to get a real handle on these issues.

  

To help inspire you to think of possible issues that could occur and get the clogs working here are a few pointers to consider:

•          Network outages
•          Cyber attacks
•          Employee sabotage
•          Viruses
•          Sudden loss of internet services
•          Malfunctioning equipment
•          Potential accidents
•          Knowledge gap of staff because of the speed of developing technology
•          Natural disasters –consider all!

Once all potential problems have been identified and logged, it’s time to create strategies which will overcome each of them. A good disaster recovery plan will cover all possible natural and man-made issues along with solutions to defeat them, and will act as an information insurance policy for businesses to get back on its feet quickly after any disaster occurs.

For seven simple steps on how to create a successful disaster recovery plan view this short guide.

Remember: with disaster recovery planning there is no such thing as being over-cautious.

Cristie Software: predictable recoveries in an unpredictable world.

For information on any of Cristie Software's disaster recovery software solutions contact the sales team on:   +44 1453 847000 or by using any of the links below:

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Scalability with Cloud Computing.

Top three reasons why businesses fail to meet their RTO. Do these apply to you?

The recovery time objective (RTO) is the maximum tolerable length of time that a computer, system, network, or application can be down after a failure or disaster occurs.

Unfortunately, many companies fail to meet their Disaster Recovery RTOs because of the top three common mistakes detailed below. 

   1.  Unrealistic Expectations;

Many backup products today follow the rule of thumb that it will take businesses 50% longer to restore their entire systems than the original backup. Many businesses have been failing to meet their RTO because of believing that the recovery time will be the same as how long it takes to back up the differences each day to tape. It may take 12 hours to back up the differences each night, however if the initial original backup of the entire database and systems took 48 hours then imagine how long it will take to restore all the databases and systems after a disaster!

Solution! 

Your ‘unrealistic’ expectations are no longer improbable with Cristie Software’s TBMR solution. In fact TBMR will not only enable you to meet these commonly labelled ‘unrealistic’ RTO expectations, but they will exceed them!

This is because, unlike other backup and recovery software products, TBMR is unique in its ability to recover directly from the TSM server enabling:

• A fast recovery of a system within minutes
• Simultaneous recovery of machines, meaning an entire data center can be recovered in just a few hours!

   2.  Backing up the raw data only or even creating the wrong type of backup;
It is a common mistake for people to forget to back up the system files that allow you to access and use the data. For example, people will back up their Windows data, but forget to backup the system state information necessary to restore the entire server. 

However!

You no longer have to risk forgetting to backup your key system files with Cristie Software’s TBMR solution. This is because the recovered machine is an identical copy of the original, which is not the case when software is re-installed. This gives you complete peace of mind that the entire server will be recovered. This is crucial for machines that have been fine-tuned over a long period of time, such as those used in production lines.

   3. Using a tape backup medium;
If your backup medium is tape, the recovery process is drastically lengthened which causes a failure to meet your disaster recovery RTO. This is because of tape contention whereby multiple recovery tasks rely on the data set residing on the same tape causing the restores to run serially instead of in parallel which greatly increases the recovery time.

You can minimize tape contention by:

• Always take in to account the recovery process when you are creating backups 
• Prioritizing your recovery by infrastructure dependencies and significance of the applications 
• Assess your backup strategy to ensure that your crucial data is not getting backed up to the same tapes

Don’t ever fail to meet your RTO again: Invest in TBMR.

Contact our sales team on:  +44 1453 847000 or contact us using the links below:

Does Cloud Computing really help to keep the planet greener?

Why wait for a disaster to strike before re-evaluating your business continuity plan? Reduce downtime now by migrating your systems today.

Are you HIPAA compliant?

By the end of reading this blog you should be able to:

• Understand the HIPAA security standards
• Compare the current requirements with your organisations security
• Learn how Cristie Software’s Bare Machine Recovery (BMR) solutions will help you become HIPAA compliant and avoid HITECH penalties

HIPAA Regulations

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was formed in 1996 to protect the confidentiality of patients personal medical information and applies to any health care provider, health plan or clearinghouse (collectively ‘covered entities’) that electronically maintains or transmits patient health information. Following this, in 2009 the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) was formed which implemented stricter penalties for HIPAA violations and expanded the covered entities to include business associates of medical offices.

