Accenture Company and Dr (disaster Recovery) Plan

Introduction about Accenture:

Accenture is a global management consulting and professional services company that solve the clients’ toughest challenges by providing unmatched services in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. It is listed in the Fortune global 500 and still believes in innovation to improve the way the world work and lives. It has more than 4,25,000 employees who are providing services to their clients in more than 200 cities in 120 countries.

Headquarter – Dublin, Ireland

Introduction to the company and DR (Disaster recovery) plan

The objective of every business is to provide the most significant quality products and services accessible all the time. In order to make sure business accessibility every time, associations rely intensely on information development, data center framework, IT systems and application to guarantee business security, availability and unwavering quality all the time.

According to Zalewski, Sztandera and Ludzia (2008) most of the businessmen believe that during the course of handling effective ventures or enterprises, corporate official management contributes considerable amount of their time understanding and dividing target markets, creating and implementing procedures, arranging and executing strategies for success, financial reporting and furthermore conveying the same to their partners.

The development of the firms or enterprises is associated with complex devices, apps, data systems and networks that assist these firms. These capricious IT advancements are liable to disasters like fire, floods, thievery, burglary, loss of information and so on among each other. Thus, compound and well-designed disaster recovery plans must be set up to manage these unforeseen incidents

This paper thereby describes the disaster recovery plan of a company i.e. Accenture

A disaster recovery plan addresses how firms manage with the unforeseen occurrences and disasters (Ruano, 2003). DR plan gives a procedural method for recouping from disrupted frameworks and networks. It also enables firms to continue operational activities in the least time possible. The underlying significance of DR plan in any firm is to assure the business accessibility and minimize any negative effects that may influence business tasks in case of failure or disaster. Its major focus is to identify business operations, process and procedures which are required from the period of incident occur until everything settles down to regular routines (Kendall & Lee, 2005).

According to Fallara (2003) in order to accomplish effective and efficient DR plan, the team must be made out of the individuals from different sections across the firm and additionally delegates from other stakeholders such as sellers and BOD. The hierarchical group structure ought to have reasonable levels of command, well-defined goals and strong initiative or leadership skills. The representatives who are chosen across various sections are expected to have least aptitudes as well as experience so that they could be able to handle unforeseen situations effectively. They must also undergo various training to enhance their ability and skills.

There are a few principles which must be taken into consideration while preparing an effective DR plan. They are as follows:

1. Disaster recovery plan should be written in simple language so that it is easily understandable to all.

2. Effortlessly testable without disturbing the production tasks on the primary as well as secondary sites.

3. Must meet the base set norms and standards over the firm and IT infrastructure.

4. It should less time to consume and cost-effective plan.

5. It must satisfy major objectives:

a. To limit interruptions in the ordinary tasks

b. To confine the degree of disturbance and harm

c. To limit the financial effect of the damage

d. To prepare alternative methods of tasks ahead of time

e. To train staff members in emergency procedures.

f. To accommodate the smooth and fast rebuilding of administration.

6. Record important details of the personnel as well as clients. Also, prepare an organizational chart with it.

7. Effective software must be readily available and all the backups and rest of the processes must be done before itself.

8. They must also keep data about the hardware readily available and in use.

Disaster recovery plan of Accenture:

1. First and foremost step is to conduct meetings of disaster recovery team with internal technology team, utility specialist providers, facilities dept. and significant merchants to create up the scope of the activities such as internal & external threats, resources and so on. Make certain to brief senior administration on these gatherings so that they are appropriately informed.

2. Collect all infrastructure related documents and reports such as design maps of floors, sites, network and hardware configurations.

3. Check duplicate copies of already prepared DR plan. If management feels it outdated or ineffective plan in order to apply to the faced calamity then it must work with a quick reaction team and prepare a new one as soon as possible.

4. Assemble outcomes from all the assessments into the graphs/charts and analyze the report which would determine what is as of now done vs what is required to be done, with proposals in the matter of how to accomplish the necessitated level of business readiness, and the investment required.

5. Getting the auditing done, making management get reports verified and agree on the suggested actions.

6. Producing DR plans to address critical resources such as software, hardware, data stockpiling, systems and networks.

7. Conducting a trial of plans and system recuperation resources for approving their activities.

8. Updating DR plan documentation in order to show the changes made to the systems.

9. Plan the next auditing of DR capacities.

It is also important for Accenture to make sure that disaster recovery sites are properly maintained. There are 3 types of DR sites and they are as follows:

Hot sites:

It is further divided into 3 parts i.e. real-time hosted, hosted and shared hot site. These hot sites are the most basic discovery research site option. They are for basic IT operations which include entire computer systems and real-time backups.

It is applied when firms have the capacity of tolerating little or no downtime. The application doesn’t take more than a few hours to complete the task.

Real-time hosted hot site:

This option is for a quick recovery from a disaster without losing any data.

Hosted hot sites:

These are the most expensive because they duplicate the operations, synchronizes the information and continue with the work.

Shared hot sites:

This option is comparatively economical as the system is being shared by multiple users. Thus, the name itself defines the work of this hot site.

Cold sites:

It is used as a plan for disaster recovery as it passes the plans whenever required. For the firms, getting a cold site generally takes 1 or 2 weeks, considering that sites, equipment, and backups can be obtained anytime and activate it instantly. Thus, it is a bit time consuming especially after a natural disaster as that is the time when all firms try to compete with each other for same requirements. Thus, it is the reason why it is best suited to small and medium-sized companies as they can continue to work for the time being without entire network infrastructure.

Warm sites:

These are similar to hot site option; the only difference is data replication. It functions only when backups are restored and systems are all the set to go. It might be a whole replication of original one, however, would provide only a subset of information, systems, equipment, and services. It is best suited for the firms which would have the capacity of tolerating 1 or 2 days of downtime. Thus, it is for the medium-sized firms as costs are comparatively lesser than for hot sites.

Conclusion

As we know organizations do not have control over the environment and hence, faces huge losses due to the calamities. In any case, these organizations have the obligation of continuing normal operations in the shortest period after the occurrence of the event. For which, they need a well detailed DR plan and get is designed by the best DR team who ensures the effective and efficient DR plan. DR plan acts a guide on the disaster readiness, reaction, recuperation, relief and avoidance from the future event (Kendall & Lee, 2005). It determines to secure a noteworthy investment for generally all the firms.