12/06 - Business Continuity
/The concept that refers to planning and preparation of a company to overcome serious incidents or disasters and resumes its normal operations as seamlessly as possible. Granted some organisations are happy just to claim insurance or restore from old backup technology such as tapes, but this approach still renders greater downtime and can present a very bad image to customers who may no longer be able to access the services they require for their own business to run. A worst case scenario of ICT failure of a single business entity can have a flow on effect across all stakeholders both suppliers/customers and could possibly see more then one business entity fail entirely. It is irresponsible not to have a business continuity plan in place.
Committo likes to work independently with Vendors to find the right fit solution for customers. Their are two vendors that appeal to us in being able to provide a complete business continuity solution.
Veeam, a market leader in the space, often seen as the number 1 vendor of ‘Backup, Recovery and Archiving’ software. Veeam solutions are generally more customisable then competitors, and have tight integration with most leading server OS’s. Committo’s Veeam solutions are a better fit for customers that are looking to work closely with a local partner and want to be close to the management of the solution. Committo utilises a local top tier data centre that meets government standards for the protection of data privacy, to store Veeam Backups and Restore functionality. It is also good for those customer that may wish to extend their DR (Business continuity environment) into a fully production based cloud IaaS model.
Our other choice of provider is Datto, recently Committo have spent some time exploring the other vendor solutions, and we can see the value in an all-in-one DR (Business Continuity) device. We hold the viewpoint that it is effectively comparable to hyper converged infrastructure where all components are optimised and streamlined in way to deliver a high performing IT virtual infrastructure. Datto’s value proposition is to provide a device that is optimised and streamlined solely for backup/restore and archiving. You simply drop the device into the infrastructure configure, and Datto take care of the rest. Backup up occurs to the data centre in Sydney. In the event of an emergency Datto technicians handle the situation, and Committo simply provides a first level of support. Datto may not be the best choice for customers looking towards the longer term option of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), as there would be more complexity involve in doing a migration project back to Committo’s Data Centre. There is also the question of whether a closer local relationship is more suitable to your way of doing business.