Best practices in managing business resumption issues

This research note is restricted to the personal use of Aristotle Castro ([email protected]).

Best Practices in Managing BusinessResumption Issues27 August 1998 | ID:BP-05-6289

Kathie Cleary

"Business resumption" is the more accurate view of disaster recovery. User involvement,annual review and testing of plans, and vendor involvement are the key elements forsuccess.

Analysis

Situation: While the majority of typical data centers have some sort of backup plan inplace, we believe that there is plenty of room for improvement. As the scope of recoveryencompasses not only the mainframe area but also includes centralized servers andmidrange platforms, there needs to be an increased focus on the processes surroundingthis critical activity.

Observation: Until recently, full responsibility for disaster recovery was the ISorganization's, if a plan existed at all. Now, whether due to the unfortunate frequency ofnatural disasters, increased reliance on systems to support the day-to-day businessfunctions, greater emphasis on "data" being valued as a corporate asset, or somecombination of these ideas and more, "disaster recovery" has become "businessresumption" - and has suddenly become everyone's job. We offer three "best practices" formanaging business resumption strategies.

Best Practices: 1. Include the customer in the resumption planning process. This helpsthe IS organization determine both the effort involved in supporting those needs andwhether other solutions exist that can achieve a similar level of recovery, but at a lowercost to the organization.

Communicate the cost of recovery to the users. Unfortunately, for many users, it iseasier to label everything "critical" than to make the effort to evaluate applications.

Users that understand the cost impact on the department/corporate bottom linetend to put more emphasis on determining true criticality and establishing morerealistic priorities for the particular applications. The ratio of contracted capacity vs.the installed base for MIPS and DASD is a good place to start looking for potentialinconsistencies or inefficiencies in the plan.

The recovery commitment is even more important in industries where "time ismoney," as reflected in Figure 1. Requirements that include high capacity andminimal time-to-recovery tend to carry a higher price tag.

2. Complete an annual review of contingency capacity requirements and implementrigorous testing processes. As the environment grows and changes, appropriateadjustments must be made to the plan to support that growth. In conjunction with thatgrowth, adequate testing must be performed in order to validate plan objectives andguidelines.

Testing should include not just bringing up the systems but the customer

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applications as well. A minimum of two tests a year is advisable - manyorganizations go through three or four recovery exercises annually.

User involvement in applications testing is key to the success of the plan. This willalso help provide open communication and awareness between IT and users interms of recovery issues.

3. Use aggressive negotiation strategies with vendors when acquiring contracted support.Many organizations, when renewing their contracts, have been able to sign agreementsthat either include increased capacity at the same cost or the same capacity at a lowercost.

Contract lengths should be limited to one to three years or, if longer, should includeclearly stated "out" clauses.

Vendor competition may result in lower costs, but keep in mind the criticality of theservice being purchased. It is not necessarily in the best interest of the company tochange vendors strictly to achieve cost savings if the current provider hassuccessfully met the needs of the organization.

Negotiate lower costs consistent with declining hardware prices. As shown in Figure2, the GartnerMeasurement database reflects the decreasing annual costs of bothMIPS and DASD. It is important to make sure that the vendor is passing on thesesavings in the contract.

Bottom Line: To be successful, the business resumption plan, whether supportedinternally or with vendor participation, should include user/client communication, annualreviews of critical requirements with an emphasis on testing and, if applicable, aggressivevendor negotiation strategies. A failure to apply the appropriate attention to any one ofthese areas could have a serious impact on not just the IT area, but the company as awhole.

Core Topics

IT Measures and Metrics: Aligning IT Investments With the Business; IT ProcessManagement; Strategies for Improved Performance

Figure 1. Disaster Recovery Cost per MIPS

Source: GartnerMeasurement

Figure 2. Unit Cost Improvement - Mainframe and DASD


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Source: GartnerMeasurement

© 1998 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction and distribution of this publicationin any form without prior written permission is forbidden. The information contained herein has been obtainedfrom sources believed to be reliable. Gartner disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness oradequacy of such information. Although Gartner's research may discuss legal issues related to the informationtechnology business, Gartner does not provide legal advice or services and its research should not beconstrued or used as such. Gartner shall have no liability for errors, omissions or inadequacies in theinformation contained herein or for interpretations thereof. The opinions expressed herein are subject tochange without notice.


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Best practices in managing business resumption issues