Category Archives: Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity

Business Continuity, Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity, Leadership, News

Everbridge Collaborates with University College London to Deliver Vital Report on Resilience and Public Warning

Everbridge, the global leader in critical event management and national public warning software solutions has collaborated with University College London (UCL) to develop a report entitled: ‘From Policy to Practice – Case studies in resilience and public warning’.  The report unites academic rigour and industry leadership to offer organisations the strategies they need to build resilience and develop public warning systems. It focuses on three key territories, the United States, Europe, and Japan and brings together multiple layers of information to build a clear vision around early warning systems, against the backdrop of fragmented regulatory frameworks.

The report answers the need for resilience building as countries face critical emergencies. Resilience is also an expressed government goal for countries, and an essential part of the UN-led Sendai Framework. Robust policies, effective early warning systems, and well-coordinated emergency response plans, contribute to the reduction in loss of human lives, economic costs, and adverse impacts.  However, governments often define resilience differently, as this report demonstrates, and this means that differing approaches are taken to promoting resilience and creating benchmarks for success.

The Everbridge/UCL report provides a comprehensive background on regulatory frameworks, disaster risk recovery (DRR) strategies, and public and early warning systems (EWS) in the three countries. The aim is to ensure ongoing effectiveness and adaptability in the face of evolving risks.

Europe, the USA and Japan were selected because they use advanced public and early warning systems and DRR practices. In Japan, a robust early warning system is based on satellite broadcast. The US uses a comprehensive cell broadcasting system emulated by other national governments around the world including EU Member States, which are now required to operate a public warning system under EU law. The EU’s cross-border alert system aims to integrate emergency warnings across all 27 Member States.

Lorenzo Marchetti, Public Affairs Manager at Everbridge, and curator of the report, said: “Readers will find five key takeaway points to consider for enhancing resilience and warning systems, highlighting the value that can be achieved when bringing together public-private partnerships with government and academic research. This is essential reading for anybody that is considering the tools they need to start building resilience for our uncertain future.”

Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity, News, Technology

11:11 Systems Expands Award-Winning DRaaS Offering  

A fully managed, customised Azure solution that extends DR resiliency for on-premises, cloud and/or multi-cloud environments 

 11:11 Systems (“11:11”), a managed infrastructure solutions provider, has launched 11:11 DRaaS for Azure, a new disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) offering designed specifically for the Microsoft Azure cloud. The new globally available recovery solution gives organisations customised and fully managed disaster recovery (DR) for their on-premises, Azure cloud and/or multi-cloud environments.

By combining 11:11’s award-winning DRaaS technology and managed recovery expertise with the scale and flexibility of Microsoft Azure, the new solution provides enterprise-grade business continuity and helps customers meet their recovery objectives. Further, 11:11 DRaaS for Azure reduces complexity, freeing up time and resources for customers to drive transformative business outcomes.

With a pay-as-you-go model leveraging proven Zerto technology, 11:11 DRaaS for Azure provides application-level failover and recovery capabilities and automation across diverse use cases such as on-premises to Azure cloud, Azure cloud to on-premises and between two Azure cloud environments.

 

“This new solution is more than a product; it’s a commitment to our customers’ resilience and success,” said Kaushik Ray, chief experience officer at 11:11 Systems. “This product release extends and deepens our DR capabilities and provides comprehensive self-managed and fully managed recovery services, regardless of platform and recovery location, which reinforces our position as a trusted risk and resiliency partner in the global market.”

 

The comprehensive and fully managed solution includes implementation, maintenance, scheduled testing, 24×7 support and an industry-leading service level agreement (SLA) for business’s recovery time objectives (RTOs) that provide guaranteed recovery within a stipulated timeframe, as highlighted in Gartner Peer Insights customer reviews.

“Working with 11:11 Systems has been a great experience; they are a professional organisation that is easy to work with. They have vast experience in the DR area and with the help of their automation tools, it made the whole deployment process simple providing an excellent RPO/RTO,” according to a Gartner Peer Review for 11:11 DRaaS.

To learn more about 11:11 DRaaS for Azure, click here.

