Recovery and Backup Offerings
In all enterprises, the basic requirements are survival and growth. The first efforts are dedicated to the identification and the exploitation of a defined niche. It then follows the traditional path of expanding the niche as much as possible.
While the energies of the enterprise are focused on these activities, a portion must be dedicated to preserve and protect the commitments and gains to date. The protection needed centers around the data of the enterprise. The scope of this protection ranges from loss of a set of data thru to the loss of the storage environment.
The investment needed to protect the data will vary depending on the amount of data, the recovery window, the backup interruption and the degree of data currency preserved.
Overview
To best address these requirements, we have prepared several service offerings to provide the enterprise the best selection to fulfill their immediate business challenges to protect the business data. The focus is on the implementation rather than financial justification. Should this also be required, it would be additional deliverables in the design phase.
- On-site Recovery and Backup Service
- Design
- Implementation
- Operational Support
- Disaster Recovery Service
- Design
- Implementation
- Operational Support
- Electronic Vaulting Service
On-site Recovery and Backup Service:
Design, Implementation and Operational Support
Intellectually, the requirement to recover in case of data loss is obvious.
Practically, to support this involves the backup and tracking of the backups. It also identifies what needs to be captured and how far back in time we need to return.
Other requirements such as vital records and legal retention need to be integrated into the overall implementation.
The clients to be covered and the time constraints both on the backup and the recovery side establish the infrastructure basics.
Design Deliverables
The overall design establishes the framework for the overall service.
The service level requirements are documented for both the clients and the support staff. This includes the client coverage to define both the participating clients and the candidate data to be protected.
The delivery infrastructure is scaled to respect the recovery and backup windows. The capacities are designed to contain the appropriate number of versions of the protected files as well as maintaining the reference archive files for the duration needed.
The scheduling for the client and the server activities are designed.
The distribution, content and follow-up actions are defined to include reports, monitoring and paging support based on the service level requirements.
With these prepared, the next deliverables are the implementation plan and the expected deployment schedule. Both the server and the client deployments are included.
Implementation Deliverables
The first set is the physical setup and preparation of the server environment.
The capacities and the supporting resources are tailored to accept the projected workload.
The management rules are customized according to the service level expectations.
The client activities are scheduled. The monitoring scripts are integrated into the operational flow. The server resource optimization activities are prepared and scheduled.
The off-site vaulting cycles are initiated and validated.
Once this is accomplished, the client working environments are prepared.
This includes the installation and validation of the client software and setup.
First level help desk support training is scheduled for those that require it as well as for all interested clients.
Workstation/server installation training is provided to ensure consistent and successful deployment of clients including a validation checklist.
The technology transfer for operational support includes the documentation of the ITSM server “Run Book”. Additional support for second level assistance is available on-demand.
The initial deployment is monitored with adjustments to the design criteria based on the observed workload. Any major deviations from the projected workload are identified and reported for quick action.
Operational Support Deliverables
The degree of operational support provided is divided in two levels:
- Server operations and automation follow-up
- Client recovery assistance: First level support
This assures the client has the degree of support according to the stated requirements.
The Server operations and automation follow-up provides a daily validation of:
- Server resource occupancy
- Automation schedule window adherence
- Automation schedule activity completion
- Projection of resource constraints
- Daily Backup status reporting
- Alarms and monitoring for critical situations
Client recovery assistance includes the responding to calls and to electronic support requests for recovery assistance. This provides the assistance to recover the specified files to a designated target location within the normal recovery window. When large numbers of files or large capacities are involved, the assistance will use the available infrastructure facilities to accelerate these to ensure a timely recovery service. For interested clients, a short recovery workshop is provided to familiarize the clients with the recovery tools and facilities at their disposal.
Disaster Recovery Service:
Design, Implementation, Operational Support and Electronic Vaulting
The requirement for disaster recovery facilities is regularly reinforced by the news of fires, natural catastrophes and other events. While we do our best to protect the data and access to it, we cannot prevent all data loss. We can, however, provide the contingency plans to minimize our exposure to major data loss that can threaten the existence of our enterprise.
Design Deliverables
Requirements
Scope
Backup constraints
Recovery constraints
Point-in-time
Configuration
Design
Hardware Installation and Co-ordination
Staffing
First level
Operational
Client installation and validation
Implementation schedule
Hardware
Environmental
Server
Client
Operational schedule
Client
Server
Additional
Technology transfer
Operational
Architectural
Operational Support - On-site Recovery and Backup Service
Design and Implementation – Disaster Recovery Service
Operational Support– Disaster Recovery and Electronic Vaulting Service
