ContinuitySA Quarter 2 Newsletter, Client Chonicles

1. Q2 2012
Keeping ContinuitySA
clients informed
Editor’s Note
This issue of Con nuitySA Client Chronicles is the biggest we have ever pub­
In this Issue lished. These pages are filled with news on current developments, expert in­
sights and useful informa on. There is so much happening in the industry, and
I thank all the contributors for their informa on.
1 Business Update:
Forging ahead into Our main feature is around our IT has become cri cal to business and this solu on can
2012 Con nuity Capability and Ma­ assist in keeping a business running and its reputa on
turity Model, CM², and is testa­ in tact when disaster strikes.
2. CANSA Shavathon ment to what I have wri en This month we also feature adop ng cloud in your back
above. The contributor to this up strategy and yet again give coverage on taking busi­
3. CM2: Measuring feature, Karen Humphris a sen­ ness con nuity into the mainstream and not forge ng
the business ior advisor for Con nuitySA. how to keep your contact centre up and running.
con nuity model A demonstrable ability to survive and recover from
major disrup ve events has become the single most im­ The comments and opinions from our contributors pro­
5. Medihelp remains portant success aspect of any business con nuity man­ vide valuable insights to advising our clients more effec­
agement (BCM) programme. The CM2 framework has vely around these services.
at forefront of
medical schemes’
been designed to provide analy cal informa on which Lastly I am excited to announce that we are trying to
can be used in determining an organisa on’s ability to keep you informed in every means possible and besides
industry
survive any opera onal disrup on resul ng from a sin­ our quarterly newsle er we load our latest informa on
7. Adop ng Cloud in
gle or a series of worst­case events. CM2 provides com­ on both our LinkedIn and Facebook pages so as to keep
pany boards, senior management, Risk Managers, you informed, so join us on these social networks for
Your Backup
Compliance Officers and BCM prac oners with a the latest news. Don’t forget to take a look at our up­
Strategy mechanism to; monitor the effec veness of a BCM pro­ coming events and training happening this year, so
gramme, establish its current level of maturity; and to please visit our website and look at these events and
8. Striking the bal­
define an ac on plan of improvement measures which latest news.
ance between cost can be adopted to enhance BCM capability. To ensure
and cri cality that everyone gets something out we are hos ng a Don’t forget that you are welcome to send us your
breakfast on the 24th May 2012 around the detail of news, which we will be willing to include in our next
10. Keeping the this solu on. issue of client chronicles.
contact centre
and the business – Our second feature is around Infrastructure Impact Editor – Cindy Bodenstein
Analysis (IIA) which can help CIO’s create a business cindy.bodenstein@con nuitysa.co.za
up and running
con nuity solu on that is effec ve and takes into
account the constraints of the real world. It is clear that marke ng@con nuitysa.co.za
12. Con nuity as a
Business Update:
Forging ahead into 2012
Service becoming
a reality Data
recovery services
take the next big by Michael Davies – Managing Director, Con nuitySA
evolu onary leap.
As we move towards the middle of 2012 it is apparent that uncer­
13. “No business
tainty and risk will be prevalent for the me being. With greater
con nuity plan,
no business” strides in technological advancement yet greater uncertainty in the
poli cal and financial stability of countries worldwide, companies
15. Ge ng to grips need to ensure that they have greater organisa onal resilience to the
with VDI
unexpected bumps in the business road along the way.
18. IT Service
Con nuity®
Training
All Links
now Interac ve
and Live!
1

2. Business confidence in South Africa s ll appears bruised and the Con nuitySA’s Advisory Service offerings of CM² (Capability and
economy is doing its best to grow while the internal and global Maturity Model) and IIA (Infrastructure Impact Analysis) are tools
pressures remain. At Con nuitySA we have been fortunate to ex­ used to reflect the current state of business con nuity and IT sys­
perience a li in business ac vity since the beginning of the year tems and processes with a view to their cost and cri cality and ul­
and are heartened that business con nuity appears to be moving mately improve the efficiencies within that environment. The
back onto the board’s agenda. This may also be as a result of a poten al savings in costs together with improving technologies
concerted effort by Con nuitySA to become more opera onally places a company in a more compe ve posi on.
relevant to companies in terms of delivering more value through
business con nuity solu ons including virtualisa on and replica­ Con nuitySA’s aim is to be a trusted partner to your company with
on which can result in a higher availability of resources. A virtu­ business con nuity that is opera onally relevant and to assist
alised environment not only has the ability to reduce the number through your more difficult mes so that you are around for the
of servers currently required, it is also possible to route some of good mes.
the produc on ac vity through this environment too. Our Business is keeping you in Business.
In this new order of a depressed economy it has become impor­
tant to u lise be er IT technologies, such as cloud compu ng, to
gain be er effec veness of the IT budget.
2