 

ABOUT 11:11 SYSTEMS

11:11 Systems is a managed infrastructure solutions provider that holistically addresses the challenges of next-generation managed cloud, connectivity and security requirements. The 11:11 model empowers customers and partners to “Rethink Connected,” which includes integrated services that deliver increased performance, optimisation and savings. Learn more at 1111Systems.com.

Cloud Providers, Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity, News, Tech, Technology

Businesses warned to prepare for the worst – as many don’t have a disaster recovery plan yet

There are fresh warnings for businesses that use cloud technology to put in place disaster recovery plans.

The warnings, from Solution Performance Group (SPG) advise companies to have a disaster recovery plan in place for their cloud services, just as they would for on-premises IT systems. While cloud services offer various benefits, they are not immune to disruptions or disasters.

Gareth Humphreys, group CEO at SPG, said: “In a recent PwC survey, 78% of business leaders said they had adopted cloud in most or all areas of their organisations. Disaster recovery planning is essential for modern businesses, especially those that run all or part of their operations in the cloud. Unexpected events can occur at any time and disrupt services and erase data. A major bug could be disclosed, your network could go down, or a natural disaster could affect your company.

“Disasters can take various forms, including natural disasters, cyberattacks, hardware failures, and more. A well-prepared plan helps ensure that a business can continue its critical operations despite adversity. An effective plan will re-establish access and functionality to cloud infrastructure after a disaster, whether man-made or natural. Restoring operations as quickly and safely as possible is essential.”

An effective cloud strategy can assist company leaders in realising the return on their IT investments by connecting data, systems, developing technology and devices. It offers the foundation for advancements in robotics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain technology, and improved analytics utilisation.

Cloud providers generally offer high availability, but no system is completely immune to downtime. Network outages, data centre failures, or software bugs can interrupt service. A disaster recovery plan helps minimise downtime by providing a way to recover critical services quickly and ensures that data is backed up and can be restored in case of data loss due to cyberattacks, accidental deletion, or other issues.

Some industries and regulatory bodies require businesses to have a disaster recovery plan to ensure data protection and business continuity. Failing to comply with these requirements can lead to legal and financial consequences.

If your business relies on cloud services to provide products or services to customers, a well-structured plan can help maintain customer trust by ensuring the availability and reliability of your services.

 

Gareth concluded: “When creating a disaster recovery plan for cloud services, consider factors such as data backup and recovery procedures, failover strategies, communication plans, and regular testing to ensure that the plan works effectively. Cloud service providers often offer tools and services that can assist in implementing disaster recovery solutions, but it’s important for businesses to take an active role in planning and testing their strategy to meet their specific needs and requirements.”

 

With offices in Newcastle and Leeds, SPG is an ecosystem of digital transformation, resourcing and software subsidiaries that work across the public and private sectors to deliver optimised technology solutions, highly efficient processes and empowered, successful teams. Its clients include the emergency services, government departments and social housing organisations.

—

Pictured: Gareth Humphreys.

Awards, Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity, News, Tech

11:11 Systems Recognised as an Aspiring Provider in the 2023 Gartner Peer Insights™ Voice of the Customer for Disaster Recovery as a Service

11:11 Systems (“11:11”), a managed infrastructure solutions provider, was named an Aspiring provider in the 2023 Gartner Peer Insights™ Voice of the Customer for Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) report.

11:11 Systems is one of seven companies included. Customers lauded the organisation for its exceptional commitment, noting they are an “outstanding team dedicated to our account, and these specialists are top of their game.” 

The dependability and consistent positive outcomes of 11:11 Systems’ offerings earned them widespread acclaim, with reviews highlighting the “very reliable DRaaS solution that has managed to deliver excellent outcomes over the past years.” Clients also praised 11:11 Systems for its expertise and ongoing support, emphasising that “they know their products very well and they continue to provide exceptional support after implementation.” 

“We believe our inclusion in the ‘Voice of the Customer’ report reaffirms our strategy and commitment to pushing the boundaries in DRaaS innovation while maintaining our customer-first approach,” said Kaushik Ray, chief experience officer at 11:11 Systems. “We believe this acknowledgment reflects our customers’ trust in our solutions and the tangible impacts we have made in their businesses. We’re not just a vendor but a partner in our clients’ accomplishments.” 

