INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND TECHNOLOGY JOHN PREVAL

` INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND TECHNOLOGY JOHN PREVAL · GROUP MANAGER

THE BUSINESS DRIVERS Satisfy legislative requirements Duplicate key systems holding business-critical email and document files Provide fast fail-over to minimise down-time and transaction loss Give users rapid access to secure email archive PARLIAMENTARY SERVICE INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND TECHNOLOGY

IT OBJECTIVES Provide mechanism for recovering rapidly from system failures and other disasters Allow quicker and more reliable back-ups and restores Implement robust operational procedures for fail -over and fail-back between Production and DR Lower the total cost of system ownership Enhance the reputation of Parliamentary Service, stakeholder confidence, and staff morale PARLIAMENTARY SERVICE INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND TECHNOLOGY

STARTING POINT 500 customers (MPs, assistants, & support staff) Up to 50, 000 emails per day Dell CX 500 SAN, 4 TB data, doubling annually 70+ Wintel and Linux servers, and growing Exchange, Office, information management, financials, Blackberry Shrinking back-up windows Prolonged and unreliable restore process Rapid storage requirements growth Complex campus LAN PARLIAMENTARY SERVICE INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND TECHNOLOGY

3 PHASE SOLUTION Phase 1: Local DR system – Virtualised DR servers (Dell) – DR SAN (Dell/EMC CX 500) – Host-based replication (EMC Replistor) – New back-up infrastructure (EMC Networker) – Email archiving (EMC email. Xtender) – Centralised system management PARLIAMENTARY SERVICE INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND TECHNOLOGY

PHASE 1 ARCHITECTURE PARLIAMENTARY SERVICE INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND TECHNOLOGY

3 PHASE SOLUTION (Continued) Phase 2: Remote DR system – Virtualise key production servers – Relocate DR system to another city – WAN connection via Government Secure Network (GSN) PARLIAMENTARY SERVICE INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND TECHNOLOGY

PHASE 2 ARCHITECTURE PARLIAMENTARY SERVICE INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND TECHNOLOGY

3 PHASE SOLUTION (Continued) Phase 3: Content Addressable stores – Introduce EMC Centera at Production and DR sites PARLIAMENTARY SERVICE INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND TECHNOLOGY

PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES Recovery Point Objective = 15 minutes Recovery Time Objective = 30 minutes Primary storage claw-back = 50% Server consolidation ratio > 4: 1 Performance degradation <30% Email & attachments archive search <3 minutes Backup window constraints removed (disk-to-disk and disk-to-tape) Remote user access (Citrix) unimpeded PARLIAMENTARY SERVICE INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND TECHNOLOGY

PROJECT APPROACH Preparedness assessment (site hardening) Business impact analysis Restoration options, system commissioning DR Plan preparation Plan testing, and testing PARLIAMENTARY SERVICE INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND TECHNOLOGY

BUSINESS BENEFITS Higher system availability Lower total cost of ownership (especially backup tapes) Ease of regulatory compliance Improved control of business information and supporting systems PARLIAMENTARY SERVICE INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND TECHNOLOGY

CUSTOMER BENEFITS Virtually unlimited access to email online (avoiding size and volume restrictions) Transparent and rapid retrieval of older messages Easy location of email and attachments Retrieval of “deleted” email without reference to IT Reduced outage time and information loss following system failures Easy access to user files PARLIAMENTARY SERVICE INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND TECHNOLOGY

IT BENEFITS Flexible, fast, and simple Disaster Recovery procedures Easier disk management (growth, replacement, and maintenance) Improved system availability Reduced back-up and restore times Storage savings of between 50 and 80% through archiving Exchange PARLIAMENTARY SERVICE INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND TECHNOLOGY

IT BENEFITS (Continued) Very short system restoration times Automated archiving and compliance Virtually unlimited message size and mailbox limits Fast bare-metal server rebuilds Easier system management and monitoring PARLIAMENTARY SERVICE INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND TECHNOLOGY

USEFUL LESSONS No single supplier can supply every skill required Try not to be a very early adopter Products work better in marketing brochures than in silicon Set customer expectations carefully You can never do enough testing Establish support mechanisms before you buy Use battle-scarred vendors and staff PARLIAMENTARY SERVICE INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND TECHNOLOGY