3. CM : 2 Measuring the business
con nuity model
by Karen Humphris – Senior Business Con nuity Management Advisor, Con nuitySA
A capability and maturity model injects rigour into a
business con nuity model – something that’s necessary
given its importance.
A
s we all know, the business environment has become • Incident (emergency) response. Are the procedures, infrastruc­
much more vola le and changeable: Compe on is more ture and teams in place to protect your most valuable asset,
intense, and customers are raising the bar all the me. your people?
Business agility has become a key business success factor, • Reputa on management. Are the procedures, infrastructure and
and the modern corpora on is increasingly all about change. In teams in place to protect your next most valuable asset?
tandem, business con nuity plans have to become as agile in order
• Business con nuity plans. Do they include an ini al response,
to ensure they remain up to date with constant change. For that
recovery plans and, ul mately, resump on of normal opera­
reason, business con nuity management has grown in importance
ons?
globally because it provides a way to embed and con nually up­
date business con nuity plans. And, as business con nuity man­ • Recovery infrastructure. Is it adequate, and is its own risk profile
agement has grown in importance, so has the need to assess it adequately managed?
effec vely. • Tes ng. This is one of the most vital steps and one that compa­
nies struggle with the most.
The old adage, “You can’t manage what you can’t measure”, is
equally true here. • Assurance reviews and audits. These processes are necessary
ul mately to drive a culture of con nuous assessment.
We have developed a comprehensive model that allows companies
to assess the effec veness of all the elements of their business con­
nuity management programmes and, perhaps more importantly,
Crea ng the CM2 model
to move from their current state to the desired state in a deliberate Each of these 12 success factors, including the many individual fac­
and planned fashion. This model—the Capability and Maturity tors that make up each one, can then be scored according to in­
Model, or CM2 Model—is applicable whether you have just begun terna onal standards and good prac ce guidelines. Each scoring
implemen ng business con nuity management or whether you would take into account the theory and methodology of business
have a full­blown business con nuity management system. con nuity management, the company’s actual prac ces, the re­
sources it allocates to business con nuity management and the
The 12 success factors of business con nuity management
underlying business con nuity management system. The scoring
Our departure point for building the CM2 model is the 12 success we use dis nguishes between five levels of maturity, from Level 1
factors of a successful business con nuity model. Clearly, the effec­ (cannot recover from or survive a disrup on) to Level 5 (recover­
veness of each one of these contributes to the overall maturity ability is cer fiable). These levels correspond to percentage
of the programme as a whole. ranges, and so each success factor’s elements can be rated in
terms of percentage to generate an overall level for that factor.
In our experience, the 12 success factors of an effec ve The assessment results are granular enough to provide many dif­
business con nuity model are: ferent analyses; for example, business units or individual sites
• Execu ve support. Is there a business case and is it backed up could be assessed.
with budget, policies and leadership commitment? This model thus provides a clear snapshot of where the organisa­
• Resources and exper se. Are they sufficient? on is at present—perhaps more important it allows a company
• Core enterprise threat assessment. What are the threats and to specify where it would like to be in the future.
single points of failure—and how are they managed and mi ­ And because it’s so concrete, the steps that need to be taken can
gated? also be precisely iden fied and priori sed. Progress along the jour­
• Extended enterprise threat assessment. The same assessment ney can also be measured and managed, and improvement quan­
made of the supply chain. fied.
• Con nuity strategies. What are the possible strategies for each
Measurement truly doesn’t only enable management but also im­
of the resource dependencies, and which ones should be se­
provement—and that’s where the strength of this model is evi­
lected?
dent: it helps an organisa on to move towards be er business
• Incident management framework. This should consist of strate­ con nuity management and thus, ul mately, to a company with
gic, tac cal and opera onal ac vi es with an appropriate infra­ greater longevity.
structure.
3