11:11 Systems’ broad DRaaS offerings are designed to protect businesses from unplanned downtime and meet diverse recovery requirements. 11:11’s industry-leading solutions provide reliable, end-to-end protection of workloads running on the customer’s premises or in AWS and Azure cloud environments that leverage AWS, Veeam and Zerto technology. Whether facing cybercrime, natural disasters, hardware failure or any unplanned incident, 11:11 Systems ensures a speedy and successful recovery, safeguarding businesses’ operational continuity. 

Gartner Peer Insights is a respected platform that collects and curates unbiased reviews and ratings from IT professionals, offering invaluable insights into various IT software and services. Its comprehensive “Voice of the Customer” report distils real-world client experiences and feedback, playing an instrumental role in aiding purchase decisions across the technology spectrum.  

Gartner, Voice of the Customer for Disaster Recovery as a Service, Peer Contributors, 31 October 2023 

Gartner® and Peer Insights™ are trademarks of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Gartner® Peer InsightsTM content consists of the opinions of individual end users based on their own experiences, and should not be construed as statements of fact, nor do they represent the views of Gartner or its affiliates. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in this content nor makes any warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this content, about its accuracy or completeness, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. 

ABOUT 11:11 SYSTEMS 

11:11 Systems is a managed infrastructure solutions provider that holistically addresses the challenges of next-generation managed cloud, connectivity and security requirements. The 11:11 model empowers customers and partners to “Rethink Connected,” which includes integrated services that deliver increased performance, optimisation and savings. Learn more at 1111Systems.com.

Data & Analytics, Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity, News, Tech, Technology

Cohesity – Adopting a data-centric focus on cyber resilience

Written by Manlio De Benedetto, Director Systems Engineering at Cohesity

The importance of data backup was highlighted recently by the news that Toyota had to shut down 14 factories due to IT maintenance triggering a number of errors around disk space, backup and failover.

It looks like Toyota didn’t see this coming, and if they were monitoring it, then their team has not reacted to the critical issues in the right way. In simple terms, the best practices are to know what you’re backing up, where from and where to. And there should be monitoring and countermeasures in place to ensure that’s going to be achievable.

Companies need to understand exactly which IT processes are the most important in the company and how they are related. We advise our customers to prioritise the systems in resilience categories. The highest category reflects the most important data, systems and processes, the loss or failure of which would cause the greatest economic damage. The servers at Toyota would ideally be classified in the highest resilience category, since their failure, as unfortunately happened, brings the entire production to a standstill and causes high costs. IT managers can then argue very well from an economic point of view why these systems are monitored particularly closely and structured to be highly fail-safe.

Modern solutions for data management and security monitor these systems and their current status with the help of AI. Trend analyses show how the amount of data behaves on these machines and how much the memory is already being used.

Since human error can occur, it is important to set limit values for important key data such as disk utilisation. IT teams are then automatically notified that storage is low. Ideally, the AI-supported tools immediately suggest appropriate countermeasures that a member of the IT team can check and then trigger. In this way, critical situations can be identified in advance and countermeasures can be initiated before failures occur.

Further important steps can be defined via the high resilience categories, for example shorter intervals between the backups. If an emergency occurs and systems fail or are corrupted by cyber attacks such as ransomware, the possible loss of data can be reduced to a minimum thanks to the close-knit copies.

When organisations adopt a data-centric focus on cyber resilience, they also will ensure that data from an organisation’s diverse compute and storage environments is brought together providing the governance, detective, response and recovery capabilities needed to achieve a high level of resiliency.

Whatever else a business might do with its data, it certainly won’t stop generating more. Implementing measures to manage data better can inevitably improve efficiency and reduce costs. At a time when the economic situation is challenging, this could prove a blessing. Maybe it is time for data management strategies to bubble to the top of the to-do list, because getting best practice in place today will streamline how data is collected, stored and used tomorrow.

Finally, modern data management platforms also provide more insights from data analysis thanks to integrated classification. Organisations can better understand their compliance risks by getting visibility into their dark data, which according to Gartner affects between 55% and 80% of the data a company stores. They can decide with confidence whether to keep certain records or delete them with no risk.

All of these synergy effects found in a modern data platform enhance cyber resilience, reduce the operating and storage costs and help organisations to manage the growing volumes of their data in the long term.

