Newsletter September 2018

Welcome to the September edition of the Continuity Matters Newsletter!

As Florence bears down on the coast of North and South Carolina, it is a salutary reminder of the power of nature. There are 56 data centres in North Carolina and 11 in South Carolina. Apple, AWS, Google, IBM all have data centres in the area. Facebook has a 30,000m2 data centre (that’s 7.5 acres!). See here for a listing. The full impact of the storm is unknown – but the predictions are ominous. Authorities are expecting lengthy power outages and extensive flooding.

We have compiled some very interesting articles that discuss the key resilience issues facing data centre and cloud providers in the face of this enormous storm.

Don't forget to reserve you seat for our upcoming seminar in October!


Continuity Matters' Upcoming Seminar – “Compliance Without Control”

The increasing dependence of organisations on applications in the cloud has made it more challenging for risk and business continuity executives to satisfy themselves that the applications will be recoverable in the event of a disruption.

If your organisation has deployed critical applications to the cloud, how will you assure yourself (and possibly the regulator) that your systems are recoverable in the time and manner you require?

Hear from experts address this issue and work their way through a realistic scenario. We will present the perspective of an APRA regulated user, a provider and the regulator.

There will be plenty of opportunity for questions and networking at this interactive and stimulating session. Drinks will be served at the conclusion of the session.

Hit by the Azure outage? Watch out for Hurricane Florence!

“With Hurricane Florence bearing down on the Southeast US as I write this post, I certainly hope if your data center is in the path of the hurricane you are taking proactive measures to gracefully move your workloads out of the impacted region. The benefit of a proactive disaster recovery vs a reactive disaster recovery are numerous, including no data loss, ample time to address unexpected issues, and managing human resources such that employees can worry about taking care of their families, rather than spending the night at a keyboard trying to put the pieces back together.”

Lessons learned from past disasters

Robby Hill, founder and CEO of HillSouth, a Florence, S.C.-based managed services provider, told CRN: "During Matthew, we found we didn't have enough backup power for our office building, since then, we have implemented and tested our power. After Matthew, we were stuck with portable generators. Now we have one installed in our building. Matthew tested us. We were out of power for a week." 

Weather report

We can’t say we were not warned. Earlier this year, the World Economic Forum published the Global Risk Report 2018. On page 3 of the report, the Global Risks Landscape 2018 chart had 6 out of the 7 most likely and impactful risks attributable to climate change. This assessment has proved to be scarily accurate.

Why using the Potluck approach is a risky strategy

Many organisations make no formal workplace recovery arrangements for crisis management and the recovery staff. Many hope that their offices will never suffer a disaster and even if they do – intend to use the “Potluck” approach and go to a hotel if the need arrives.  
We believe this is a risky strategy - and here's why.