5. Medihelp remains at forefront
of medical schemes’ industry
Medihelp is South Africa’s third largest open scheme with 107 years’ experience in the medical
schemes’ industry. The Scheme covered more than 217 000 lives by the end of April 2012 whilst
T
maintaining a solvency ra o of more than the required 25%.
he Scheme has performed well part of its preventa ve care benefit pack­
with regard to its client service, age. In addi on to the preventa ve care
brand awareness and claims­ benefits Medihelp has increased its benefit
paying ability. Medihelp has limits on the majority of its op ons and has
been at the forefront of the decreased its co­payments on hospitalisa­
industry when it comes to client service on and endoscopic procedures with
and has maintained its good rela ons with respect to its Dimension range of products.
members and service providers alike. An
integral part of Medihelp’s service offering Anton Rijnen, CEO of Medihelp says the
is its ability to process and pay claims. The Scheme has con nued with its seven
Scheme processes more than 250 000 benefit op ons in 2012 and has added sub­
claims per month of which almost 90% stan al value with the various enhance­
are received electronically. Claims are ments. “We have con nued our strong
processed on average in 5.4 days from focus on preventa ve care with the cervi­
recep on and payments to members and cal cancer vaccina on benefit for females
service providers are made three mes a between the ages of 10­ and 26 years. In
month. This efficiency has contributed to the same vain we are offering tetanus
Medihelp’s AA­ (AA minus) ra ng by the vaccina ons for all beneficiaries as a pre­
world­renowned Global Credit Ra ng venta ve care benefit,” he says.
Company for its claims­paying ability. “For us, long term sustainability remains
Product­wise Medihelp offers a range of the key. The challenge lies in growing our
good quality, yet simple benefit op ons to market share through effec ve risk
ensure ideal medical insurance to its management, and ensuring the con nued
corporate and individual clients. The prod­ performance and compe veness of our
uct offering es in with the Scheme’s product range. It is of par cular impor­
mission to enhance the quality of life tance to ensure financial stability in an
through cost­effec ve and efficient finan­ environment typified by constant change,”
cial cover of health care services, in he says.
par cular those that are life­saving and
life­sustaining.
For 2012 Medihelp enhanced its product
range considerably, including a HPV vacci­
na on benefit against cervical cancer as
5

7. Adop ng Cloud
in Your Backup
Strategy
By Sasha Malic, Solu ons Architect, Con nuitySA
It makes sense, but you need to do your homework first.
T
oday’s business environment is Cloud compu ng offers a way to achieve As a model for consuming and delivering
truly global—and that means it’s many of these goals and is increasingly infrastructure, the cloud enables self­
highly compe ve and ge ng becoming part of corporate strategies. service, different sourcing op ons and
more so as the emerging significant economies of scale. It’s also
economies flex their muscles. As an aside, it’s advisable to be aware that clear that organisa ons will use a combina­
Cost pressures are unremi ng and the there are many defini ons of cloud on of private and public clouds to achieve
demand for uninterrupted services and compu ng—so many that the US Ins tute their goals.
higher levels of personalised service than of Standards and Technology (NIST) has
ever before has become the norm. issued a formal defini on: “Cloud comput­ When it comes to backup, cloud has many
ing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, a rac ons for CIOs, who face the challenge
In order to enable organisa ons to convenient, on­demand network access to of increasing volumes of data and sta c IT
compete effec vely in this demanding a shared pool of configurable compu ng budgets, allied to growing requirements to
marketplace, CIOs are looking for increas­ resources (networks, servers, storage, keep vital data and the systems it runs on
ing levels of performance from their applica ons and services) that can be rap­ available. In other words, tradi onal
infrastructure. At the top of their lists idly provisioned and released with minimal backup which protects the data is no longer
are ways to make infrastructure more management effort or service provider sufficient—Complete IT resilience is essen­
dynamic, resilient and to take advantage of interac on." al because without it, very few organisa­
virtualisa on, which itself is changing the ons can survive for extended periods.
tradi onal compu ng model.
7