Business Advice, Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity, News

It’s not always malware

Written by Johnny Carpenter, General Manager EMEA at 11:11 Systems

 

Every day, cyber incidents and their subsequent downtimes seem to fill the news. These downtimes, both costly and damaging to consumer trust, have rightfully been something that CISOs and CIOs work to prevent with increasingly sophisticated security measures. But sometimes the most damaging “disasters” are the simplest.

Earlier this year, one of the hyperscalers suffered a major data centre incident in which a water leak triggered a fire in a co-location data centre, knocking more than 90 services offline in France. This serves as a reminder to us all that, despite rising cybercrime stealing the headlines, preparing for physical disasters remains a vital part of any disaster recovery (DR) plan. It is crucial that businesses consider the impact that these incidents may create on their own day-to-day operations and invest in their own disaster recovery.

Heatwaves, flooding and hurricanes are facts of life for many people today, and their intensity and frequency seem to rise each year. IDC research found that 79% of IT and business leaders had activated a disaster recovery plan in 2021, and yet some enterprises still don’t have a robust strategy in place. Like security defences, disaster recovery strategies need to be multi-layered, and while other regions have factored extreme weather into the equation for decades, climate change is making these disasters impossible to ignore in UK recovery plans.

Preparing for the worst

With summer in full swing, the prospect of climate-based extreme weather events should be on every CISO’s mind. Last year’s record heatwaves in the UK were the second highest in Europe and even triggered wildfires. Weather events will surely have a significant impact again this summer, especially with the return of El Niño.

These events should be considered a meaningful threat to business continuity.

Nine out of ten organisations associate a single hour of downtime with more than £300,000 in damages — an estimation that only continues to rise, and which spells out not just revenue loss but potential business closure for the vast majority. Even a loss of data for ten days has driven many otherwise robust businesses to bankruptcy in recent years. Whether it’s a blackout or risk to IT infrastructure, the damage of these downtimes to a business, its customers and employees alike can’t be undervalued.

Downtime can be costly, and investing upfront in the ability to failover your systems in the event of a physical disaster could be the difference between business success and serious financial losses. Disaster Recovery (DRaaS) allows organisations to replicate all IT workloads and applications from public or private clouds, for both virtual and physical environments at a highly successful price point.

It only takes one incident to harm an organisation. So, a tested business continuity plan is a fundamental step to ensure lasting profitability for your business.

 

Future Proofing Your Operations

In today’s threat landscape, disaster recovery is an essential part of any security strategy. Focused on quickly recovering and maintaining data and crucial functions in the wake of an unplanned incident, the first step of any DR strategy lies in assessing exactly which applications, servers, and types of data are most important.

In short, CISOs need to make sure their disaster recovery plans are synchronised with their business’s priorities and engage all departments in deciding what these are. Risk assessment is vital: IT managers and their teams are obliged to evaluate the risk of data loss and the impact that any given incident can have on the organisation in both the short term and the long term. Many organisations can ensure they are prepared for an incident by regularly backing up their systems and data across the cloud and in air-gapped copies, leveraging automation where possible. Companies utilise different types of data protection products (backup and recovery software, mirrors, and replicas) alongside disaster recovery tactics to ensure data recovery in case any failure happens.

 

Factoring in the Physical

Businesses need to prepare themselves for the worst, and IT teams bear that strain. Proactively seeking out trusted partners and investing in a managed DR service before disaster strikes allows businesses to ensure business continuity and peace of mind, even at the worst moments.

The consequences of climate change are being felt globally and these physical threats to business continuity are becoming impossible for IT teams to ignore. The new laws around climate-related corporate disclosure should mean that UK businesses are already considering these impacts, but they need to play a growing role in recovery planning from the outset.

Be mindful of the geographic risks that your on-premises and cloud data centres may be operating in, be proactive in planning DR strategies for each disaster event that your risk assessments indicate, and be persistent in testing and refreshing your backups.

Business Advice, Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity

5-Step Disaster Recovery Plan for Your Small Business

Small businesses do not have it easy. They always seem to have their plates full and are relentlessly trying to ensure that they stand out from the crowd of fierce competitors. Sometimes, small enterprises do everything in their power to stay afloat, but a disaster strikes, and all their efforts suddenly go to waste.

