'Workplace Area Recovery To Transform Enterprise DR Strategies'

Although there’s been a lot of talk about Disaster Recovery (DR) and Business Continuity Planning (BCP), little is being done within enterprises beyond the implementation phase. Such is the status quo, when it comes to disaster recovery. Sangram Gayal, principal analyst, PwC, talks to Biztech2 regarding some of the reasons for lagging DR implementations and some of the new directions that the space is evolving towards.

Why are we seeing DR and BCP initiatives today going wrong?

DR in enterprises today is not entirely going wrong. We have the technology in place, the only thing remaining is to take the time and define the mechanisms for Business Continuity.

Until recently, the economy was booming, there was tremendous growth, and everyone was on the tip of their toes. Sometimes when business volumes are high, other things lower down on priority queues get neglected. Until now DR and BCP have been in this state.

As we neglect certain aspects of our architecture, it becomes quite evident what happens when disaster strikes. In this scenario, people lose money; they lose infrastructure; and resources. This makes them learn. Take for example the situation during the Mumbai floods. In this scenario, there were a few customers, who had their data centre underground, and what happened? The servers drowned and as a result lots of data and consequently, money was lost.

In keeping with this, it becomes easy to understand why certain controls need to be in place, and this is how enterprises learn.

Could you talk about today’s DR and BCP arena?

BCP today revolves around a philosophy that you need to exist despite a crisis. You need to be able to operate during a disaster, and you need to be able to come back to normalcy after a disaster, in the minimum amount of time, of course.

Let’s take an example of a disaster occurring. Questions that need to arise here are - Can I keep operating my processes, can they operate for the time being with my people and keep servicing my clients? Not only that, this is just crisis management, after that, the question that needs to be considered is – Can I come back and re-establish my full-scale operations?

What kind of DR initiatives are required to have a working strategy?

Enterprises today are still focusing a lot on business. Today, in a growing economy, the need of the hour is to maximise growth. It is true that some companies have not given a chance to BCP or risk management as such, but there is learning on the way through the unfortunate incidents that take place.

Possibly now with the economic downturn, pressures are lesser, so it’s a good time to look back and re-innovate. Earlier, there was so much happening that you didn’t have time to breathe, but now as things are slowing down it’s a good time to re-think your infrastructure, and evaluate what is missing and what is in place. It’s a good time to see if the necessary controls, BCP, security mechanisms, etc. are all in place.

What are some of the things to keep in mind while engaging in BCP and DR initiatives?

There are two main aspects that I can think of in this area. The first aspect is that in case of a disaster, how quickly are you able to recover your data from remote servers, back-up sites, or back-up tapes.

The second aspect is the ‘people’ aspect of it. When you don’t have people in place, who overlook the testing of the recovery infrastructure and engage in its maintenance, you will not have good end results. The question here is – Are the people trained to use, implement and test these applications before a disaster actually strikes?

Could you talk about some upcoming trends in this space?

Today, we’re seeing the emergence of a new aspect of disaster management; workplace area recovery. These facilities are centres that not only provide you with servers, but also with office space so that enterprises can continue to function even in the face of a disaster.

These facilities also have in place usable desktops. Bandwidth is also available on-demand and users can invest in rack space, so as to have data present, which ensures that at least the primary wings of the enterprise can function.

These facilities are in place in India itself and are already seeing customers flocking to them for services. Customers, who use this kind of arrangement, are primarily multinational enterprises, who have vested interests in backing up important data.

This is a relatively new concept that is just starting off; however, it is definitely projected to gain momentum in the coming year.