Case Studies

• Although the bank had many different systems running in the mid-range, when applications were implemented the bank did not have a standard way of designing a disaster recovery strategy for them
• The bank’s disaster recovery team were identifying failures in the bank’s disaster recovery capability and invited Morse to analyse and give feedback on what was causing these failures and find possible solutions to the problem

Details / Actions

• Morse defined a new common approach to disaster recovery for the bank, taking into consideration disk and tape back-up, mid-range back-up including Sun, IBM, HP, Unix and Microsoft platforms, and database back-up such as Oracle, Sybase and SQL server
• Back-up patterns were defined and a set of disaster recovery standards were created to prevent the situation getting worse
• A disaster recovery strategy was created encompassing storage, back-up and recovery
• Separate strategies were also created for each platform such as Unix or databases
• Recommendations were also made about how the disaster recovery testing process could be enhanced. These focused on making the processes more scalable and reducing and grouping together the tests the bank needed to do so that they could be done during fewer weekends and require less resources

Benefits / Deliverables

• Morse approached the bank’s internal systems architecture boards and gained approval for the new disaster recovery standards which are now being used across the company
• Morse provided advice on how the bank could restructure its disaster recovery team and organisational structure because although there was ownership of the disaster recovery process at the mid-range and each of the different areas of the bank, there was no one bringing the disaster recovery strategy together at a more senior level.
• While the bank recruited someone at this level to manage the overall disaster recovery strategy, Morse provided a consultant to fill this position
• Morse provided a governance role for the bank by advising two teams undertaking two large projects. Morse managed the projects to ensure that they met the disaster recovery standards that Morse was creating for the bank
• The disaster recovery project was so successful it was nominated for an award at the bank’s internal awards event