Tag: Media & Entertainment

What’s the difference between Business Continuity (BC) and Disaster Recovery (DR)?

What’s the difference between Business Continuity (BC) and Disaster Recovery (DR)? This is a question I have had to answer multiple times. It is a very good question and the answer is not simple! So, as a good lazy ‘techy’, I tried to find the answer on the web. That way, when I am asked, all I would have to do is send a link.

I have used this approach multiple times for other questions I have received. It is convenient and a great way to avoid re-typing an answer. However, this time, I was not very successful in my quest to find an answer. I searched the web, multiple times, for hours without finding the perfect “pre-written answer” I was looking for. So I decided to stop being lazy and write it myself.

Now, if you are like me, and you’ve been looking for an answer to this question, feel free to use this one.

So, let’s start with a few definitions from the Business Continuity Institute (BCI) Glossary:

Disaster Recovery (DR): “The strategies and plans for recovering and restoring the organizations technological infrastructure and capabilities after a serious interruption. Editor’s Note: DR is now normally only used in reference to an organization’s IT and telecommunications recovery.”

Business Continuity (BC): “The strategic and tactical capability of the organization to plan for and respond to incidents and business disruptions in order to continue business operations at an acceptable predefined level.”

First, I’d like to say that I have a slightly different view of DR than BCI. Now, who am I to disagree with what BCI is saying? Well, bear with me a little longer and you will see how my interpretation of DR might help people understand the differences between DR and BC better. So here’s my definition:DR is the strategies and plans for recovering and restoring the organizations (scratch technological) infrastructures and capabilities after an interruption (regardless of the severity).

Unlike the BCI, I don’t make a distinction between the technological infrastructure and the rest of the infrastructures (the buildings for example) and nor I do differentiate between the types of interruptions. In my opinion, either a system is down or a building is burnt or flooded, both should be considered a disaster and therefore both require a disaster recovery plan.

Therefore DR is the action of fixing a failing, degraded or completely damaged infrastructure. For example, the 2nd floor of a building was on fire; the fire is now out so the initial crisis is over. Now the damage caused by fire must be dealt with; there is water and smoke on the 2nd floor, the 3rd floor has damages caused by smoke and the 1st floor has water damage. The cleanup, replacement of furniture, repair of the building and its structure, painting, plastering, etc. are all part of the disaster recovery plan.

What is Business Continuity then? Business Continuity is how you continue to maintain critical business functions during that crisis. Back to the example, when the fire started, the alarm went off and people were evacuated from the building. Let say you had a Call Center on the 2nd floor and this just happens to be a critical area of your business. How would you continue to answer calls while people are being evacuated? How would you answer calls while the building is being inspected, repaired or rebuilt? Keeping the business running during this time is what I call Business Continuity.

The same approach can be taken with a system crash or when the performance of a system has degraded to the point that it has impacted business operations. So fixing the system is DR and the action of keeping the business operations running without the system being available is BC.

In conclusion, BC is all about being proactive and sustaining critical business functions whatever it takes whereas DR is the process of dealing with the aftermath and ensuring the infrastructure (system, building, etc.) is restored to the pre-interruption state.

Cloud Computing Defined

Submitted by Larry Simon on Mon, 08/22/2011 – 11:50

Welcome to the first installment of what will be an on-going series on Cloud Computing.  Everyone in the industry is talking about it and the media is awash with hype.  I’ll be taking a different approach by trying to bring some clarity and reason to help you make informed decisions in this area.

The place to start is with a definition of the term.  There are a wide variety of sources that attempt to define Cloud Computing, many with subtly different nuances, and often including benefits (e.g. flexibility, agility) that are potential outcomes from going Cloud, but certainly don’t belong as part of its definition.

I prefer the U. S. Department of Commerce National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) draft definition which is well-considered, well-written and carries the weight of a standards body behind it.  Their definition sets out five essential characteristics:

  1. On-demand self-service: This means that a service consumer can add or delete computing resources without needing someone working for the service provider to take some action to enable it.
  2. Broad network access: Note that the NIST definition does not specify that the network is the Internet (as some other definitions do).  This is necessary to allow for private clouds.  NIST goes on to say that cloud services use standard mechanisms to promote use by a wide variety of client devices.  It’s not clear to me that this should be a full-fledged requirement, but is certainly in keeping with the spirit of the cloud concept.  Once could imagine a cloud that uses custom protocols agreed to by a closed group of consumers, but perhaps the word “standard” still applies in that it would be a standard across the consumer group.
  3. Resource pooling: Also known as multi-tenancy, this characteristic requires that the cloud serve multiple consumers, and that the resources be dynamically assigned in response to changes in demand.  The definition goes on to say that there is also a sense of location independence in that the consumer has no control over the location where the computing takes place.  It is important to distinguish “control over” from “knowledge of”.  The consumer may well know which specific data centre the resources are running in, particularly in the case of a private cloud.  There may also be limitations for compliance or security purposes on where the resources can be drawn from.  The important point is that the consumer cannot pick and choose between resources of a particular class; they are assigned interchangeable resources by the provider, wherever they happen to reside, within the limits of the service agreement.
  4. Rapid elasticity: Capabilities need to be rapidly provisioned when demanded.  The definition does not specify how rapidly, but the intent is that it be in a matter of minutes at most.  The service must be able to scale up and back down in response to changes in demand at a rate that allows potentially unpredictably varying demands to be satisfied in real time.  Ideally, the scaling is automatic in response to demand changes, but need not be.  The definition then goes on to say that the resources often appear to be infinite to the consumer and can be provisioned in any quantity at any time.  This is of course not a rigid requirement.  A cloud service could put an upper bound on the resources a particular consumer could scale to, and all clouds ultimately have a fixed capacity, so this clearly falls in the “grand illusion” category.
  5. Measured service: The NIST definition specifies that cloud systems monitor and automatically optimize utilization of resources.  The definition does not specify the units of measurement, and in fact Amazon and Google’s cloud services meter and charge using very different models (in thumbnail, Amazon in terms of infrastructure resources and Google by page hits).  What is surprising is that the definition does not state that the consumer is charged in proportion to usage, which many definitions consider the most fundamental tenet of cloud computing.  The NIST definition allows a situation, for example, where several consumers (say, members of a trade organization) decide to fund and build a computing facility meeting the five requirements and share its use, but don’t charge back based on usage even though it were possible.

There’s a lot to like about the NIST definition and it is the one I’ll be using in subsequent articles.  We’ll be digging into what people and organizations are actually doing with cloud computing (without all the hype and hyperbole), and practical considerations for success from both the business and technical viewpoints.

Larry Simon is an IT strategist who has advises startups through to Fortune 500 corporations and government institutions on achieving maximum return from their information technology investments through sound governance and practices.

Should Business Strategy be Influenced by Technological Considerations?

Submitted by phay on Fri, 11/04/2011 – 09:01

Can business strategy be created in isolation of the technology considerations? There is a widespread belief in the Business Community that Business Strategy comes first and then technology follows in some way to support that business.

In my experience the common perception among organizations is that Business defines its strategy first and then technology enables the strategy.

Strategy Development Process:

In order to explore the role technology plays in shaping and supporting the business, let’s look at how strategies are developed.  There has been a significant amount of research done and published in understanding how strategies are developed.  Here are some relevant highlights.

There are two main dimensions to strategy development.

  1. Visionary thinking based on intuition, a sense, an ability to make bold predictions and define goals.
  2. Strategy development is largely based on scientific analysis, considering options and recommendations based on the analysis followed by implementation.
    • Strategic Analysis guided by scientific approach understanding your markets, competitors, value chain, bargaining power of the key stakeholders.  It also entails understanding the strengths and weaknesses of your organization against the opportunities and threat that the external environment presents
    • Strategy Formulation guided by analytical findings, alignment to the vision and overall goals of the organization to create a strategic road-map
    • Strategy Implementation is of course converting the strategy to real results by successfully implementing the strategy

It is the strategy development that is the focus of this article. Specifically, strategic analysis which then guides the strategy formulation and implementation.

Is there a place for technological consideration in strategic analysis? The answer is quite apparent as demonstrated through examples next.

Technological Influences on the Business Landscape

Examples of technologies that have had transformation impact on business value chain and have redefined markets and distribution channels are all around us.

The globalization phenomenon enabled by the internet is one of most profound. The Internet has impacted all the traditional dimensions of business strategy (reduction in barriers to entry, increased market size across the globe without limitations of geographic divide, increased competition etc.).

Financial services industry is a prime example of an industry where technology has transformed the value chain, redefined competitive forces and given the consumers tremendous amount of bargaining power.  Entry barrier have been declining, new competitor have emerged. Some financial products and services have become more transparent and commodities making the market more competitive. Internet as a tool to create a new service delivery channel (reduced channel costs, 24 by7 availability) has put pressure on the more traditional branch based channels. The resulting service delivery cost structure has changed. ING is operating on the model that bricks and mortar are not required to sell its banking products and services.

Healthcare value chain has been transformed by technological advances, linking healthcare records through electronic information exchange, diagnostic imaging from traditional film based to digital imaging has redefined the value chain and changed the balance of power between the suppliers, buyers not to mention the very nature of the products and services being delivered.

Retail Industry is another such example where technology has changed the business landscape.  Amazon’s strategic business model was completely defined by technology.

