Download Disaster Recovery for Distributed Systems

Chapter 8
Managing Operations
Gloria Bell
Jeremy Hood
Mary Beth Reid
Operations defined


When defining operations we must first define
hardware. Hardware includes computers,
disk drivers, tape drivers, printers, and PCs.
Operations also include communication lines
and equipment, and software, such as
operating systems, compliers, and
networking software.
Solving operational problems


System operations problems: slow response times,
networks are down, data is not available, or data is
wrong.
What can be done to improve operations?



Buy more equipment
Continuously fight fires and rearrange priorities, getting
people to solve problem at hand
Continually document and measure what you are doing, to
find out the real problems, not just the apparent ones.
Operational measures

External measures
 Are what customers see:
system and network
uptime ( downtime ),
response time,
turnaround time and
program failures.
 These aspects directly
relate to customer
satisfaction

Internal measures
 Are of interest to IS
people: computer usage
as a percentage of
capacity, availability of
mainline systems, disk
storage utilized, job
queue length, number of
jobs run, number of jobs
rerun due to problems.
Age of applications, and
number of unresolved
problems.
Why is system operations
important?


If they are not professionally run, a company
could suffer a computer or network crash that
could shut down their business for some
period of time.
Operations is also important because they
involve more money than any other part of
the department.
What’s new in operations




Companies have “cleaned their operational
house”
Operations managers are beginning to
manage outward
Operations are being simplified
Certain operations are being offloaded
Outsourcing information systems
function



Outsourcing means turning over a firm’s computer
operations, network operations, or other IT function
to a vendor for a specified time-generally, at least a
few years, although that time frame is changing.
Up until 1998 outsourcing was only used by
companies that were poorly run.
Now it is expected for a CIO to investigate
outsourcing.
Why Outsource?

Outsourcing is part of the drive for focus and
value, and it is not solely an information
systems issue, it is a business issue also.
Because top management must stress value,
they must consider outsourcing in all their
non-strategic functions, in the age of ebusiness, they may even need to consider
outsourcing their strategic functions to get a
jump on the competition.
Outsourcing History



IT Outsourcing. IT outsourcing essentially began
with "big bang" deals, or mega deals, which
consisted of outsourcing all of a company's data
center operations for up to ten years.
Transitional Outsourcing. In the early 1990s, a
new type of computing arose: client/server
computing.
Best-of-Breed Outsourcing. All through the 1990s,
IT departments outsourced different pieces of their
work; mainly infrastructure support.
Outsourcing History



Shared Services. When IT outsourcing began to gain credibility,
executives wondered, "Can we get the same economies of scale
by pulling disparate non-core functions together into one shared
services group?"
Business Process Outsourcing. As the IT outsourcing field
matured, data center outsourcing, desktop outsourcing, and
other standard IT outsourcing areas became so well understood
that they became like commodity services
E-Business Outsourcing. With the arrival of business use of
the Internet, outsourcing has actually become the leading-edge
way to run a company.
Outsourcing History

Application Service Providers (ASPs). In
1999 a new term surfaced: application
service provider. This is a company that rents
software over the Internet.
Managing Outsourcing

There are numerous aspects to managing
outsourcing that need to be taken into
account to create a successful working
relationship. Here are just four:




Organizational Structure.
Governance.
Day-to-Day Working.
Supplier Development.
Security In The Internet Age

Introduction
 The importance of having security
 Why e-business needs to be more secure than
brick and mortar
 CEO’s must be knowledgeable about internet
security
The Threats





Internal vs. External Attacks
Attacks and their relation to financial loss
Information Crimes of the Rise
The Good News
Companies Unaware of Attacks
Nine Approaches Hackers Use









Cracking the Password
Tricking Someone
Network Sniffing
Misusing Administrative Tools
Playing Middle Man
Denial of Service
Trojan Horse
Viruses
Spoofing
Securities Five Pillars

Authentication


Identification


Protecting information from being seen
Integrity


Identifying users to grant them appropriate access
Privacy


Verifying the authenticity of users
Keeping information in it’s original form
Nonrepudiation

Preventing parties from denying actions they have
taken
Countermeasures



Firewalls
Public Key Encryption
Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)



Remote Access VPNs
Remote Office VPNs
Extranet VPNs
Disaster Recovery for Distributed
Systems

Internal Resources




Multiple Data Centers
Distributed Processing
Backup Telecom
Facilities
Local Area Network

External Resources



Integrated Disaster
Recovery Services
Specialized Disaster
Recovery Services
Online and Off-line
Storage Facilities
Internal Resources

Multiple Data Centers




“DASD farms” or direct access data storage
Regularly updated to speed recovery at alternate sites
House disk controllers & disk drives which can be
accessed online or in batch mode
Distributed Processing



Critical processing performed locally, instead of at data
centers
Utilizes standardized hardware & applications at remote
locations – each local site provides backup for the other
sites
Uses: Order entry & financial transaction systems
Internal Resources

Backup Telecom Facilities



Build duplicate communications facilities
Use alternate technologies that are redeployed
during emergencies
Local Area Networks


Servers on 1 LAN backup servers on other
networks
Data servers updated regularly via linking the
networks with shared cabling.
External Resources

Integrated Disaster Recovery Services



Multiple recovery sites interconnected by high-speed
telecom lines
Fully operational processing facilities available on lessthan-24-hours notice
Specialized Disaster Recovery Services




Mainframe clients with backup midrange machines
Midrange systems
Trailers equipped with compatible hardware & software
Telecommunications
External Resources

Online & Off-line Data Storage



Alternate storage locations tapes & other records
Fire-resistant vaults
“Electronic vaulting” – Provides current data offsite at the time of disaster
Transmit data from computer to computer according
to a schedule
 Data is capture by equipment & stored at a remote
location as its is created on the client’s computer.

Household International


Full-time staff to prepare, maintain, & test disaster
recovery plans
Comdisco Disaster Recovery Services





Use of 1 or more recovery center in North America
“Hot site” equipment & software
Technical assistance
Disaster: Basement housing Household’s data
center flooded.
Solution: Disaster recovery plan with Comdisco
Household International

6 Disaster Recovery Planning Tips:






Consider all possible natural disasters when choosing
location of data center
Develop a plan for returning to primary site
Do not expect all equipment, disks, and tapes to return to
original condition or be replaced.
Test hot-site resources under full workload conditions.
Plan for alternate telecommunications routing for multiplesite operations during a disaster.
Maintain critical data at the alternate site or at another
nearby location for fast system recovery.
The End