It may be hard to imagine such a devastating scenario at first. Still, one cyber-attack, a powerful hurricane, or even a flash flood may be enough to prevent your upcoming startup from being able to operate.

Even worse, grim statistics prove that up to 40% of small enterprises that suffer a sudden disaster never reopen, and nearly all of those that aren’t ready to reopen five days after the catastrophe close their doors forever within just a year.

Fortunately, you don’t have to sit around worrying and waiting for the worst to happen. Every enterprise can create their own business continuity management system strategy to minimize the damage.

 

Here’s what you can do to prevent your business from going under after experiencing a crisis:

Determine Risks and Potential Threats

The first step to developing a disaster recovery plan for your small business is identifying all the risks and potential threats that may affect your company. You will want to compile a list of all the things that may potentially happen to you, your employees, and your premises.

At the same time, creating a list documenting the events that have already happened to other companies in your industry would be wise. This way, you will have a rundown of some of the most common and possible scenarios you should be ready for.

Numerous threats can affect your firm and prevent it from operating, so you need to look at each of them in detail. When preparing your list, you will need to consider things such as the structure of your business, whether your employees work remotely or come to the office every day, the communication systems you rely upon in daily operations, your IT infrastructure, and any delivery services your enterprise uses.

Check Your Insurance

Not all business insurance policies are created equal. However, all companies need them. Consequently, you should take a closer look at your current insurance policy and review it carefully. This way, you will be able to ensure that you’re insured against potential natural disasters that may strike in the area where your enterprise is located.

Remember that your insurance should be enough to cover potential expenses caused by disruptions to your organization, including ensuring the continuity of your day-to-day operations and paying for the costs of physical damages, e.g., flooding.

If your current insurance policy is insufficient, you don’t have to change your provider. Most insurance companies allow business owners to purchase additional insurance to protect their agencies against the specific disasters that might hit their area.

For instance, if your offices are located in the Tornado Alley area, you should have an option to insure your business against damages that a tornado may cause. Some insurance providers may also allow you to purchase insurance for damages suffered by your key suppliers, especially if your business could not continue running normally without their products or services.

Backup Records and Data

When running a business, you can never have enough backups. If you’re serious about preparing your disaster recovery plan, you should ensure that you have up-to-date duplicates of all vital records and documents.

You can store your data in a solid, watertight safety box, especially if most of your records are printed on paper. Still, making digital copies and keeping them safely in the cloud is also a good practice.

If backing up your records and data sounds overwhelming, you can consider alternative solutions, such as dedicated disaster recovery software. Not only will it keep your data safe from natural disasters, but it will also protect you from hackers, malware, or faulty hardware.

Look for software that fits your budget and provides regular, continuous backups. It should also allow quick data restoration — both onsite and in the cloud.

Set Recovery Objectives

It’s always good to have clear recovery objectives. Because of that, your small business needs to establish what its recovery goals are.

In this step, you should focus on answering questions regarding how quickly you want to be able to operate again after the disaster strikes. You also need to consider inevitable losses and determine the inventory, downtime, and data you can afford to lose if anything happens.

The two essential components you need to determine are:

  • Recovery Time Objective (RTO): This term refers to the maximum time your business can be offline.
  • Recovery Point Objective (RPO): RPO determines how much data you can afford to lose before your business suffers significant financial losses.

If you don’t have any specific numbers in mind, don’t worry. You can always consult with experts, ask other entrepreneurs in your industry, or do your own research online.

Test Your Plan

Last but not least, you should have a strategy to test your disaster recovery plan. This way, you will be able to ensure that all of its parts work well not only on paper but also in practice.

You cannot allow your recovery measures to fail when you need them the most. If a disaster strikes and your plan turns out inefficient, the effects of the unexpected event may be even worse than initially expected.

The type of testing depends on your needs and preferences, but the options involve:

  • Paper testing: Here, you should have a disaster recovery expert go through your plan, review it and annotate it on paper.
  • Walkthrough testing: This option involves introducing your team to the plan and asking them for feedback.
  • Simulation testing: You can also simulate a disaster that’s most likely to hit your business and follow the steps included in your plan.

