by Sagaran Naidoo, CA Africa
Protecting company information is a discipline which is again capturing the attention of business people who accept that their organisational performance is dependent upon data availability. But the focus has shifted from the protection of information to recovery and discovery of information; a subtle difference which in times of emergency can mean the difference between uninterrupted business or disaster.
There are several factors contributing to the renewed interest in concepts like business continuity and disaster recovery; undoubtedly, the widely accepted notion of the value of information is at the core. The hype around broadband availability is also opening up the possibility for more companies to enjoy the benefit of remote replication of data.
Within this environment, the distinction between business continuity and disaster recovery solutions is also becoming blurred. It used to be that disaster recovery was a technical issue while business continuity was a more process-oriented task. However, there is no longer any question that business processes are independent of information. IT and business are increasingly synergistic; these disciplines are becoming one which makes perfect sense.
Furthermore, companies are tending to move away from an information lifecycle management approach and towards one of information governance. This is congruent with the emergence of concepts of enterprise IT management and business service optimisation, which is further affirmation of the closing perceived and actual gap between the disciplines of IT and business.
Information governance is a reflection of the fact that information retention initiatives are in many, if not most cases, driven by regulation and legislation. Records management as a discipline will take over point solutions such as mail and data archiving as a broader concept which encompasses all elements of data retention and recovery as an archive of business records. It is a deeper requirement which necessitates the introduction of intelligence.
These are the forces behind the shift towards the issue of recovery rather than simply protecting information. Data stores are growing enormously in terms of size and complexity. The real challenge, therefore, is no longer storing data (the platforms are affordable given the sustained reduction in the cost per megabyte of storage hardware) but finding important information within limited time frames.
Failure to turn up business records on time can have several unpleasant repercussions such as various forms of litigation resulting in fines or other punishments. Line of business applications can be disrupted and opportunities or staff productivity may be lost.
Given the reality of the challenge of finding information, the concept of e-discovery is becoming a solution area in itself which is focused on providing the ability to retrieve data quickly and reliably. It represents the closing of the circle of data protection; companies archive to retain information for a certain period of time, they manage and secure that information to ensure that it is not tampered with so it is valid and original, and then they have to be able to discover it when there is a need, or else it becomes a hindrance.
The point is that companies are recognising that just as disciplines apply to backup and restore, so they apply to the ability to find specific items of information on demand.
Contact Sagaran Naidoo, CA Africa, Tel 011 236-9111,
sagaran.naidoo@ca.com