8. Cloud­based backup also has the advan­ By contrast, a true disaster recovery mir­ Priori sing data and systems for replica­
tage of giving peace of mind because it oc­ rors the en re system as well as providing on is thus key, and to do so one must un­
curs off site and reduces the need to do the infrastructure on which to bring up the derstand the organisa on’s risk profile and
tape back­ups. systems. A cloud based solu on will lever­ to iden fy cri cal data and system. To pri­
age the syndica on of such systems which ori se effec vely, it is cri cal to perform a
the service provider can offer due to mul­ risk assessment as well as business impact
Caveat emptor ple customers that share the same and infrastructure impact analyses. (For
T
infrastructure. more on this process, see Striking the bal­
he old La n tag, “buyer beware”, is ance between cost and cri cality.)
par cularly relevant here because A complete disaster recovery solu on as
many services that are marketed described above is costly. It requires large Once this homework has been done, and
as disaster recovery are actually volumes of data to be copied across the you have a full understanding of the
nothing more than offsite data copies. public Internet or via a private WAN link. hierarchy of data and systems in rela on
That is, they replicate data but not the sys­ A lot a bandwidth is required to ensure the to business cri cality, then the business
tems, on which the data, applica ons, con­ the Recovery Point Obec ve (RPO) re­ recovery plan can be created. And as part
figura ons and opera ng systems reside mains at acceptable levels and the solu on of this business recovery plan, cloud’s
on. Data replica on is no longer accept­ is reliable. flexibility and ability to reduce costs will
able for most businesses. In today’s global likely be an a rac ve solu on.
It is also important to op mise data
economy it is expected from organisa ons replica on by using compression devices,
to be 100% available at all mes. selec ve replica on and incremental
copies.
Second
Feature
Striking the balance between
cost and cri cality
By Jorgen Nielsen, Director, Con nuitySA
T here’s no ge ng away from the
fact: IT has now become cri cal to
business. In fact, in many instances,
the business is virtually indis nguishable
from the IT pla orm on which it oper­
ates. For CIOs, this means tremendous
pressure to provide business con nuity
solu ons that will keep the business run­
ning and its reputa on intact when dis­
aster strikes.
Of course, business con nuity providers
like Con nuitySA have developed the in­
creasingly sophis cated recovery solu­
ons to do just that. The technology to
get an organiza on’s IT systems up and The second circumstance that compli­
Infrastructure Impact running in minutes in the event of a dis­ cates the CIO’s life is the huge explosion
in data generated by ubiquitous IT. Gart­
aster now exists—but the problem is that
Analysis can help most, if not all, companies cannot afford ner es mates that businesses are grow­
ing their data capacity at between 40 and
this Rolls­Royce solu on for all their data.
CIOs create a business This reality check is all the more severe
60% annually, in part because of the
growing torrent of unstructured data like
con nuity solu on given the current circumstances in which
we find ourselves. The global recession
e­mail, and documents that need to be
kept for regulatory purposes.
that is effec ve and may or may not be ending, but compa­
nies remain under very ght cost con­ Whereas once CIOs talked about kilo­
bytes and gigabytes of storage, now it’s
takes into account the straints, and are likely to remain so. CIOs
really are being forced to do more with no longer unusual to hear them talk
about terabytes and petabytes!
constraints of the real less.
world.
8

9. New thinking needed terdependencies between the various a clear understanding of each IT infra­
back­end infrastructure components structure component’s cri cality to the
All of this data is extremely costly to that support them. Based on which ap­ business and not cost.
store, protect and keep available plica ons they enable, the IT compo­
throughout a disaster. The truth of the nents can be priori sed in terms of their Conversely, by op mising the business
ma er is that CIOs desperately a need a cri cality to the business. In this way, the con nuity budget, the IIA makes the
way to priori se the data that they must CIO gains total visibility not only of the funds necessary to provide the managed
protect, and devise targeted solu ons ac­ front end (which is the area covered by business con nuity that the Tier 1 data
cordingly. A one­size­fits­all approach is the tradi onal business impact assess­ needs by migra ng the lower ers to less
either unaffordable if it uses the best so­ ment) but the processes and ul mately expensive solu ons. There’s a further
lu on, or not good enough if it takes a the systems and infrastructure that sup­ benefit: the use of hosted business con­
cheaper, less effec ve route. port each part of the front end. nuity management for Tier 1 creates a
virtual environment that can also be used
At Con nuitySA we have developed a six­ With this view, it becomes easy to er the for produc on during normal business
step methodology for extending the tra­ data—we use a three­ er structure—in opera ons. In effect, this moves ex­
di onal business impact analysis to give terms of which the most appropriate penses off the capital budget and onto
the CIO true visibility into the business type of data recovery solu on can be the opera onal segment.
impact of each component of the IT in­ constructed. In crude terms, therefore,
frastructure. This view enables him or her the Tier 1 super cri cal data can get the In this way, an Infrastructure Impact
to come up with a ered IT Service Con­ expensive, top­of­the­range managed so­ Analysis can help CIOs meet the need to
nuity solu on. We call this the Infra­ lu on with instant recovery, while Tiers 2 ensure that the business always has the
structure Impact Analysis (IIA). and 3 receive more affordable treatment. necessary IT systems available and recov­
The cost savings of this ered approach erable — within the budget constraints
The IIA allows the CIO to analyse the ap­ of the real world.
plica ons, systems and, crucially the in­ can be significant—but they are driven by
9

