This post provides a high level overview of the best practices surrounding the selection of your Primary (or Production) and/or Alternate (or Disaster Recovery) Datacenters. The “excruciating” assessment details will be discussed in Part II but for them to make sense it is best to understand the framework in which they fit. Finally, while this is not an exhaustive dissertation on the subject it does address most if not all of the fundamentals, and with them under your belt you can more wisely determine your best solution. … Click on the title to read more [...]
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A good friend and I were discussing Recovery Time Objective (RTO). During the conversation an heretofore “too obvious to mention” concept related to RTO crystallized into absolute clarity. There is a flaw in the basic definition of RTO, an assumption that is built into it that can have serious negative effects on a business during and post a disaster event. … Click on the title to read more. [...] As promised, this is the next post in the series to address Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity. Its purpose is to define the key terminology used in the business of “DR and BC” so we are all on the same page. Why? Well, Socrates allegedly said “If you would speak with me you must define your terms”. Others have attributed this to Voltaire. But. Whomever first said it, they were absolutely, critically correct. To know anything at all about DR and BC you must first know and fully comprehend these terms as an absolute bare minimum. … Click on the title to read more. [...] Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity are becoming hot topics (again) so I thought I would refocus my efforts and leave other elements of IT Fundamentals for another day. It so happens that I have quite a few subject notes in draft mode, accumulated over the years, so I thought I would start with a basic, essential, outline of the subject. … Click on title to read more [...] To do a “quick fix” repair of an IT group there are only three steps that are necessary for you to execute. The key, the motto, and the guiding principle behind these steps is “don’t over complicate them”. Completing these action items (they are not thinking items) will not only make you and your IT group’s life easier but it will have the added benefit of helping to recession proof your organization. … Click on the title to read more. [...] This post addresses the four, not three, IT (Information Technology) Life Cycles that are on the “must know” list for those working in and managing an IT organization; one of the four is a new Life Cycle (LC) that, while present and in use, has never before been named. … Click on the title to read more. [...] This post, Version 1.0, reviews and discusses the processes of Risk Management and in particular Risk Analysis in some detail. Both were discussed in recent posts but at a summary level. … Click on the title to read more. [...] It may seem slightly “odd”, out of character with the times, that I spend so much time on the subject of fundamentals. And. Yet. Without them. Where would we be? … Click on the title to read more. [...] One of the items I failed to mention in the original post on Risk Management (NotesOn: Risk Management – Risk Analysis) is that RA must be done from the top down and from the ground up. … Click on the title to read more. [...] We have all seen HR IT job postings for junior developers (beginning programmers) that state a BS is required but an MBA is preferred. Yet, the Degree may be the least important attribute of a successful IT team member. Does that surprise you? … Click on the title to read more. [...] In “NotesOn: A Quick-Fix IT Repair Plan” I mentioned that there are only three steps necessary to begin to get an IT group’s house in order: 1. Stabilize, 2. Simplify, 3. Standardize. To do these steps you need to generate a plan or plans. But. What happens when a plan goes awry? … Click on the title to read more. [...] PowerPoint presentation “From Idea to Execution – Working With IT” presented by DP Harshman on February 23, 2010 to the University of Denver-College Of Business course on Innovation Design and Execution. … Click on the title to read more. [...] IT, more than any other industry I know of, has and requires people with a certain amount of “attitude”. Attitude, a certain status as a “prima donna”, can be a good thing. As long as it is managed and focused. Allowed to “run amuck”, however, and there can be problems. … Click on the title to read more. [...] It seems nearly every IT related website, IT related seminar and IT consultancy firm broadcasts, loudly and as often and as authoritatively as possible, that Cost Cutting is absolutely imperative to an IT group’s survival in these economic times. However. Nothing could be further from the truth. This is incontrovertibly, as in 100%, the least right answer. I absolutely guarantee that Cost Cutting as a sole or major strategic initiative … Click on the title to read more. [...] In various articles for this website I have used, and will continue to use, the word “simple”. But using it without clarifying what it defines is a fundamental error, as “simple” must be understood within the context of its subject. It must be appreciated and accepted (or not) within the framework of a discussion area. … Click on the title to read more. [...] After posting “NotesOn: IT Fundamentals – Simple Defined”, a discussion and debate began on Herding Cats (the site referenced in my post). The result of that series of comments is quite educational and furthers the searching look into the definition of “Simple”. … Click on the title to read more. [...] Everyone familiar with project manager roles (IT or otherwise) knows, or knows about the so called Triple Constraints (i.e. six have been identified and are widely accepted). However. There is a Seventh Constraint, a critical one to project success that, if ignored or slighted, can lead to project failure. … Click on title to read more. [...] The structure of an IT organization is absolutely fundamental to the success of that organization. Good or bad, it provides the foundation for and sets the tone and tenor for all else IT that follows. Being traditionally under IT HR’s purview, CIO’s / CTO’s often spend a good deal of time with them as regards the best layout of their IT team. However. Based on direct experience and years of observation it is clear that the concept behind the business version of KISKIF is unknown, for too many IT organizational charts leave “something” to be desired. … Click on the title to read more. [...] Risk Based Project Management, as a subject, has come up more than once and did again recently. It’s doing so reminded me of a short email chain with a bright young project manager named Linda. The discussion is succinct, to the point, and of value to the project management community so I am publishing it as written. [Originally published 12/29/2010. Republished to replace lost posting.] … Click on the title to read more. [...] I recently received a software upgrade to a utility used widely by both IT and non-IT users alike to help maintain and protect their systems. I am planning on rolling it back to the prior version. Why? Because while the company invested a great deal of time and money in their new product … they violated all three primary sins of software development in the process, making it nearly unusable. [Originally published 01/18/2011. Republished to replace lost posting.] … Click on the title to read more. [...] During a recent discussion the question came up: “What is the difference between Business Continuity Planning and Disaster Recovery Planning?” A number of the folks I was speaking to had the idea that the two subjects were pretty much one and the same. But. Of course. They are not. Let’s find out why not. … Click on the title to read more. [...] Lest anyone think I have forgotten about this site, or the subjects we have been addressing, fear not. I am in the midst of brushing up two different posts that have been sitting in my “pending basket” for some time. Both will address the assessment of data centers in general and their suitability for [...] It has been a while since I’ve added any new posts but, now that Spring and Summer tasks and trips are over (mostly) I have more time to devote to this site, starting now: First there is a brand new post. It discusses the newly realized subject of “Cumulative Recovery Time Objective“. Second, I’ve [...] Thank you for your patience. The DR & BC Definitions Post, published on July 4th, has been updated to add the missing Hot-Warm-Cool-Cold Standby diagram and to clean up a few typos and “written late at night un-clarities” in the definitions. If you have any comments or suggestions please subscribe so you may add comments. [...] It has taken a great deal of work to assemble my notes and documents from over the years to create the Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity Definitions post, just released, but I believe the effort will be more than worth it if the post helps to clear up any confusions and misunderstandings, or terms never understood, around the subject of DR and BC. Enjoy the post. Please let me know if you have any questions or “issues”. [...] Spring brings flowers, green lawns and lots of yard work but it also brings rain, snow melt, flooding, tornadoes, rock slides … all of which led me to the desire to dust off, brush up, and publish a series on Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity. Back in February I published one on the difference [...] Thank you for your patience of late. The initial upgrades are complete. In addition to possible debugging there will be “tweaking” to do over the next several days as I stabilize the new architecture, so if you discover any errors please do let me know via the “Contact Us” page. Best, DP Harshman [...] |
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