In Conclusion

As you can see, a disaster hitting a small business doesn’t necessarily equal a complete loss of control and inability to recover. Proper disaster recovery plans can help you prepare for and insure against potential threats. If you think your company is particularly vulnerable to disaster, you might even consider hiring a disaster recovery expert.

Investing your time and money in a potential threat that may never happen in real life may seem pointless, but every minute you spend getting ready for disruption is the time you’ll save when problems occur.

 

Cybersecurity, Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity, News, Tech, Telecoms

The Importance of Digital Resilience in an Uncertain World

Written by Adrian Taylor, Regional VP at A10 Networks 

Today we live in a ‘VUCA’ world full of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. As enterprise leaders make plans to ensure the business is ready for whatever the future brings, they face multiple challenges on every level.

As a result, many organisations are talking about how to make their business more ‘digitally resilient’. This is about understanding the true relationship between the technology that we are now all so dependent upon and IT risk. Over the past decade, the world has witnessed massive digital transformation; the net result is more interconnected systems, a larger business ecosystem and an even greater reliance on internet communications. Employees now access work from anywhere via mobile devices, and servers that were once on-premises now exist in the cloud.

Therefore, enterprise organisations’ daily dependence on technology is not only all-encompassing, but also growing deeper and even more fundamental to its operations. There is no way of slowing this continuing digital transformation.

 

Nearly Five Billion Internet Users

To put this into context, in January 2022 there were 4.95 billion internet users, according to DataReportal. More people online means higher demand for network bandwidth, agility, flexibility, and security. Likewise, the COVID-19 pandemic proved that a virtual workplace is possible.

However, it has also highlighted that a work-from-home setup is not always ideal from a security perspective. Many enterprise organisations are opting for a hybrid model and adapting their workplace, not only for health reasons but also for efficiency and cost reduction benefits.

Keen to understand the impact of all the challenges enterprise organisations now face, we commissioned research at the start of 2022, which investigated various issues around digital resilience, cloud adoption, security and how enterprises were planning to work both now and in the future.

We surveyed over 2,500 organisations from a variety of vertical markets including financial services, education, government, gaming, utilities, healthcare and retail and eCommerce. It was interesting to see how the different sectors are evolving and to compare both the similarities and the differences.

 

What Are Enterprises Most Concerned About? 

When it comes to digital transformation, one industry at the forefront is retail and eCommerce. Alongside the digitisation of business applications and internal processes, retail organisations have seen much of their in-store, consumer-facing business move online. The organisations that prioritise consumer-friendly, convenient online offerings are seeing an exponential growth in e-commerce sales, which grew between two and five times faster than before the pandemic.

It was interesting, therefore, when we asked retail and eCommerce respondents how concerned they are about the organisation’s digital resilience and readiness to cope with various challenges, they were most concerned about their agile development and DevOps capabilities (95%), and how they would support staff remotely (95.5%) as well as managing the move from IPv4 to Ipv6 (95%).

Supporting staff remotely was also a key concern for finance sector respondents (96%) when asked the same question. This sector is witnessing ever-growing competition as traditional banks compete against digital neobanks and try to keep pace with consumer demands.

This often means they are rushing to deploy new technologies that enable frictionless digital experiences and increase customer value. The has resulted in more application services, which has created a dramatic increase in the viable attack surface for hackers. It is no wonder that this sector said the optimisation of security tools for competitive advantage (97%) was a top concern.

Gaming and utilities respondents were both least concerned about remote access (89%). Education sector respondents were most concerned about future resilience and responsiveness to external changes (95%).

 

How Is This Affecting Networks?

Looking at the impact that the exponential growth in online services is having on network traffic, our research showed the gaming sector had the highest average growth of all verticals, reporting a 52.6% increase in traffic. The education sector also experienced high growth, at 49.8%, however the average growth was surprisingly low for retail respondents (41.1%).

This could be due to retailers having gradually been moving infrastructure online for several years, whereas education establishments have had to suddenly pivot to offering online services during the pandemic.

Digital resiliency is more than network uptime, and lost revenue isn’t the only price to pay. As more and more services have gone online, most industries handle large amounts of highly personal information, including payment details.

