Business Continuity: Solution Providers Should Focus On Processes Not Technology

"Disaster recovery and business continuity is driven by business issues, not necessarily technology issues," said Joe McNally, director of performance management and enterprise infrastructure for the Ameritrade technology group. "The biggest challenge is getting business processes back online."

McNally was one of more than 500 systems administrators, vendor executives and consultants at the Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Conference, sponsored by CMP Media's Wall Street and Technology. CMP Media is the parent company of CRN.

McNally's comments echoed those of many speakers who stressed the importance of process over technology. While technology plays a huge role in any disaster-recovery and business continuity plan, speakers said solution providers must focus on creating processes that allow clients to easily access plans, back up and recover systems, communicate with employees and identify top-level managers in charge of continuity and recovery.

"The main obstacle in putting together a strong plan is solid integration," said Gary Layton, vice president of business continuity services at Computer Associates International. "We must recognize that business continuity is the ultimate knowledge management exercise."

After Sept. 11, many companies found that their disaster-recovery plans were an exercise in futility. Dennis Elwell, executive director of business recovery and continuity services at Verizon Enterprise Solutions, said prior to Sept. 11, 60 percent of Verizon's top customers said they had business continuity plans. After that date, half said those plans were inadequate.

Many businesses, even those directly affected by the World Trade Center attacks, aren't looking to invest in strategic technologies but instead secure and strengthen existing infrastructure, said Larry Tabb, vice president of the securities and investment practice at TowerGroup, a Needham, Mass.-based research and advisory provider to the financial services industry.

"Everybody's talking about efficiency, and doing more with less," Tabb said.

Another reason companies aren't jumping into new technologies is that much of the existing technologies met expectations, panelists said. Belinda Wilson, global solutions manager for business continuity and high-availability solutions at Hewlett-Packard, said operational problems generally account for 80 percent of technology and product failures. "What we learned from the disaster was that a lot of workflow logistics were missing. You have to continue working on the processes from beginning to end," she said.

Despite cuts in technology spending, management is looking to spend more on security, recovery and continuity initiatives, panelists said. "Money is more available today because the events of 9/11 woke management up to the fact that a disaster did happen and, God forbid, it could happen again," said Bernard McElroy, vice president of high-availability services at AT&T.

Some large customers, panelists said, are willing to spend money on expensive mirroring and high-availability solutions even during this tough economy. But solution providers should also gauge the importance of customers' data.

"Try to understand business recovery in terms of what's needed," HP's Wilson said. "Take into measure how long [a client can afford to be down, what type of data can be lost. Not every element requires a high-availability solution."

Panelists also said more end users will start outsourcing security and other services and turn to managed service providers to monitor and maintain networks. Clients will also seek highly customized solutions to fit their needs.

"We need ways to create an indestructible infrastructure," McElroy said. "Traditional networks won't go away, but new technologies will provide us with other options."

There's still a host of less complex disaster-recovery solutions. At Lehman Brothers, where about 6,000 Lehman employees were displaced from lower Manhattan after the disaster, the company used Citrix Systems' technology to tie remote offices to the main systems and used Cisco Systems' voice-over-IP phone systems to communicate in offices without traditional phone service. Lehman also heavily relied on RIM Blackberries and e-mail, said Bridget O'Connor, vice president of global architecture and engineering technology and head of global business continuity planning at the company.

"The key to our success was we had solid infrastructure," she said, adding that the infrastructure was centered on a strong communications platform and an accessible continuity plan.