10. Keeping the contact centre
and the business – up and
running
By Jus n Hammann,Business Development Manager, Con nuitySA
If the contact centre goes down, very o en the whole business is
hamstrung. A dedicated business con nuity plan is a must.
L ove them or hate them, contact cen­
tres have grown steadily in impor­
tance. Now, for many businesses
across all sectors, the contact centre has
become the conduit through which clients
Next, a company really needs to under­
stand the various components that make
up its contact centre. At Con nuitySA, we
have created a conceptual model, or stack,
that makes a logical framework to follow
For this reason, we suggest following the
typical business con nuity management
life cycle approach. Without going into de­
tails about the life cycle itself, the impor­
tant point is that the process is itera ve
and business partners interface with the (see the diagram). The stack builds from and measurable. It ul mately comes down
company. In line with their growing impor­ the bo om, and the business con nuity to embedding business con nuity manage­
tance and thus scope, they have become plans must encompass them all. ment into the corporate culture: this is
complex organisa ons in their own right. something that senior management has to
lead.
All of this, of course, represents a real risk. But how?
In the event of a disaster, how quickly can The life cycle approach will also prevent a
the contact centre be recovered? And how Crea ng these plans can never be a single company from excessive focus on one ele­
much of it can be made opera onal? In cer­ event—contact centres are extremely dy­ ment of its contact centre—usually tech­
tain industries—think of a bank—transac­ namic environments with new technology nology—to the detriment of other
ons are extremely me­sensi ve. For and capabili es being added all the me. components. It means that the plans made
others, there is greater leeway, but it must For example, a company might introduce a are not focused on scenarios (like floods or
always be borne in mind that today’s cus­ promo on that requires it to receive and IT failure) but on the resources needed to
tomers are both fickle and have realised respond to SMSs from exis ng and poten­ run the centre.
the power of social media to voice their dis­ al customers. If the centre goes down dur­
sa sfac on. One person’s inability to get in ing this promo on, that capability needs to
touch with your company to do business be integrated into the business con nuity
can quickly escalate into a firestorm on plans.
Twi er or Facebook.
The inescapable fact is that companies
need to understand exactly what the com­
ponents of their contact centre/s are, and
have an integrated business con nuity plan
that can get them up and running in as
short a me as possible.
Know the vulnerabili es –
and the components of the
stack
A good place to start is to understand the
main things that could go wrong. These in­
clude pandemics that affect staff and the
inability to access the premises owing, say,
to a fire in the neighbourhood or a bomb
scare. In South Africa, cable the that
causes either communica on or power
outages is a real possibility. But by far the
most common threat is, of course, ICT fail­
ure of one sort or another.
10

11. Keeping the contact centre and the business – up and running
Ac on plan
Over many years in the business, we have dis lled several key lessons that should guide
your thinking about how to plan for the con nuity of your contact centre.
• Understand the importance the contact centre has to your business and thus the impact
of any disaster. This will help you achieve focus and set budgets realis cally.
• We have found it very beneficial to involve all the role­players involved in each component
of the stack, as well as the business, in order to make accountability clear.
• Transparency, in general, is crucial. Without it, one o en finds that the business has com­
pletely unrealis c expecta ons of the business con nuity plan, and the business con ­
nuity team does not properly communicate areas of concern for a en on.
• Tes ng is absolutely vital. It must be meaningful—too o en, companies test what they
know they can do—and it must be documented so that issues can be addressed and the
necessary budge ng undertaken as required.
In conclusion, contact centres have become very complex and very important. It’s vital to
understand how important, and what elements actually go into the centre—and then create
the plan you need to ensure con nuity.
11

