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?