Availability Defined
High Availability allows you to retain access to your critical data and
applications even during system or system-component failures. It is achieved
through fault tolerance and other availability management strategies.
Why High Availability?
Today, we rely so heavily on information systems that a computer outage
leaves tens, hundreds or even thousands of well-paid employees with little
or nothing to do, and leaves customers without the means to buy from you
or to receive service.
Consumers expect to be able to visit your Web site at their convenience,
not yours. People in time zones around the world expect to be treated
equally. Businesses running multiple shifts expect to be able to interact
with your systems whenever their workers are on the job. And, when competitors
are only a click away, the potential loss of customer loyalty and revenue
due to system downtime is enormous.
98% of respondents in an International Data Corporation (IDC) survey
stated that unscheduled system downtime significantly affects their business.
Uninterrupted business operations are imperative for today's enterprise.
ERP solutions, eBusiness, business-intelligence software and people networked
together in virtual organizations are all elements of many modern and
successful businesses. These new solutions create a new requirement for
24-hour-a-day, 365-day-a-year data and application availability. No exceptions.
59% of respondents in the IDC survey said they could not conduct business
or tolerate lost revenue during unscheduled downtime.
While systems have become increasingly reliable, system reliability is
not enough. Information Technology does occasionally fail. But more importantly,
it has to be maintained. In fact, planned maintenance accounts for more
than 80% of system downtime. For some highly reliable systems, such as
IBM iSeries, that number is 95%. Managing both planned and unplanned downtime
is a critical issue for IT departments.
A survey of 450 Fortune 1000 companies, conducted by the Strategic Research
Division of Find/SVP, found that downtime costs U.S. business over $4
billion per year.
Continuous Operations Defined
Continuous Operations provide access to information and applications
even during planned system maintenance. Unreliable systems are not the
only disrupter of information availability. Systems also undergo planned
downtime to install upgrades and perform routine maintenance.
Planned administrative activities account for 95% of downtime in IBM
iSeries environments.
Nights...Weekends...Holidays... These previously comfortable windows
for IT maintenance are rapidly being eliminated by the 24x7 requirements
of eBusiness, ERP and virtual users.
Meanwhile, maintenance task loads keep increasing. Operations staff struggle
to schedule system downtime when it least affects user productivity and
business profitability.
Disaster Recovery Defined
Unplanned downtime results from a variety of events: disk crashes, power
outages, hardware failures, software failures, lightning strikes, fires
and so on. Many organizations maintain backup systems and copies of critical
data at secondary facilities. When a disaster occurs, operations shift
to the recovery site.
Do you need a disaster recovery plan?
Could your business survive a significant loss of IBM iSeries usage during
a peak business period? If your company is in a highly regulated industry
such as finance, banking or pharmaceuticals, or if the value of transactions
processed each hour is particularly high, the answer is likely, "no".
Losing access to critical information for even short periods is no longer
acceptable. You cannot wait a day or more to fix a crashed system and
reload lost data. Business information must be available whenever and
wherever you need it.
Hardware, software and networks occasionally break down. Fault tolerance
is required to keep the business running when they do. However, fault
tolerance will not suffice in the event of a catastrophic failure, such
as a fire or flood. A multiple system strategy that employs geographically
distributed systems is required to protect operations in these situations.
Downtime for Application Upgrades
Business never stands still. Over time you need to:
- Introduce new products to expand your markets and stay competitive
- Reorganize administrative processes to increase productivity and accountability
- Change production processes to improve efficiency
- Change your sales and marketing channels to address new opportunities
and be more competitive
Change never ends. And, as your business evolves, your business databases
and applications must evolve with them. These changes inevitably lead
to changes in your databases. New fields must be added, existing fields
must be deleted, or other schema changes become necessary.
While database changes may be essential, so is maintaining your operations.
You cannot afford to stop your business to restructure your databases
to accommodate an upgraded application. What is the answer?
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