The Challenge

It is an expensive struggle to conduct full-server recovery tests of 100s or 1000s of servers; let alone documenting compliance and recovery time of all tests. Regulatory frameworks like Sarbanes-Oxley require organizations to establish control mechanisms assuring recoverability of critical IS environments from the data backups.

The SMART Solution

The SMARTtsm test platform X-rays the enterprise backup storage through continuous full-server recovery tests, reporting on compliance in terms of recoverability and recovery time.

The Benefits

SMARTtsm features the most cost-efficient “tick in the box”. Automated recovery processes constantly report on recoverability and recovery time for mission-critical business applications. The central SMART Management Console monitors compliance based on Service Level Agreements.

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Regulatory IT Controls Necessary

Regulatory frameworks, for instance Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA, require management to document that complete systems and applications are recoverable, minimizing impact on business operations in the event of IT failures. 

Recovery Controls mitigate IT risks

SMARTtsm effectively supports controls related to data backup validation and reducing risks:

(1) Availability of historical records;

(2) Ability for IS personnel to restore and recover business applications following IT events of an operating incident or erroneous processing;

(3) Ensure backing up data satisfy legal and regulatory requirements;

(4) Validation procedures help prevent sensitive data being damaged, lost, modified or inappropriately disclosed.

SMARTtsm – “the tick in the box” The unique solution centrally schedules 100s or 1000s of automated server recovery tests: · Service Level Agreements (SLA) dictate recovery frequency and recovery time targets for servers in a recovery contract. · Full Audit Log for tracking and documenting recovery test results. · Compliance Report consolidating success ratios and compliance with Recovery Time Objectives. · Drill-down reports detailing recovery tests for specific production servers.

Full-server recovery prevails over files

By nature, executing a complete application environment recovery, possibly involving multiple, inter-depending servers, is far more complex than single-file restores. Obviously, the classic restore of Word files from backup testifies little about recoverability of a complete Exchange & Active Directory environment. To solve this challenge, SMARTtsm automatically manages complete server recovery.

Optimal consistency with automation

A classic manual recovery process is error prone – in addition to being expensive. No two manual recovery processes are identical. SMARTtsm, however, consistently replays every recovery process according to centrally managed contract documents.

Results are automatically included in the Recovery Management reporting.

Constant changes impair annual test

A (bi)annual recovery test result, internal or outsourced, is often void due to constant changes in the IT infrastructure. Changes to backup processes, application software, routines and ad-hoc configuration changes can cause an unrecoverable backup although backup processes appear successful.

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SMARTtsm continuously processes recovery managed by the frequency stated in the Service Level Agreement. For instance, scheduling monthly tests, SMARTtsm helps staff monitoring recovery success and recovery time trends for mission critical servers.

Replication won’t save you…

…if the backup is required but faulty. Replication, synchronization and double centers are good solutions to reduce recovery time. However, the backup is the last resort of recovery when replication fails or if historical server backups are required. For the very same reason, it’s compelling to validate full server recovery directly from backup as well as documenting the time in which recovery completes.

Optimizes cost budget on D/R

With SMARTtsm, the annual, outsourced one-off recovery test can be replaced with an automatic full-server compliance test executing on a monthly basis. Save costs; improve recovery assurance; put the tick in the box.

Integrates with IBM TSM

SMARTtsm is “Ready-for-Tivoli” accredited. SMARTtsm has no impact on IBM TSM’s code execution, nor does SMARTtsm impact production systems but solely restores from the IBM TSM.