12. Con nuity as a Service becoming a reality
Data recovery services take
the next big evolu onary leap.
By Jus n Lord, General Manager, Hos ng Services, Con nuitySA
A decade ago, server recovery was a manual process that took four to five days on
average to complete. In fact, anything up a week was acceptable. The solu on was
almost invariably on the client’s site using dedicated infrastructure—the lack of band­
width meant that replica ng data between offices simply was not financially feasible.
T
he burs ng of the dotcom bub­ Consequently, a business con nuity com­
ble provided the impetus for a pany must s ll offer these types of service.
range of new hosted services Where there is considerable evolu on is
and had a major impact on the around the area of availability and network
disaster recovery services as services. When it comes to availability, we
companies began to outsource hos ng are seeing more demand for managed
services. In turn, this prompted the growth backup and recovery, virtual server replica­
in replica on and co­loca on, mostly lo­ on and high­availability solu ons gener­
cated within the same city, as connec vity ally. Networks are obviously cri cal in
today’s connected environments, and so In­
costs and bandwidth issues remained a key
ternet bandwidth, voice and network re­
constraint for the industry.
covery, point­to­point connec vity, MPLS
Over me, as we all know, connec vity recovery and managed security are also
prices started to come down, and band­ growing strongly.
width became more available in outer city Recovery services are becoming more op­
areas. As a result, data centres could be era onally relevant and increasing the con­
moved to outlying areas, and dual­site so­ nuity of the business that is being offered,
lu ons became more standard. And as the not specific services. In this context, it’s ob­
demand and expecta ons rose, so did the viously very important that one provider
pressure on business con nuity providers delivers the full service—everything hangs
to guarantee resilience. together so it’s best if one company has re­
sponsibility for it.
Today, we are seeing triangulated gigabit
solu ons becoming commonplace—and Professional services play a hugely impor­
clients really benefi ng from the reduced tant role in this emerging business con nu­
latency. ity landscape. They can help companies
What does the future hold? decide which components need to be
Greater connec vity into mul ple data cen­ Given where we are now, it’s worth looking hosted in Tier 3 data centres or require fully
tres has also driven an increase in the de­ at where we are likely to be going in the fu­ managed services, by establishing how
mand for on­site services like remote ture. It’s clear that Infrastructure as a Serv­ much the business depends on each com­
hands, monitoring portals that allow clients ice and Pla orm as a Service will play a ponent of the IT infrastructure.
to monitor power and temperature, and growing role in disaster recovery. They are For that reason, we have created an Infra­
the rise of service­level agreements. It also not new, but they are changing the way structure Impact Analysis which is ab­
led to an increase in the concept of the sin­ that companies use disaster recovery serv­ solutely cri cal in helping clients assess
gle solu on that included hos ng, storage, ices by making recovery solu ons more op­ what their business con nuity needs are,
networking and many of the associated era onally relevant. and what type of service they require from
managed services. a provider like us. (Read more about the In­
It must be borne in mind that the tradi­
onal hosted services I described at the be­ frastructure Impact Analysis in a forthcom­
In essence this means that a wide variety
ginning of this ar cle are some mes s ll ing ar cle.)
of services across pla orms within the
company can be fused back into a single re­ quite sufficient for certain areas of busi­
covery service—Con nuity as a Service. nesses.
12

13. Con nuity as a Service becoming a reality Data recovery services take the next big evolu onary leap.
Taking business con nuity other services like call centres, telephony,
work sta ons and so on. This fusion of
into the services is possible because it all sits on the
mainstream virtual infrastructure within the service
provider’s campus.
Several services flow from the concept of
Con nuity as a Service, and complement Con nuity as a Service is about evolving
it. These include managed services and tradi onal recovery services into opera­
replica on services, but I especially want onally relevant services that provide
to highlight virtual server hos ng, which clients with virtual resource that can be
creates fully resilient resource pools for used for much more than disaster recov­
clients to recover cri cal business applica­ ery. It’s all a very long way from the man­
ons. This on­demand capacity can also be ual on­site recovery over several days, with
used for normal daily opera ons at mes dedicated infrastructure that basically
when it is not required for disaster recov­ stands idle for most of the me.
ery—which is most of the me, a er all.
Obviously, this resource pool’s primary
func on is for business con nuity, but it is
there to be used for whatever the client
wishes; for example, for R&D. It gives
clients a seamless real­ me recovery if
that’s what they want, which can include
“No business con nuity plan,
no business”
That’s what your procurement department should
be saying to all your suppliers—but are they?
By Derek Taylor, Business Development Manager, Con nuitySA
Supply chains today are extremely com­
plex—and as they are now global, they are
extremely long as well. This scope and
complexity creates a web of interdepen­
dencies that is hard to track. Indeed, many
companies live in ignorance of the risk
posed by one part of their supply chain… Watch for the risks
un l disaster strikes.
Today’s supply chains face three broad The second major category of risk is loss of
Supply chains are mul level and comprise types of risk. The first of these is the loss
the flow of goods and materials, informa­ fuel. One immediate result is loss of trans­
of power. Many outlets at the one end of port, which means that the movement of
on and money within and between or­ the supply chain simply don’t have backup
ganisa ons. The outward manifesta on of goods and people is halted—and consider
generators; during a power outage, they that the average supermarket might be re­
supply chain is the physical transport and cannot transact with customers given
distribu on networks that move goods plenished up to 12 or more mes a week.
today’s payment methodologies. In addi­ Perishable goods in transit would be at risk
from one point to another, but as impor­ on, ordering systems are increasingly
tant are the communica on networks and, of course, so would backup power­
linked to electronic lls, so loss of power genera on plans, which typically rely on
across which informa on passes. Today’s affects replenishment. And, of course,
supply chains, with their emphasis on effi­ diesel generators.
stores selling perishables would be se­
ciencies and just­in­ me delivery are verely affected by extended loss of power
hugely dependent on these less visible net­ to refrigera on units.
works.
13