This data is a lucrative target for cybercriminals. In October 2021, UK supermarket giant, Tesco, was in the midst of an e-commerce spike that saw 1.3 million online orders per week when it suffered an attempted cyber-attack. The company recovered quickly, but the incident took down the company’s website and app for nearly 48 hours, which resulted in significant potential revenue loss and impacted its loyal buyers. Commentators highlighted that a similar period of downtime before the pandemic would have had significantly less impact, exemplifying the growing need for digital resiliency.

Security is clearly top of mind for all the verticals surveyed. However, when asked about their biggest concern when it comes to cyberthreats, ransomware scored highest for utilities at 14.5%. Any downtime in this industry could mean the lights literally going out. Loss of sensitive data was the highest concern for the gaming and education sectors (20.5% and 20% respectively).

Interestingly – and perhaps counterintuitively for a sector that risks the wrath of gamers when networks are disrupted – the gaming sector scored the impact on brand and reputation as its lowest concern out of all the sectors surveyed.

 

Automating In-Person Tasks

When asked what technologies respondents had implemented in the past 12 months, AI and machine learning were high across all the verticals but highest in government and retail and eCommerce. This is not surprising as both sectors look to automate in-person tasks with AI tools.

Growing businesses, particularly those expanding geographically, need to ensure that their IT infrastructure is flexible and able to cope with a hybrid workforce. Here, financial services and healthcare respondents predicted most of their workforce would return to the office, with only 12%, respectively, saying that the majority or all of their workforce would be remote. Overall, across all verticals, the preference was a return to the office with only 14% saying a minority or all of their workforce will work remotely.

As organisations prepare for the next wave of disruption, including responding to cyber-attacks, keeping the enterprise environment secure, and accommodating remote workers, digital resilience will be the watchword.

Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity, News

How do you prepare for a disaster? Four ways to test your disaster recovery plan

Written by Ezat Dayeh, Senior Systems Engineering Manager at Cohesity

The one thing every IT and business leader should have learnt during the past two to three years is the importance of a simple maxim: prepare for the unexpected. By putting in place processes for disaster recovery, and then testing those plans regularly, leaders can ensure their business is prepared when worst-case scenarios take place.

Disaster recovery (DR) plans – which is an organisation’s method for responding to and recovering from a major event – play a critical role in helping businesses to cope in a crisis. From natural disasters to cyberattacks, a thorough and well-tested DR plan can ensure your organisation is up and running quickly, keeping customers served and revenues flowing.

However, while every IT and business leader should now recognise the importance of these plans, research suggests that some are slower on the uptake than others.

What’s more, having a DR plan in place is just the starting point. Unless your process is tested regularly and thoroughly, how can you be sure it will work? With increasing numbers of stories about services falling over and not getting back online quickly, the question we ask is simple: is anyone still testing their DR plans?

Unfortunately, the answer to that question is ‘nowhere near enough’.

IT and business leaders must do better. To ensure their organisations have a trusted route back to recovery, organisations must test the robustness of their DR plans.

From sandbox testing to data classification and onto simulation to pulling the plug out, here’s four ways to ensure you have a DR plan that works.

 

Conduct sandbox testing

Third-party DR services should be able to draw on a range of virtual equipment to test your plan. Testing your DR plans shouldn’t be a crisis in itself – your partner must ensure that they can provide non-disruptive DR testing.

This procedure, often known as a sandbox test,  makes it possible for your business to undertake full testing without affecting any production servers. That means that even while the test takes place, your operational activities continue as normal.

Also, ensure your third-party tester can give you detailed results from your sandbox. Any tech-based solution for DR planning should use audit trails to reduce operational complexity and streamline compliance requirements.

 

Create an effective data classification strategy

Unless you have an effective data-classification strategy, you won’t know which data must be protected at all costs.

Organising data into classes is the cornerstone of effective data management. If you know what use cases your data supports – from security and compliance to customer service and cost optimisation – you’ll know how valuable your information is and the lengths to which you should go to protect it.

Your DR plan should take this data classification into account. Your tier-based approach should ensure business-critical data is not just backed up, but always available. If the worst happens, and your network is down, your DR plan must ensure that renewed access to this data is prioritised.

 

Setup a simulation exercise

If you really want to know how effective your DR strategy is, then you’re going to have to run a simulation exercise.

