Disaster Recovery / Survivability Planning
Recently in Ohio we had one of the worst ice storms in state history. Many of us lost power for a few to several days. If you have a basement when something like this occurs, you quickly realize how much you value electricity. It is so reliable normally that it is easy to take for granted that it will always work.
How easy do you think it was for people to obtain a portable generator or battery back up sump pump during this outage?
Even for those fortunate to locate one, they certainly were not in a position to bargain. At that, it is likely that some degree of water damage had already occurred.
What lessons can be taken away from an ordeal such as this and how does it apply to your telecommunications infrastructure?
Many homeowners knew before the outage that portable generators and battery back up sump pumps existed but declined to make the investment because they thought they couldn't afford it. This type of thinking actually caused many people to spend far more than they thought they were saving. Not only did they end up purchasing the equipment, but they had costly repairs resulting from water damage in the basement. Perhaps they had additional costs from spoiled food in the refrigerator and burst water pipes. The bottom line is this: the time to make a Disaster Recovery / Survivability Plan is not after you've already been a victim of disaster!
In order to assess measures you should take in your Disaster Recovery / Survivability plan we must first determine your tolerance for downtime. What does it cost your business to lose service?
Almost every business requires voice and data communications in order to conduct their day to day business. Loss of these services will almost always result in lost employee productivity. The business owner immediately begins to lose money because he/she is now paying employees even though they cannot perform their duties during the outage.
Does your company generate revenue over the telephone? Now, the lost dollars begin to compound as not only are you paying employees to not work, you are losing sales because your customers cannot reach you. Perhaps they think you went out of business so they are now calling your competitors to place orders.
Financial institutions literally have cash moving over their wires and fiber optic strands. Outages to company's such as this can cost them thousands and thousands of dollars per minute or even second!
Even more important than lost dollars is potential loss of life.
While every employer must have the ability to dial 911 in the event of an injury or other life threatening event, the likelihood of actually having to do this is increased many times if it is your business to care for people as in an assisted living facility. One may shrug off such a scenario because "these days, everyone has a cell phone". In reality, not everyone does have a cell phone. Even if they do, the right person may not have it with him or her and at that, reception may be poor or non-existent.
One crucial element of a 911 call is the ability of the 911 operator to know the location from which the call was placed based on the outpulsed caller ID. Even if a cell phone call gets through, the operator loses this ability. Suppose a cell phone call gets through but the reception is poor? The cell phone is useless at this moment.
Consumers are more and more educated on matters of disaster recovery. If you want a client to trust you with his / her money, expect to be asked about your plan. If a family is considering placing a loved one in your care, expect to be asked about your plan. How will you answer this question?
If you include a disaster recovery / survivability plan in your initial design, you won't have to answer these questions because they will be explained in your presentation. Perhaps your prospective client will agree that this is enough of a value that they may pay you more than a competitor to provide services.
Echo 24 philosophy is to recommend elements of disaster recovery in every design / plan. These include considering:
Disclaimer: Echo 24 cannot guarantee 100% uptime even with the best disaster recovery plan and implementation. Things such as human error, natural disaster, acts of terror, equipment failure, etc. can have the ability to circumvent or disable disaster recovery / survivability measures. Our goal is to minimize the likelihood of a telecommunications outage for your business and maximize your uptime to the best of our ability. Echo 24 accepts no liability for damages resulting from a telecommunications outage.