14. The final category is loss of people, prima­ loss of power and loss of transport. Loss of something totally unexpected somewhere
rily through industrial ac on and pan­ power meant that the temperature con­ in a complex web of business partners.
demics. Obviously, without people, trols necessary for mushroom growth Conversely, a business might itself be so
opera ons are compromised or even im­ broke down, and port conges on meant important in a supply chain that its failure
possible. that the perishable product spoiled. would put the whole chain at risk.
Each of these losses can affect any com­ Even more to the point is Landrover which, Your own company’s con nuity thus de­
pany within the supply chain, with knock­ in the early 2000s found itself unable to pends on the con nuity of the en re sup­
on effects of greater or lesser severity. produce its best­selling Discovery model ply chain. It’s thus very important to know
because the company that supplied the your suppliers well, especially those that
chassis went under. The chassis manufac­ are important. In fact, I believe that com­
But is it in the budget turer’s failure was the result of an ill­ad­ panies should not procure from suppliers
vised foreign venture that had nothing to without ensuring that an effec ve and cur­
Even from this brief descrip on, it’s clear do with its local business with Landrover. rent business con nuity plan is in place:
that even the simplest supply chain has Landrover learned the hard way that the “No business con nuity plan, no business,”
mul ple vulnerabili es, the number of failure of single point of dependency is cat­ should be phrase on your procurement
which grows exponen ally in rela on to astrophic: luckily, there was a happy end­ staff’s lips!
the supply chain’s complexity and scope. ing and the company was able to recover.
In other words, your business con nuity
The case of a local producer of specialty plan must include credible business con ­
mushrooms to the European market nuity plans for all suppliers as well—their
demonstrates some of these interdepen­ Learn the lessons success is your success, but their failure
dences. A er lis ng on the stock exchange My point is that the interdependencies could also be your failure.
and a year’s stellar growth, the company within a supply chain can be so complex
folded. One reason was poor harves ng that a business can find itself at risk from
prac ces, but the other two concerned
BCI Forum South Africa
Should you have any enquiries as to how you can make a difference or
would like to be included in regularly communica on, please contact
Louise Theunissen (MBCI)(PMP), BCI Board Member
Mobile: +27 82 928 7158 or Mail to: louise.theunissen@con nuitysa.co.za
Upcoming BCI Forum Dates for 2012
30 May 2012 ­ Con nuitySA Media Briefing Room
• 25 July 2012 • 28 November 2012
14

15. Ge ng to grips with VDI
Gaining insight into the world of
virtual desktop infrastructure and
concepts.
By Sco Orton, Co­founder and sales director of Triple4.
In the next few weeks, I will provide some insight into the
world of virtual desktop infrastructures (VDI). I will introduce
the background of the technology, the pros and cons, alterna­
ve op ons and the future of VDI. To fully understand what
VDI is and why it is a key focus for many organisa ons, let me
start by asking a few ques ons:
What is a virtual desktop infrastructure well. In theory this would enable a secure, name a few. The connec on is made from
(VDI)? easy­to­deploy desktop that is housed in any device that supports this so ware,
the data centre and has all the inherent such as a thin client, desktop or laptop. To
A very simple ques on, but I have come benefits of server virtualisa on, such as adopt a VDI solu on, a resilient virtual plat­
across plenty of IT owners who have not high availability, consolida on and ma­ form with enough capacity is needed to
heard of VDI or simply don't know the chine templates. house the environment, and all the desk­
acronym. As is the ques on, the answer is tops, connec on broker so ware and a
simple. VDI provides the ability to house a Not surprisingly, the virtualisa on vendors client device are all necessary.
desktop opera ng system in a virtual envi­ quickly came up with a solu on for housing
ronment, which has typically been re­ desktops in a virtual environment and If an organisa on has already deployed a
served for use with server pla orms. called it VDI. server virtualisa on pla orm, on paper,
adop ng a VDI strategy to enhance the
Where does VDI originate from and why So how does everything fit together and business seems cost­effec ve and easy to
is it of interest to many businesses? what is needed to adopt VDI? produce a decent return on investment
VDI originated from the success of server Because a desktop environment is much (ROI).
virtualisa on over the past few years. Or­ more (or should be) interac ve than a However, dive into it a li le more and the
ganisa ons were and s ll are moving more server environment, user interac on with opposite is true. The cost of a thin client is
and more to implement virtual infrastruc­ a virtual desktop is a given. Since the desk­ very similar to purchasing a desktop, ex­
tures for their produc on environments to tops are housed in a data centre, a remote cept without the desktop opera ng sys­
ease the pain of managing physical server connec on for user interac on is needed. tem. There are a few tricks to housing a
environments, reduce hardware footprints desktop opera ng system in a virtual envi­
and all the other associated issues and Most VDI vendors make use of technolo­
gies such as terminal services as the inter­ ronment from a Microso perspec ve. A
costs, like data centre space, power and air very par cular licensing type is needed,
condi oning. face to connect to desktops in the data
centre. Much like tradi onal desktops, and exis ng desktop OEM licences cannot
Virtualisa on has been so successful that each user has his/her own virtual desktop be transferred unless so ware assurance
it has almost become the norm for an IT in­ with a desktop opera ng system such as was purchased with them.
frastructure. Because IT managers and Windows XP or Windows 7. Connec on to
CIOs saw how successful the virtual plat­ this desktop is managed and maintained
form could be, ques ons and ideas started using a VDI connec on broker such as
to appear around the feasibility of moving VMware view or Citrix Xen Desktop, to
desktops into the virtual environment as
15

