How IT saved the day for big business

[Nick]

After the May 19 "Bangkok burning" civil unrest made headlines worldwide, businesses seeking to continue operating in Thailand will have to consider political threats and terrorism to be major factors.

However, in crisis comes opportunity, and data centres stand to gain from the lessons learned on that historic date.

Kosit Suksingha, managing director of TCC Technology, one of the kingdom's leading data center service providers, said the crisis, which forced many companies to temporarily close their offices as the situation escalated, has shown that businesses must have back-up plans and alternative sites readily available.

System backup, especially in secure data centres, along with guaranteed data connectivity, is also key for successful business continuity in a volatile region.

Situations such as the one which played out last week tested the Bangkok Post's internal and external business continuity preparations, as staff were temporarily evacuated from the main building in Klong Toey on Wednesday, electrical downtime hampered production the following day, and road closures and live firing zones meant that some employees could not make it to the office.

However, the use of Virtual Private Networking (VPN) enabled some staff to continue working in times of crisis. VPN allows employees to work from home, while disaster recovery backup systems restored data and applications at a back-up centre in Bang Na.

Even before last week's drama, there was evidence that business continuity services are growing in popularity. "Our disaster recovery customers have grown by more than 100 percent from last year and the number of customers who declared a disaster represented more than 100 seats during the past two months of political protests," said Kosit.

Companies which have benefitted from having this service during the unrest now realise how invaluable it is to have business continuity preparedness and a secure IT infrastructure.

This situation has also been exemplified in terms of doing business with foreign customers and partners. For example, TCC's Asia Data Center Alliance (ADCA) utilises best practices and emphasises co-operation in cross-border disaster recovery and business outsourcing agreements.

The events of last week will be a valuable lesson for many organisations to be aware of how to mitigate risk and be prepared for unforeseen events.

Inet's senior executive vice president Morakot Kulthamyothin said the company will invest at least 100 million baht in a new data centre with green and cloud technology outside Bangkok within this year to serve new market growth, especially the medium-sized market.

Tatchapol Poshyanonda, managing director, Cisco Systems (Thailand), whose headquarters was located at Central World, said connectivity at the office was rerouted automatically to temporary sites at Empire Tower in Sathon and in Pattaya.

The temporary offices were powered up and all staff were operational again within a few hours. "I think most businesses will take business continuity seriously from now," said Tatchapol.

"Business continuity products and services will grow significantly."

Narong Intanate, executive chairman of The Value Systems, said the situation will accelerate awareness of investing in business continuity and contingency plans in Thailand, especially to medium-sized organisations which may not have been so interested in the past.

The company has joined a partner in Singapore to provide Business Continuity Management Services (BCM) on a consultancy basis.

"Disaster recovery is not only about having a backup site and computer equipment, but it also comprises processes that allow a business to continue operating immediately if the core site cannot function," Narong said.

Akkamon Srihiran, global services manager, EMC Information Systems (Thailand), said May 19 will encourage many companies to consider investing in disaster recovery sites, or to expand their current roster of such sites.

Moreover, most data recovery sites are centred in alternative Bangkok locations, so last week's events may lead businesses to consider expanding to provincial areas.

EMC recently launched a new virtual storage appliance, called VPlex, which boasts the industry's first distributed storage federation capabilities, eliminating the boundaries of physical storage and allowing information resources to be pooled and shared over distance.

AOL is one high-profile early adopter of VPlex, and the company has reported a reduction in migration time, from 100 days to 14 days.

Desktop virtualisation is another key technology that helps to address the situation by using any eligible computers to connect to applications in the cloud."This is a big opportunity for service providers, especially telecom providers which own data centres and have their own bandwidth networks to provide such service," said Akkamon.

Tatchapol continued that there is a lot to be learned from last week.

Firstly, the Internet and social media are powerful channels for sharing information, given that some people distrust the major news outlets. Furthermore, some people may find access to certain outlets are blocked. People have been using the Internet more than ever in the wake of last week's incident.

Secondly, technology was very helpful for people who were unable to access their offices, enabling them to work from home or to remotely attend meetings.

Technology such as web conferencing, teleconferencing, corporate communication via digital signage, IP emergency contact centers and even simple email have been very practical and effective tools during the crisis.

Thirdly, business continuity/disaster recovery/cloud services have been proved to help not only individual businesses but also the service providers which these firms rely on. The service providers, too, now know they should put in place their own disaster recovery contingencies.

Patama Chantarak, managing director, Microsoft Thailand, added that a key point to be drawn from this experience is that technology can and has allowed business continuity during a difficult period.

Due to concerns for the safety of customers and staff, many businesses in and around the protest areas - Microsoft included - closed their offices throughout last week and allowed staff to work from home.

Live Meeting software, plus remote access to emails and networks through PCs, phones and Office Communicator platforms have made this possible.

Technology has also played an important part in distributing news updates and travel advisories about the situation.

"Contributions from users in social networks have meant more information is available about what is happening in different parts of the city," said Patama.

"Most importantly, we strongly believe that IT will play a crucial role in the recovery of many businesses in Thailand.

"This is the time to rebuild - let IT play its role!"




ที่มา: bangkokpost.com