Storage Cat 08 3/10/08 17:07 Page 47
47 ADVERTORIAL
S ALWAYS-ON-EMAIL
Email – a critical component of a BCP
Email is a critical component of a BCP for the
majority of businesses. It’s at the heart of ad
hoc knowledge management networks, and a key
customer communication channel for sales and
marketing. This makes email a critical business
tool – but it’s one that is often overlooked in
continuity planning. By making email a critical
component of any BCP, with a low RPO and a low
RTO, a business can keep operating with minimal
impact on customer perceptions. A low RPO is
essential, as information stored in archived email
messages is key to providing the context manual
business processes require. If email systems
have too high an RPO, the ability to process
orders and customer information – or actual
data – could be lost during the recovery process.
Cost and recovery objectives of different email recovery options
A consistent flow of information Organizations should aim for the lowest Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) and
during outages Recovery Point Objectives (RPO) balanced against the cost of implementation.
Email can also be used to inform users of the
continuity situation, though in practice it is best to keep it References
operating as normal. Using information held in email systems
1. EIU: The digital company 2013: How technology will empower
the customer.
maintains the flow of backup business processes as well as
http://www.eiu.com/site_info.asp?info_name=2013&page=noads
consistent contact with customers.
2. Osterman Research: A Guide to Understanding Hosted and Managed
Messaging, August 2007
A business needs email even more for delivering information
http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/html/itp/Google_A_Guide_to_
to internal users when faced with disaster recovery. A low Hosted_and_Managed_Messaging_FINAL.pdf
RTO means that email systems can be used to inform staff of
3. Gartner: Establishing Email Service-level Agreements,
July 2007
the business situation, and to brief staff on how to respond to 4. Contingency Planning and Management Magazine
customers. With staff dispersed to recovery locations or
(http://www.contingencyplanning.com): 40% of companies that shut down
for 3 days failed within 36 months
working from home, perhaps even using personal machines,
5. Independent survey by emedia for Mimecast, August 2008
secure access to email means that backup business processes
can be run effectively in a temporarily distributed organisation.
Information stored in email can be accessed from anywhere
Read the full white paper:
– unlike information in desktop machines which may be
www.mimecast.com/register-cont08/
unavailable, or even a total loss.
Achieve zero downtime:
The key is to use email to focus on the business, not on
• Business continuity planning and email
recovery. Dedicated resources will be handling recovery – the
• Availability, recovery and continuity
rest of the business needs to continue operating as near
• The human side of continuity
normal as possible. A normal flow of communications during a
• The business context of continuity
disaster situation can be very reassuring to staff who may be
• Cost, complexity and continuity
working under considerable stress.
• Achieving zero downtime
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