FEATURE : BUSINESS CONTINUITY

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// it must be noted that business processes do not all act the same or serve the same functions and therefore do not have the same requirements . Especially during or immediately after a disruptive event , where having standardised capabilities could pose limitations on – or event risks to – the effectiveness of the business ’ business continuity . Rather , businesses should look for a disaster recovery model that is flexible and fit-for-purpose in terms of cost versus process requirements ( RPO and RTO ), and therefore provides the business with the ability to respond on-demand to all workload protection and recovery needs with a single , easy-to-manage technology .

Business continuity management , service availability and the ongoing assessment of business risk remain essential activities for any business across any industry .

Partnering with a full-service provider uniquely places a business to take advantage of a mix of business continuity products , solution and services capabilities that are carefully designed – and that can be deployed to support a holistic business continuity strategy to underpin the business ’ long-term objectives . •

Kate Mollett , the new Regional Manager for South Africa at Veeam , says changing regulatory requirements necessitate a more considered approach to ensure data is securely maintained , stored and accessed in an increasingly connected environment .

Until recently , the focus has been on establishing an always-on environment and implementing disaster recovery and business continuity solutions capable of delivering on this experience . In this environment , companies realise they can ill afford their mission-critical data to be offline or compromised . Furthermore , changing regulatory requirements necessitate a more considered approach to ensure data is securely maintained , stored and accessed in an increasingly connected environment .

Data that delivers proactive business value

Hyper-availability takes the next step . It reflects the evolving reality of the importance of data in the connected business . With increasing challenges in managing enterprise data , hyper-availability requires that data must evolve from basic backup and recovery solutions , which mechanically copy data at prescribed intervals , to a much higher level of intelligence where data learns to respond instantly and appropriately to what happens anywhere across the enterprise data infrastructure . Data protection and data management must move from reactive insurance policies to a system that provides proactive business value . It is no longer good enough to occasionally mine data for intelligence and insights or to do so only once a quarter . Instead , the competitive nature of business across industry sectors means data is in a continuous stage of movement . In other words , decisionmakers are leveraging insights organically and in real-time as opposed to the more traditional and fixed approach . In South Africa , organisations across financial services and telecommunications stand to gain immediate benefit from a hyperavailability strategy as they are typically rich in data . The enterprise focused approach of this mean they can extract value out of their data much faster than previously possible and deliver digital innovations to customers to improve their experiences and meet their expectations .

Five stage journey

There are five stages on the journey to intelligent data management for the hyper-available enterprise :

• Stage 1 , Backup : Back up all workloads and ensure they are always recoverable in the event of outages , attack , loss or theft

• Stage 2 , Aggregation : Ensure protection and availability of data across multi-cloud environments to drive

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