Relationship between Business and Technology

Given how profoundly technology has influenced our business and personal lives, it is hard to fathom how a successful business strategy can be defined without considering technological influences and enablers.  By creating a partnership between Business and Technology at the Strategy development stage, you are creating a strategy that is well formed and can maximize business value and competitive positioning by embedding technological considerations from the very start (and not an after thought!).

So why is it that there is a significant divide between the Business and Technology?  In subsequent articles, I will focus on why there is this barrier (real or perceived) that creates this divide between Business and Technology.

If you have examples to demonstrate the benefits of business/technology partnerships, please share your thoughts on this forum.

Content Management Systems as Cities – I feel like a Mayor!

Submitted by Martin Sumner-Smith on Mon, 09/20/2010 – 09:40

I recently realized that large enterprise content management (ECM) systems are like a city, but most ECM practices treat them as if they were a building. There’s a big difference in complexity that impacts the operation of an ECM system.Architects can design a building to suit its intended purpose and building management can maintain it. In the same manner an ECM expert can design a system to manage digital content in support of particular business processes. Much of the ECM literature talks of the benefits of clear system architecture and good governance.As an ECM system is deployed across an organization the breadth and number of applications grows rapidly – often into the hundreds – with many different business sponsors and champions! It becomes increasingly hard for any one person to understand all of the different ways that a system is being used, and to exert any effective control. The flexibility accorded users through collaborative, social tools further increases the heterogeneity of an ECM system.Not all ECM application deployments meet with equal success or longevity. In many ways the applications in an ECM system resemble buildings in a city – different sizes, different ages, different investments and different degrees of success. Some buildings are abandoned and some never get off the drawing board!No one designs cities – they are just too complex. Sure there are examples of attempts to do this – the initial design of Brasilia or the redesign of the center of Paris by Haussmann – but over time the efforts and activities of many other people determine how a city develops. In fact cities are very much an expression of human behaviour, culture and society.Overall city management falls to the Mayor and City Council, and their most important tools are Building Regulations and Permits, Ordnances, etc. While you can’t and shouldn’t control everything in a city, you can nevertheless provide some direction and minimal standards. The architects of the many buildings need to get approval for their plans before a building is constructed, and the building operators need to comply with other standards.When ECM was a new concept, the focus was on how to best design and operate a first application for the new system – a new ‘building’ standing in a ‘green field’ if you will. As ECM matures we need to think about how to operate large, multi-application systems. For me a better role analogy for the person with overall system responsibility is Mayor, not Architect. It’s not that we don’t need ECM Architects – in fact we need many of them – but we also need a Mayor and Council to provide a framework for oversight and long-term strategy. And we have to accept at least a degree of disorder that results from the activities of many different people that are only loosely coordinated – Mayors are necessarily politicians, unlike Architects!

Predicting Sentiment in Advance

Submitted by Martin Sumner-Smith on Tue, 03/02/2010 – 20:27

There are now a number of tools that monitor social networks looking at:

  • Sentiment analysis – General sentiments related organizations and their brands
  • Topic trend analysis – the relative frequency that topics are mentioned over time

Therefore, if I make blog post or tweet, my topic and sentiments will be captured by automated systems, analyzed and reported. There are some pretty sophisticated tools being used by Marketers, and while some are free, others are quite expensive. However, as a recent blog post noted: “marketing measurement technology really is.’ href=’http://trenchwars.wordpress.com/2010/02/28/a-technology-glitch-demonstrates-how-fragile-marketing-measurement-technology-really-is/’>A technology glitch demonstrates how fragile marketing measurement technology really is.” That said, let’s assume they’ll get better or this Technorati glitch was atypical.

I can also manually get some trend information using Google trends for example looking at ‘ECM’ over time: http://trends.google.com/trends?q=%22ecm%22&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0. However, the information on ECM is too sparse, and there is too much ‘contamination’ with other definitions of ECM, such as Engine Control Management.

But I have to admit I don’t use these tools. So I need a tool like all great advances that caters to laziness – or increased efficiency as I might prefer to characterize it! I need help. I need push rather than pull technology. It occurs to me that I wouldn’t mind knowing how my proposed post relates to other posts already made. I’d get a report something like:

“Your post on ‘ECM’ would be the 47th post on this topic so far this year. This topic is declining in frequency.”

“Your ‘negative’ post on ‘content system metadata’ would align with 19% negative, 25% neutral and 63% positive posts on this topic.”

Besides putting my proposed post in context, I wouldn’t mind getting a sample of the most relevant posts so that I could potentially revise my post, add links, references, rebuttals, etc.

At some level this would be a form of assisted authoring. It wouldn’t have to be limited to blog posts. I’d like to do the same for content authored in an enterprise context. The reality that many reports, white papers and similar work products of knowledge workers duplicate things already available, but people generally don’t look. It’s easier to start typing, imagining your work to be original, than to look first if it’s already been done or if there is something close than you can build on.

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