Within the HIPAA regulations, covered entities must ensure they have in place:

• a Data Backup Plan – establish and implement procedures to create and maintain retrievable exact copies of electronic protected health information
• a Disaster Recovery Plan – establish and implement procedures to restore any loss of data
• an Emergency Mode Operation plan - establish and implement procedures to enable business continuity in relation to the processes for protection of the security of electronic protected health information while operating in emergency mode

HITECH Penalties

The enforcement rules have toughened up considerably and businesses which do not meet the requirements will face direct liability for violations. The HITECH penalties for not being HIPAA compliant include:

• up to $250,000 for wilful neglect
• up to $1.5 million for repeat/uncorrected violations
• $50,000-$250,000 and 1-10 years in prison for criminal violations
• Loss of customers and business partners who refrain from working with companies who do not sufficiently safeguard their electronic protected health information
• Negative publicity and legal liabilities

If you haven’t yet planned for a worst case scenario, act now to establish the critical processes. For the seven simple steps to create a successful disaster recovery plan follow this link. The following section will help you develop a clear understanding of how Cristie Software BMR can help you achieve HIPAA compliancy.

HIPAA Compliance and Cristie Software’s BMR

Cristie Software’s BMR solutions can support businesses in meeting HIPAA requirements by:

• Enabling the rapid recovery of multiple critical servers to an identical state within minutes and simultaneously, meaning a whole data centre can be recovered within a few hours after a crisis takes place. This is also ideal for helping you to achieve your recovery SLA’s.
• Providing compressed backups increase the amount of free space on your storage infrastructure to aid the speed of recovery.
• Encrypted backups will ensure that the electronic protected health information on your systems is highly secured and never accessible without the user’s encryption key whicheliminates the threat of unauthorized access.
• The recovery simulator software add-on will carry out periodic tests of the backup and recovery process so that you can guarantee your disaster recovery and business continuity plans are error free in preparation for any crisis to occur.
• The backup process and file recovery process can be completely automated, eliminating the need for manual data handling. Backups will automatically occur according to the specific schedule that the user sets in place. Backups can also be initiated by the user at any time.
• Restoring files can be accomplished by simple disk selection. The data will then be downloaded to the user's computer, decrypted, and then restored to their original location, or to dissimilar hardware. A password is required to restore any files, thus, preventing unauthorized restores, as per the HIPAA Security Rule.

Cristie Software’s BMR solutions are the ideal solution for fully automated backups, optimum data security and regularly testing your BMR to give you complete peace of mind. 

Get on the path toward HIPAA compliance today by contacting our sales team on:  +44 1453 847000

For further information visit us on Twitter, LinkedIn or send us an e-mail using the following links:

  

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Disaster Recovery Infographic

Disaster Recovery Testing: the secret to a reliable disaster recovery plan.

In last week’s blog, I discussed the key steps businesses should take in order to create a successful disaster recovery plan (you can view the blog here). Following on from my blog, I delved deeper in to research covering disaster recovery and within my findings I discovered a shockingly low statistic;

In a study conducted in 2012 of 500 US and European SMEs, only 8% conducted regular tests of their backup and recovery process.

As you would have seen in my seven simple steps on creating a successful disaster recovery plan, the final step is to regularly carry out tests to ensure that the plan will work in a time of crisis. Just to recap, if you are not capturing the data properly during your backup, it will not recover properly after a disaster meaning you could join the 90% statistic of businesses forced to shut down within two years due to losing all of their data!

For those of you that are still not buying into this. I will help you understand the importance of data recovery testing...

• Would you leave your house without checking all your windows and doors are locked first?

• Would you ride your bike down a mountain without checking your brakes worked beforehand

• Would you throw yourself off a bungee jump without getting your harness checked first?

I have faith that you answered no to each of these and that this is because you predicted what could happen. Since disasters are unpredictable, why would you, and any other business, risk not testing the disaster recovery plan regularly?

As a result of finding out businesses are currently lacking in disaster recovery testing, I have decided that more knowledge and advice in this area needs to be shared. So this week I am going to run through the best way of successfully testing that your backup and recovery works.

Let me introduce you to:

Recovery Simulator provides reliable, automated recovery simulation for IBM’s TSM and EMC’s Networker users. Through a centralised management console the Recovery Simulator add-on for TBMR and NBMR products simulates a full recovery to a new virtual machine from a specified TSM or Networker backup to ensure that you will recover all of your business data successfully if a crisis was to happen.

Key benefits:

To view Recovery Simulator in action view the short demo: www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2f0DZ6WwYI

Recovery Simulator is currently available for TBMR and NBMR products.

To find out more on how to get hold of this software or to speak to an expert, call the free phone number: +441453 847000 or send an email to: sales@cristie.com

BMR for TSM: the best is great, it’s number one. But unique is greater; it’s the only one.

Have you ever wondered what sets Cristie’s TBMR software apart from other BMR software products that are currently available for users of TSM? Well today we reveal four exclusive and unique features:

This is how we can provide such a fast and automated recovery process in less than 10 minutes! 

To find out more, please contact one of our experts on our FREE phone number: +441453 847000 or send an email to: sales@cristie.com

7 Steps on Creating a Successful Disaster Recovery Plan

According to a recent survey by the Disaster Recovery Preparedness Council (DRP), 72% of survey participants are failing in terms of disaster readiness. That is nearly three out of four companies worldwide!

