Use this as a guideline to ensure that you DOCUMENT AND ANSWER ALL OF THE ISSUES BELOW:
- FORM
- DEPARTMENT NAME: Collections/Credit
- LIST HARDWARE/SOFTWARE AND RTOS AND RPOS INDICATED:
| Software | Hardware | # Servers | RTO | RPO |
| PeopleSoft | Sun Fire V880 Midrange | 3 | 2 Weeks | 1 Day |
| WinFax* | LAN Servers | 2 | 2 Weeks | 1 Day |
*Assumption made that the WinFax has fax and call logging data captured within the system, necessitating a 1 day RPO.
- CHOOSE THE TECHNOLOGY STRATEGY(IES) AND DOCUMENT THE NAME OF THE STRATEGY:
The recommendation to the client is to use NAME STRATEGY HERE at an external vendor. The STRATEGY will occur once daily to ensure we meet the collections/credit RPO of 1 day (leading up to the disaster), and the warm site will be up and functional within 2 weeks to ensure we meet the RTO.
- DESCRIBE YOUR STRATEGY BY DOCUMENTING THE FOLLOWING:
- How Will Strategy Work:
NOTE FROM THE INSTRUCTOR: THERE IS MORE INFORMATION THAT IS REQUIRED TO DESCRIBE HOW THE STRATEGY WILL WORK HERE!!!!! A warm site strategy will be used, where an off-site vendor will be contracted to provide hardware and network interfaces at a facility at least 75 miles from the Lincoln, NE Collections/Credit location. This alternate processing site will be made available to the client at the time of disaster and will have hardware available for the client to:
- Configure required hardware (i.e. Operating System, corporate server policies)
- Install the required software (i.e. PeopleSoft, WinFax)
- Restore required data (i.e. PeopleSoft Databases)
- Test the system
- Allow collections/credit employees to access system to perform job functions
An electronic vaulting strategy will also be used, where system data will be backed up daily (to meet the 1 day RPO) and sent to an off-site location for storage. It is also recommended that the data is stored at a third party vendor vs. another location owned/operated by the client. A viable option is to have the data backed-up and stored at the warm site. It will be important for the client to ensure this is incorporated into the contract and additional cost may be incurred.
- Vendor/Internal Strategy:
It is recommended that an external strategy is used for the warm site, where the site is hosted by a third-party vendor.
- Justify Vendor/Internal Strategy:
The warm site vendor hosting strategy is recommended primarily to mitigate costs. When using the warm site strategy, the hardware just needs to be made available at the remote vendor facility at the time of disaster. It is NOT required that the hardware is operating, current and accessible. As a result, costs to maintain the hardware are less, as system administrators are not maintaining the system and no power will be provided to the system.
Because the RTO is 2 weeks for the hardware/software, the client has time to get the warm site configured and operational. The electronic vaulting strategy of backing up systems once daily and transferring to an alternate site will also meet the RPO of 1 day.
- EVALUATE STRATEGIES NOT RECOMMENDED IN COMPARISON TO YOUR RECOMMENDED STRATEGY:
- Evaluate Strategies NOT Recommended:
There were many disaster recovery strategies considered when making this recommendation. The following strategies were considered, but are not recommended for reasons described below: (Please note: A Hot Site is used in many of the strategies below. A Hot Site is required when a strategy requires replicated environment which is located at an alternate facility. The environment has the same hardware, software, and infrastructure components required to run the specific applications.)
Continuous Availability (with Hot Site) – DEFINITION: Continuous Availability is a strategy used when companies have very low RTOs and an RPO of 0. This strategy requires a hot site where data is continuously replicated between the primary site and the hot site. Additionally, the primary site automatically fails over to the hot site at time of disaster which should provide a seamless operation.
REASON NOT RECOMMENDED: Continuous availability is NOT recommended for the client due to the RTOs and RPOs required. Since the department’s RTO is 2 weeks and the RPO is 1 day, this strategy provides more capabilities than what is needed since this strategy provides an RTO and RPO of near 0 or 0.
Replication/High Availability (with Hot Site) – DEFINITION: Replication/High Availability requires a Hot Site. At predetermined times, data is copied from the Production System to the system at the Hot Site. By limiting transmission times to minutes and/or an hour, this strategy will provide a low RPO, which data loss would be limited to the frequency of transmission times. Additionally, this strategy requires a manual failover instead of an automatic failover. If only a few systems use this strategy, failover may be achieved quickly, thus providing a low RTO. However, if a large number of systems must be failed over at the same time or if there are problems in the failover process, the RTO could increase.
REASON NOT RECOMMENDED: Replication/High Availability is NOT recommended for the client since it provides RTOs and RPOs that are less than 24 hours. Considering that our client’s RTO is 2 weeks and our RPO is 1 day, this strategy provides lower RTOs and RPOs than what is needed. As a result, not only is this strategy overkill for this department, but it is also unnecessarily more costly.
Remote Journaling (with Hot Site) – DEFINITION: Remote Journaling is a strategy used for database systems. While this strategy requires a Hot Site, only…
REASON NOT RECOMMENDED: Remote journaling is NOT recommended ….. (NOTE FROM INSTRUCTOR: THIS REASON IS MISSING.)
Cold/Shell Site – DEFINITION: This strategy is a computer-ready room or facility. Specifically, the infrastructure is in place (cabling, electric, HVAC, raised floor) but the hardware is not available as this would need to be provided at time of disaster.
REASON NOT RECOMMENDED: A cold/shell site is NOT recommended as there is a risk that the RTO…
Quick Ship—Purchase at Time of Disaster – DEFINITION: This strategy involves the acquisition of all hardware at time of disaster. Additionally, the facility will need to be identified for the recovery to take place.
REASON NOT RECOMMENDED: A quick ship strategy is NOT recommended…
Reciprocal Agreement – DEFINITION: A reciprocal agreement strategy is where an agreement between two similar (from an infrastructure standpoint) companies or two internal departments is made where each company agrees that the other can use their specified systems at the time of a disaster. The data from one company is copied onto the systems with the appropriate applications at the reciprocating company. Thus, the company would then use the systems at the reciprocating company for their specific applications.
REASON NOT RECOMMENDED: A reciprocal agreement is NOT recommended because…
7. WRAP-UP OF ANALYSIS
- What advantages would there be for your recommended strategy? What are the disadvantages for this strategy???
There are several advantages to using an Electronic Vault at a Warm Site (vendor hosted) strategy. The biggest advantage is cost. The systems in the collections/credit department are not considered critical to day-to-day operations. Considerable cost can be saved using this strategy while meeting the RTO and RPO. Another advantage is that a contract is in place with a vendor which will guarantee hardware availability at time of disaster. The advantage to electronic vaulting is that the backups will be stored off site.
The disadvantage of electronic vaulting is that there is a slight risk of data loss during transmission. another disadvantage to this strategy is that no electronic vaulting can occur while the system is in the state of recovery, and this may last up to two weeks. The most recent backup would occur one day prior to the disaster. Finally, since the software and data is restored onto the hardware at time of disaster, they might have problems during installation and may not meet the RTO/RPO even though it is 2 weeks/1 day respectively.