This simulation creates a worst-case scenario and then role-plays the plan with your IT team. The exercise should also bring in other business stakeholders and third-party vendors to create a full view of dependencies and requirements.

As a step up from a virtual test, this simulation might involve actual physical testing of hardware, networks and services. The aim is to test – in as much detail as possible – whether your current DR strategy is fit for purpose, without disrupting operational activities.

 

Pull the plug out – and switch everything back on again

While you’ll want to ensure your DR tests don’t affect day-to-day operations, the only way you can be completely sure that your policies are effective is – in the simplest terms – to pull the plug out and switch everything back on again.

These full interruptions to business service will impact the hardware, cloud-based services and data that your organisation uses every day. A complete interruption to the business will likely knock all front-end services offline, so you’ll need to run a full test like this at a time that causes least disruption to employees and customers.

This short, sharp shock will prove to everyone in the business that the DR plan is ready and available when the worst-case scenario happens. And if pulling the plug does show that there are gaps in your DR plan, then you’ll know exactly where to fill them.

 

Don’t take anything for granted

The last two to three years have proven the importance of being prepared for the unexpected. With the increased frequency and cost of cyberattacks, a robust set of disaster recovery processes combined with proven technology have never been more essential. Organisations should look for ease of use, automation, and the ability to truly control their data recovery and application availability service-level agreements. This next-gen data management also offers organisations an essential set of capabilities to take on the disaster recovery challenges businesses are facing today.

While some challenges are almost impossible to foresee, an effective DR strategy will mean your business is ready to cope with even the most challenging twists and turns.

 

Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity, News

Secure I.T. Environments Delivers Multi-Data Centre Project for UK Investment and Wealth Management Firm

Two projects completed, consisting of a data centre relocation and upgrade in just six weeks, followed by a disaster recover data centre build either side of a COVID lockdown.

13 April 2022 – London, UK – Secure I.T. Environments Ltd, one of the UK’s leading design and build companies for modular, containerised and micro data centres, has today announced that it has completed two major data centre projects for a UK financial investment and wealth management company. The two projects were a phased relocation of the primary data centre and a separate new disaster recovery data centre build.

The primary data centre relocation involved the relocation of equipment and upgrading the building mechanical and electrical infrastructure. This included the installation of a new Inmesol Volvo 100 KVA generator, four Mitsubishi air conditioning units in N+1 configuration, and the relocation of two existing Mitsubishi units. Secure I.T. Environments also installed a new incoming power supply to the site.

Phase two of this initial project focused on upgrading existing infrastructure in a number of key areas. The combined phases were completed in just six weeks. Secure I.T. Environments supplied and installed Novec and VESDA fire suppression systems in four rooms, two new cabinets, 14 intelligent PDUs, Jacarta Environment Monitoring System (EMS), and a flooring upgrade to vented floor tiles. A controlled shutdown was also undertaken during phase two to enable the installation of an Automatic Transfer Switch (ATS) generator panel.

“Migrating an established data centre to a new office, within a new geographical location was a huge logistical and technical challenge,” said a spokesperson for the company. “A data centre is considered the critical core of the business, so entrusting the critical fabric of its environment with a trusted partner was essential. The expertise and guidance provided by Secure I.T. Environments was comforting, they had the knowledge and expertise to ensure the project was a resounding success. The planning and implementation phases were executed with professionalism and quality, it was reassuring to know we had a trusted partner throughput this key project.”

A new disaster recovery DC

Project two was a new disaster recovery data centre build and infrastructure upgrade, completed in two phases either side of the COVID-19 lockdown spanning December 2020-January 2021. The project included installation of 7x42U cabinets, 6x intelligent PDUs, Riello UPS and a Jacarta EMS. Three new Mitsubishi air conditioning systems were installed, along with raised floor access and room soundproofing. A power upgrade to the server room was also completed.

Chris Wellfair, projects director at Secure I.T. Environments, added “We have managed multiple projects across the challenging circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic, with great communication and trust being very important. When working on multi-phase projects for customers, careful planning and a close working relationship is critical to success. The customer team was pivotal to our success in delivering these projects and managing the dynamic nature of changing lockdown rules.”