1. Business Continuity Appliances Making the Business Case

2. What Is A Business Continuity Appliance?  A Business Continuity Appliance is a self-contained server optimized to quickly take over if your company’s servers fail or become unavailable due to a disaster  The appliance takes regular snapshots of your entire computing environment  In the event of a server failure, the appliance quickly virtualizes the failed servers using the most recent snapshot of the backed up data and applications to restore close to normal operations  Appliances can also be synched with servers at other company locations or offsite data centers. In the event of a natural disaster, these remote servers can make your computing environment available via Internet connections  When the emergency is over, the computing environment can be restored to existing or new servers – as well as to virtual environments and workflows -- so your business can resume normal operations

3. Why You Need A Business Continuity Solution  Severe data loss can lead to business failure  Two-thirds of small and midsize businesses have business continuity/disaster recovery plans in place – according to an InformationWeek/bMighty.com study  40% of small and midsize businesses have had to execute at least part of their business continuity/disaster recovery plans, according to the InformationWeek/bMighty.com study  Many small businesses rely on inconsistent and insecure manual tape back- ups. In the event of server failure or disaster, tape-based systems can lose a day or more of business data and can take hours or days to restore full functionality  The cost of business downtime when your company is offline can be surprisingly high

4. Business Continuity Appliance Lots Of Things Can Go Wrong

5. Business Continuity Appliance Use Cases  Size: Small to midsize companies (or branch offices) with anywhere from 1 server and 10 users to a dozen servers and hundreds of users (larger installations may require multiple appliances)  Current Backup Solutions: Small businesses relying on tape backup, larger companies looking to bolster their business continuity plans  Tolerance For Downtime: Companies that can’t afford to be offline for more than a few minutes  Tolerance For Lost Data: Companies that can’t afford to lose a day’s business data  IT Sophistication: Companies with IT staff or partners able to help set up and restore servers and applications  Homogenous IT Environment: Companies with all key systems on a single platform (i.e., Windows)

6. Business Continuity Appliances - Advantages  Single, turnkey, integrated hardware/software purchase  Relatively easy to set up  Few or no additional software licenses required  Single point of contact for support  Backups made automatically as often as every 15 minutes  Ability to choose point-in-time backup  Tape backups must be handled manually, usually daily at best  “Sandbox” environment allows IT to test disaster-recovery and business continuity  Saves IT staff time and effort  Frees resources for profit generating tasks

7. Business Continuity Appliances - Advantages  Able to restore full computing environment in minutes  Tape can take hours or days to get new servers up and running  May be able to replicate computing environment to remote servers or appliances for disaster recovery and continuity  Relatively easy to restore complete environment, including activity during outage  To bare metal (original or dissimilar hardware)  To virtual environments  Much cheaper than high-end server clustering

8. Business Continuity Appliances – Disadvantages  More expensive than tape backup. But requires less labor and provides more timely restoration of data  May not be able to handle heterogeneous computing environments, spanning Windows, Macintosh, Linux, etc.  Installation can take from a few hours to four days, depending on appliance vendor  Offers reduced performance for a limited time when running as a virtualized server  Not a long-term replacement for existing servers  Can’t mix and match hardware and software preferences  May not provide real-time backups – a key factor for transaction-oriented architectures  May not back up desktops or other devices

9. Business Continuity Appliance Alternatives To Business Continuity Appliances  Tape-based backup - C ommon in smaller companies. Inexpensive. But typically requires manual intervention. Lengthy backups; may lose days of data  Server Imaging - Software for Windows, Linux or virtual environments. Requires additional hardware and storage  Disaster Recovery software - Similar to server imaging. Allows you to rebuild on another platform. Assumes redundant server and storage  Replication - Facilitates duplication of data such as transaction records onto offsite or local data storage. Provides an additional level of protection  Redundant Server Clusters - O ffers fast restoration and compatibility. But expensive. Requires purchase of disaster recovery software

10. Evaluating Business Continuity Appliances CHECKLIST File/Folder/Volume Restore? Bare metal restore Same and different hardware? Virtualization? Time required? Additional hardware/software required? Wizard-based interface? Support for multiple operating systems? Backup Frequency? Offsite synchronization/archiving? Encryption? MS Exchange Granular Restore (mailbox and message-level recovery)?

11. Business Continuity Appliance Our Company’s Business Case  Identify your biggest disaster / business continuity risks. How likely are they? Risk 1.___________________________________________ Likelihood____% Risk 2.___________________________________________ Likelihood____% Risk 3.___________________________________________ Likelihood____%  Our current approach to business continuity and disaster recovery: ____________________________________________________________  Costs (including hardware, software, tapes, offsite storage/service, IT staff time, etc.):_________________________________________________________  What is our estimated business cost (loss) when business systems are unavailable? Per hour______ Per day_________  Note: Include costs of non-productive employees, lost revenue  What is our estimated cost for unrecoverable data loss?  Per Hour _______ Per Day_______  Est. cost of appliance(s):___________________________

12. Business Continuity Appliance bMighty.com Resources  Disaster Preparedness For Small And Midsize Companies Disaster Preparedness For Small And Midsize Companies  The complete InformationWeek Analytics / bMighty Analytics ReportInformationWeek Analytics / bMighty Analytics Report  How to Coordinate Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Planning How to Coordinate Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Planning  9+ Steps to Disaster Recovery Planning for Small and Midsize Companies 9+ Steps to Disaster Recovery Planning for Small and Midsize Companies  Disaster Recovery Requires More Than Data Recovery Disaster Recovery Requires More Than Data Recovery  Mid-Market Hero: 'Big Boy Technology' For Disaster Recovery Helps Snag New Business'Big Boy Technology' For Disaster Recovery Helps Snag New Business  Search bMighty.com for Disaster Recovery AppliancesDisaster Recovery Appliances

13. Business Continuity Appliance Industry / Web Resources  InformationWeek’s Business Continuity blog InformationWeek’s Business Continuity blog  Business Continuity Planning checklist, PDF from AT&T. Business Continuity Planning checklist  BS25999 Business continuity standards, from the British Standards Institute. BS25999  Business Continuity Certification. Most useful for larger companies. Business Continuity Certification  Audit your business continuity plan, with help from the ISACA. Validate your training and preparation for a server failure or a disaster. Audit your business continuity planISACA  IT Security and Risk Management – a college course covering assessment and mitigating risks along with reporting requirementscollege course