Don't Be Idle
CIO Asia Magazine ( April 2003 Issue )
By Raoul Le Blond
Justifying an IT spend in this climate has probably been worse
than at any other point in your organization's history, what
with the prevailing economic downturn; war in Iraq; and recently,
the additional manpower and access headaches created by the
outbreak of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome virus, or
SARS.
The downturn has put the brakes on IT spending and new hardware
acquisition for many cash-strapped and cash-conscious firms,
while the outbreak of war has raised the threat profile of global
terrorist attacks on the model of the September 11, 2001 strikes
on the U.S. The SARS virus has added a third, and potentially
crippling twist in the tale.
With strict quarantine laws up and down Asia (and should the
virus take greater root in Europe, the U.S. and other parts
of the world), the long-touted telecommuting scenario-where
large numbers of information workers operate from home-could
become real. Access, and this is controlled, secure access,
will be ever more crucial as companies struggle to ensure that
manpower stays connected and that suppliers, business partners
and customers are able to have access to what they need.
Ironically, the flipside of disaster recovery-business continuity,
or the need to keep systems running smoothly and efficiently
despite a change in organizational structure and operating norms-could,
as a result, become the more pressing need.
In fact, one CIO of a Hong Kong-based global brokerage house
recently told me that it is ironic, but a component of his firm's
disaster recovery architecture-enabling the remote access of
up to 80 percent of the company's workforce in an emergency
from alternate sites-has suddenly borne fruit.
He's one of the lucky ones, in the sense that other business
pressures-the need, primarily to keep the companies electronic
trading platform up and running 24x7-fuelled the need for a
comprehensive disaster recovery solution.
And yet, incredibly, many other companies continue to face the
first problem-justifying an investment in a true-blue disaster
recovery system in these lean times. One of the oft-cited reasons
is that a disaster recovery solution is investment for a contingency
that may never happen. (Strange, but true.)
If you find yourself in this uncomfortable position, an action
plan needs to be drawn up now. Experts and storage technology
vendors CIO Asia speaks to suggest a variety of alternatives
to justifying that DR spend but perhaps the "killer sell" is
the following:-
DON'T BE IDLE: The components of a good disaster recovery solution
can be used not only for the purpose they were designed for,
but as a means to deliver new IT services and support. A common
misconception is that a disaster recovery solution is to be
kept "in case of emergencies"- with assets and infrastructure
such as tape backups, standby servers and other measures to
be called upon only when in use.
It is however possible to use these additional assets to drive
and support new IT projects or services which, as one storage
vendor, EMC, puts it, enables disaster recovery solutions to
pay for themselves-"productive protection".
For example, some solutions available on the market today allow
companies to do server consolidation, server and data management,
speeding up backup times, increasing testing and application
development turnaround, among other measures.
Married to a service chargeback model that enables the IT organisation
to meet the costs of the disaster recovery infrastructure investment,
this approach can be a useful strategic sell to the board for
CIOs looking ahead and doing their contingency planning.
|
Copyright
2005 All rights reserved.