Increased Interest in Oracle’s DR Solutions from Core Services

Core Services Corporation, an Oracle Certified Partner, has noted an increased interest in their Disaster Recovery Solutions in recent months.

However, Bimal Doshi, Vice President of Operations at Core Services, is concerned that companies are more reactive than proactive with their disaster recovery initiatives. "Jumping on the bandwagon of the latest fear – whether it is hurricanes, fires, rolling blackouts or sabotage – is probably not the best approach to creating an ERP Disaster Recovery plan," Doshi explains. "Companies should really take a thoughtful, collaborative approach to develop a plan that covers all possible threats. It’s vital to have an iron-clad Business Continuity plan that provides the necessary game plan to recover from a disaster – regardless of cause – within the crucial time period required to resume internal production and service to customers."

"A prudent IT Manager should indicate that Oracle Disaster Recovery takes place well before a disaster ever occurs," Doshi continues. "The planning stage is critical, and planning for the worst will help ensure that if and when an adverse event does happen, system downtime is minimized. Core Services knows that planning is just the first step in creating a disaster recovery protocol. Planning can be a risk-mitigating exercise in that many harmful incidents can be prepared for and prevented, and Core Services recommends an end-to-end disaster recovery test at least once every 6 months."

Impact of Disasters
With the explosion of around-the-clock e-business, enterprises today operate in an extremely complex and highly networked, global economy. Today, companies are more susceptible to interruptions, whether it’s by natural disaster, hardware failure or by human error that is intentional or unintentional. The cost of such interruptions, or downtimes, varies across industries, but for companies with a significant web presence, outages are crippling. For mission critical applications such as the Oracle E-Business Suite, a disaster could potentially mean financial ruin and the close of business altogether if not rectified quickly.

"Most companies are exceedingly dependent on their information technology systems," explains Jim Bistis, President and CEO of Core Services. "When disaster strikes, the domino effect of systems going off-line can quickly lead to total business failure because of this dependence."

Some of the most notable problems
include the lost ability to manage:

• Cash-flow and banking
• Collection of receivables
• Order handling, sales and invoicing processes
• Payment of salaries, commissions and expenses
• Payment of creditors and suppliers
• Contact records for customers, suppliers, partners and staff

While a loss of Internet connections also means a loss of:

• E-mail communication and possibly phone communication
• E-commerce capabilities and transactions
• Web-site access and tracking information

Core Services’ Data Protection Strategies
Effective Disaster Recovery planning is more than just providing a power backup supply or a second server in another building. In the event of a disaster, hardware and networks can be replaced or moved to a new location, but data, one of the most critical assets of a business, may not be replaced as easily or as quickly if not protected correctly.

Given the importance of data protection, there are a variety of technology solutions available to enable businesses to protect and recover their data in a timely manner. Core Services provides several different solutions, based on the speed in which a company needs to recover their data or based on a specific budget.

A snapshot of a few of these Oracle Disaster Recovery solutions includes:

• Backup – In this type of recovery, database data/files of the primary database are stored on storage devices. Core Services’ backup strategies include local and remote copies of data, full and incremental backups, online backups, and support for secondary devices, including off site tape archiving.
• Standby – In this type of recovery, a copy of the primary database is maintained on a separate server at all times. These systems are configured for disaster recovery purposes. If the primary database fails, the standby database is activated to operate as the new primary database. Automated Standby is an effective means for disaster recovery by providing a completely automated framework to maintain consistent copies of the primary database. This technology also provides an automated framework to switch over to the standby system in the event of a disaster or a corruption on the production site, or even during scheduled maintenance work.
• Remote Mirroring – This method involves the mirroring (copying) of the changes in the primary database storage units to a remote storage unit at a secondary site. This can be accomplished through techniques such as storage based remote mirroring or host based mirroring. In the event of an outage or a disaster, the database may be restored and recovered at the mirrored site, and systems may then point to this mirrored site and continue operations.
• Sophisticated DR with Virtual Tape Libraries – This method uses the most recent technology including de-dupe technology, alternative site processing and can take advantage of multiple data centers. With virtual tape, backups complete faster and more reliably, with little or no change needed to the backup environment. De-duplication technology can eliminate or greatly reduce the need for physical tapes while ensuring data security and integrity. However, Core Services leverages a solution that allows our team to directly export data to physical tape, leveraging the speed of the VTL without impacting the backup network for companies that still require physical tape backups.

"All companies rely on data to survive, yet most companies–especially small to medium size businesses–continue to ignore the benefits of a having a comprehensive disaster recovery plan," concludes Bistis. "Corporations that have spent the capital and resources to procure and implement any of the Oracle Products should implement a Disaster Recovery plan sooner rather than later. Core Services can help corporations by prioritizing the potential risks, determining scope of impact to businesses and analyzing possible costs so that we can develop a customized and effective Disaster Recovery plan of action."