16. For a worthwhile VDI environment, a con­ 400 desktops simply housed in another
nec on broker such as VMware view or loca on.
Citrix Xen Desktop is recommended. Al­
though virtual desktops use significantly Benefits such as easy desktop deployment
less resources than virtual servers, addi­ are realised because of the inherent virtu­
onal resources are s ll needed. alisa on benefits. Other issues such as
so ware deployment and support s ll re­
Add all this together and there's a solu on main. So I pose the following ques on: is
that requires quite a bit of investment, it worth inves ng in a VDI solu on or is it
above and beyond, and merely offers desk­ more beneficial to concentrate on crea ng
tops in a data centre environment. Simply a well­managed desktop infrastructure?
moving desktops from physical machines How different are they really? That discus­ Please click here to visit our
into a virtual data centre does not really re­ sion is covered in part two; watch this
duce support costs, because if a company space... website, Triple4.
had 400 desktops before, they s ll have
New hosted offering for SMEs from Triple4
Triple4, the innova ve infrastructure solu on company, has launched a hosted service designed to give
small to medium­sized enterprises (SMEs) access to enterprise­grade compu ng—at a monthly fee per
seat. The new offering, Hosted Business Resources, offers SMEs Microso Exchange, Lync and Sharepoint
delivered as a service from Triple4’s fully redundant data centre.
I
t’s widely accepted that SMEs are any According to Orton, Triple4’s Hosted Busi­ Moving ICT offsite to the premises of a
economy’s prime engines of job cre­ ness Resources offering will enable SMEs trusted service provider in this way does
a on and innova on. In South Africa, to gain the agility they need to operate require good connec vity, but a good
it is believed that SMEs employing anywhere there is an Internet connec on. ADSL line is sufficient, Orton says. The
fewer than 50 people provide around For example, the Hosted Lync service monthly fee includes full support from
68% of private sector jobs—and generate means that a SME employee is always on Triple4’s call centre. And because the ap­
some 60% of gross domes c product. the corporate telephone system wher­ plica ons and data are housed in Triple4’s
ever he or she happens to be, and can ac­ data centre at Con nuitySA, Africa’s lead­
“In a country like South Africa, SMEs are cess documents and a collabora on ing business con nuity provider, both are
absolutely vital on a number of fronts, pla orm via Sharepoint. fully protected against disaster. Con nu­
and ICT has a key role to play in making itySA acquired 50% of Triple4 in 2011.
them more compe ve,” says Sco “This offering allows an SME to operate
Orton, sales director at Triple4. “However, like a corporate—but without the over­ “This offering is already provoking great
all too o en ICT acts as a hindrance rather heads in capital and management me interest from the market, which shows
as an enabler for the busy entrepre­ that in­house ICT systems require,” Orton that the need is out there. SMEs need a
neur—that’s why we have developed this says. “There are also huge administra ve be er way to access ICT, and this is it,”
hosted op on to reduce both the costs and cost advantages when it comes to the Orton concludes.
and the management burden.” purchase of licences for Microso ’s
server products.”
16

17. 17