There should be no question about it; businesses must plan for the worst. After all, life is unpredictable and you never know what is around the corner. The fact is disasters are inevitable, they creep up on you when you least expect it. If you aren't prepared they can cause havoc as well as consuming time and money trying to get the business back on track when all this could have been prevented with a simple disaster recovery plan. 

Sorry if this is sounding morbid, but the fact is too many businesses forget protecting the backbone of their success. Having spent years creating a reputation and brand image, why would you chance risking it all down the drain because you were not prepared enough? You can plead ignorance, but what use is that? You can learn from your mistake, but why wait to make the mistake when there is an easy answer to preventing losing possibly decades of building up your enterprise and social standing?

Your customers are the key to your success. They have chosen you because they have faith and trust in your service. Don’t let them down. Don’t ruin your reputation. Don’t be remembered for the business that was affected by a disaster.

To emphasize the last point, it is common knowledge that society remembers and discusses a crisis more than a successful event. In Professor Baumeister’s article in 2001, ‘Bad Is Stronger Than Good,’ he highlights the point that research has proved time and time again that bad emotions and bad feedback have more impact than good ones. Negative impressions and negative stereotypes are formed more quickly and are more resistant to dis-confirmation than positive ones.

So to reiterate my point, businesses should have a disaster recovery plan in place and I am going to share the key steps you need to take to be confident your disaster recovery plan will protect your business in the likelihood of any disaster occurring.

1. Create a team

Select employees who will form your contingency planning team. This should be based on those individuals who will bring a variety of perspectives on the company’s vulnerabilities to the table. Consider representatives from all the departments within your business, including HR, facilities and high-level managers.

2. List all names and contact details

Create a list of all employees’ names with all methods of communication for each employee and ensure that this is kept regularly updated. Communication should include personal and work email, work mobile, personal mobile, home number, pager, and the list will go on. The more ways you have to keep in touch should disaster strike, the better. 

3. Determine a chain of command

A clear chain of command and authority needs to be considered to determine who is in charge when the key personnel are missing. This enables employees to understand who to take direction from in the chaos that frequently follows a disaster.

4. Risk assessment

Make a checklist taking all sorts of possible scenarios into account about anything that could go wrong. You should then consider how each one of those situations would affect your core business, your revenue streams, your customer service and your employees.

5. Plan B

Find solutions to all the possible scenarios that may occur. If you couldn’t access your primary base of operations for an extended period of time you need to sort out a Plan B so you'll be prepared...

• If certain parts of your business shut down or were destroyed, how would you stay solvent? 
• Can your employees work from home? 
• Is there another company that would share their facilities with you temporarily until you can rent or buy space at a new location? 

Based on your company needs, determine what is needed to keep the business running if disaster strikes...

• Where would revenue come from? 
• What people, equipment, space, supplies, or services do you need to keep that revenue flowing if you experience a business disruption? 

Consider investing in system migration software to enable you to migrate your systems to a location away from the disaster so that you can continue business as usual. One product I would highly recommend is CloneManager™ which has been developed using its own transport mechanism and web services to provide optimal and fast transfers of data from source to target machines. An added advantage is that it allows system migration to and from different physical, virtual or Cloud environments. Even if you have a network with a restricted bandwidth, clones can be performed quickly and reliably with this software.

6. Invest in BMR software

Data loss can have a huge impact on your business and data backup is a key aspect of business continuity and a disaster recovery plan. Bare Machine Recovery (BMR) provides a complete backup solution, assisting in the rapid recovery of servers to a pre-disaster state. Cristie Software’s BMR solutions can recover data in less than 10 minutes and enables you to schedule regular, full and incremental backups which can then rapidly recover your systems to an identical server state, even to dissimilar hardware. Make sure your business has a reliable backup plan with Cristie BMR solutions. To find out more click here.

7. Test, Test and Test again!

All of the effort you put into backing up your data can be for nothing if you are not capturing the information properly. 

So you can have the best backup system and a top-notch disaster recovery plan, but if you do not run a regular drill to make sure it all works, it may not work when you need it to! Then you will be no better off than the survivors combing through wreckage and thumbing through the yellow pages for the contact number of the nearest data-recovery specialist. 

Therefore, invest in the Recovery Simulator software add-on that is currently available on the market, to ensure that your BMR solution works. Run these tests regularly so that you can be confident your systems are secure from any disaster or crisis evolving.

So there you have it: the seven steps you need to take for business continuity and system security to keep you armed and ready for any future crisis attacks!

For more information regarding data backup, recovery and system migration speak to one of the experts:

Free phone: +44 1453 847000 

Follow us on Twitter: @CristieSoftware

Email: sales@cristie.com