Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity System

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Client

Client is one of the nation’s leading community foundations, dedicated to improving the lives of New York residents through grant-making and financial support of nonprofits. Today there are approximately 700 community foundations in all 50 states. Some continue to use the original trust model and others, like the Client, are organized as charitable corporations. In addition to building a permanent endowment through wills and bequests, community foundations today offer services to donors during their lifetimes.

Issue

Client headquarters, all IT/business equipment, and correlating data reside in a singular location in Manhattan, NY. Because of Client’s East Coast location, they witnessed the ravages of 9/11 and Super Storm Sandy firsthand. Client understood that devastating events such as these are very real in today’s world and can wreak havoc on a business’s fragile infrastructure. In addition to real property losses, a disaster could also compromise information and donor funds and expose the Client to far-reaching and expensive litigation concerns.

Goal

The goal for Compass Consulting was to create a “warm” system site that would be readily available in the event of any natural or man-made disaster. The site would serve as a business continuity measure, allowing employees the ability to remain working if the main IT infrastructure became inaccessible. In addition, users would also have the ability and option to work remotely to maintain business continuity. Client’s data, donor records, and monetary funds would need to be protected through a specific Disaster Recovery (DR) process then replicated to a location far-removed from New York, preferably on the West Coast. This would provide the assurance and peace of mind that business operations could continue safely and securely.

Solution

Compass Consulting implemented a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) to include a “warm” site for business continuity. The warm site was tasked with:

Taking “snapshots” of Client servers approximately every 15 minutes.
As a 2^nd layer of protection, this data would then be replicated to a managed data center in the Western Region of the United States.
Once complete, this information would undergo a 3^rd layer of protection by being exported to a standby server.

In the event of a disaster, all information is accessible from the off-site replicated server. Users are provided with clear access back into the system maintaining efficient business workflow with minimal downtime. The “warm” site includes: A Domain Controller, File Server, Database server, Email Server, and an Application Delivery server.

As a last layer of protection and disaster preparedness, Compass Consulting recommended and instituted the following measures:

The warm site is to be tested bi-annually to ensure proper functionality and disaster readiness.
Client’s website and system were equipped with a 2-Factor Authentication login component. Utilizing Citrix XenApp as the application delivery system, users would be granted system access only after providing a password and token (or similar Google Authentication) code.

Competencies

Network design and engineering, Advanced backup and Offsite Replication for disaster recovery. Application Delivery. 2 Factor Authentication.

Result

Client’s disaster preparedness concerns have been alleviated with assurance that the business is prepared for disaster scenarios. Company data is secured via multiple levels of replications and quickly accessible if the need arises. If Disaster Recovery protocols are initiated, users also can work remotely, accessing business applications, data, and donor information from anywhere via internet connection. We believe that these changes give the Client peace of mind, but also allow their donors to invest confidently knowing their money and information is always safe and secure.