Rothstein Associates Inc. Business Survival ™ Weblog

Companies today are under increasing pressure to make better business decisions in less time, with less risk, while producing higher quality results. Their challenges are enormous, as are the many issues that can arise and potentially jeopardize their success. Among the most pervasive problems companies face is the consistently poor quality of the internal data that they are using to draw conclusions and make decisions.
Poor data quality is not a new problem, but now solving it is easier than before because companies no longer have to rely on methods that require them to “boil the ocean.” Streamlined approaches to data governance that incorporate new processes and data stewardship technologies enable more agile methods for improving data quality.

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Suppose your phone system suddenly failed. What would you do? Who would you call? First, you need to determine if either the system failed or there was a problem in the network, or both. Many years ago, it was possible to make one call to resolve the situation. Not so today; many players affect your voice and data communications, and it’s important to know which one to call in an emergency.

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The RTO (Recovery Time Objective) for data centers that support critical business functions has indeed been shrinking. In the last 10 years it has not been uncommon for RTOs to shrink from perhaps 7 days to 24 hours or less. This is well documented in the industry.

One of the major impacts this puts on data center disaster recovery is to limit the options that exist in order to meet those objectives.

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Assuming your company has made a commitment to becoming environmentally friendly, e.g., going “green,” your business continuity and disaster recovery programs can also go green. Why is this important? Business continuity and disaster recovery programs provide opportunities to identify green activities through their research functions (e.g., business impact analysis) and maintenance functions (e.g., exercising, raising awareness).

One way to describe a green business is one that operates in ways that conserve natural resources, eliminate waste and minimize emissions and harmful discharges.  It is possible for most any business to adopt green policies and procedures, and the cost can be less than you might imagine.

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Gartner has highlighted the top 10 technologies and trends that will be strategic for most organizations in 2009 and which may therefore have an impact on business continuity requirements.  Gartner defines a strategic technology as one with the potential for significant impact on the enterprise in the next three years.  Factors that denote significant impact include a high potential for disruption to IT or the business, the need for a major dollar investment, or the risk of being late to adopt.

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The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently announced the issuance of the Secure Flight Final Rule, which shifts pre-departure watch list matching responsibilities from individual aircraft operators to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and carries out a key recommendation of the 9/11 Commission.  By bringing watch list matching responsibilities in-house, TSA can better remedy possible mis-identifications when a traveler’s name is similar to one found on a watch list.

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Early in October, ASIS International hosted a planning meeting with business continuity professionals from more than a dozen organizations to discuss its initiative to develop a business continuity management (BCM) standard, for ultimate approval by ANSI (American National Standards Institute). Among the organizations represented were the Disaster Recovery Institute International, Association of Contingency Planners, the Business Continuity Institute and its U.S. Chapter BCI-USA, which commented on the proposed ASIS standards project registered with ANSI.

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A new study by George Mason University Communication Professor Carl Botan reports that nearly half of U.S. states either have no state-level emergency plan or do not provide it readily to the public.   Despite federal laws that require a state emergency operations plan (EOP) as a prerequisite to specific federal funding, 22 states were unable to provide Botan with an EOP, withheld the plan on security grounds or made it difficult for even trained researchers to gain access.  Residents of these states, Botan says, may question their state’s preparedness because they are unable to find out how the highest authorities in their state coordinate responses to major disasters or how to have a say in those plans.

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Continuity Central is running a survey called ‘The global financial crisis and its impact on the business continuity market.’ To date, survey results show that the impact is somewhat limited. Fifty-seven percent of respondents state that the global financial crisis is having no impact on business continuity planning activities in their organizations. However, 35 percent report that it is having a negative impact and 8 percent say that it is actually having a positive impact on business continuity planning activities.

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There is an old saying among some DRP/BCP consultants: “Having a DRP that is out of date is worse than having no plan at all.  That is because people think you have a plan but you really don’t.”

Over the years of auditing hundreds of plans, what frequently happens is as follows:
Question: Can I speak with this person.  Answer: This person is no longer here.
Question: Do you have good procedures for the iSeries?  Answer: We don’t have that platform anymore.
Question: Does your off-site storage vendor pick up every day?  Answer: Oh, we changed vendors. They come once a week now to save money.

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Sponsored by Emerson Network Power, a new paper entitled Five Strategies for Cutting Data Center Energy Costs through Enhanced Cooling Efficiency Cooling, discusses techniques to reduce data center energy bills.  Cooling accounts for approximately 35% of data center energy costs, according to the paper, and presents a significant opportunity to reduce energy consumption.  The paper outlines five strategies that together can reduce the amount of energy used to cool data centers by as much 40%.  It covers everything from simple steps you can take to get more from your existing cooling system, to traditional and emerging technologies that can increase cooling capacity and reduce costs.  To read the paper, see Five Strategies to Reduce Data Center Energy Costs.