There is a growing trend among large corporations to focus on business continuity issues in the face of more stringent corporate governance requirements, increasing security uncertainties and the need to keep critical areas of business running, no matter what. As often happens in a world dominated by technology, business continuity is more often than not associated with making sure applications, data and computers are available at a separate location should the company's primary business site be unusable.

"This is true, but an effective business continuity plan needs to include IT as well as facilities, people, physical data and everything needed to keep the business running effectively," says Paul Mullon, marketing director of Metrofile. "And while no continuity planner would ever neglect to ensure all their company's active data held in corporate databases is backed up and available offsite, making sure semi-active and archived data is also available is often forgotten."



Physical data, such as information on paper, is not usually thought of until the worst happens and customers cannot be served or information cannot be found. Business continuity plans need to ensure that unstructured data - information that still constitutes the majority of the data in modern companies - is available in any circumstances from almost any location.

"Business continuity solutions need to cater for providing access to this data," adds Mullon. "They may not be a necessary part of daily operations, but every business needs to ensure it can get hold of its semi-active or archived documents when they are needed."



Scanning produces smoother continuity

If companies scan all paper documents as soon as they enter the business, managing documents becomes much easier as the physical documents can be stored in an offsite archive, only to be retrieved when needed. The electronic images of the documents are then filtered into the operational systems, and any search for the document produces a reference to the location of the scanned image.

Not only does this save money, it increases productivity since documents are always only a mouse-click away, and they are easier to store than physical papers. Instead of waiting for a clerk to find it and deliver it to one person, multiple people can access the image whenever needed, even simultaneously.

When data in electronic format leaves the active stage in which it is needed regularly, it can simply be transferred to slower, secondary storage (known as nearline storage) where it will be available if required. Similarly, once documents will not be needed except in exceptional circumstances, they can be archived to tape or other backup storage for archiving.

"Once again, simply having data in various storage mechanisms is not going to help if the business has moved to a new location when disaster strikes," warns Mullon. "And it is unlikely that packing up the company's storage array and unloading it at the new location is a viable disaster recovery strategy."



Microfilm to the rescue

Converting documents to electronic format is the right approach when it comes to active data. Even in the business continuity context, keeping a realtime mirror copy of active data offsite can be a realistic option and well worth the cost. The costs of keeping semi-active and archived data 'live' in a disaster-recovery location, on the other hand, cannot realistically be justified.

For data of secondary importance there is an alternative - reference archive media. When documents are transformed into electronic format, it is a simple task to convert the images onto microfilm at the same time. This media can then be moved to the disaster recovery location to be used in case of emergencies - and this data store also acts as an additional backup location.

"Reference archive media is a long-life storage medium that is quick to access and easy to use," Mullon notes. "It is immediately available when required, and users do not need to know how to use sophisticated technology to find their information, nor will companies have to worry about migrating to newer technology to ensure their archive libraries are usable years in the future."

Business continuity is not about technology. It is about ensuring critical business operations can continue with the least interruption possible. No matter what plans organisations have to maintain operations in the event of disaster, without data companies are helpless and expensive continuity and recovery solutions are wasted.

For more information contact Paul Mullon, Metrofile, 011 677 3000, paulm@metrofile.co.za