Hi Greg!
There is a Disaster Recovery part to Hyland Community (https://www.hyland.com/community/technical_communities/onbase_installation_expertise/f/10801.aspx) which should probably get more attention to these types of things because they are important to every OnBase installation. There will be a class at OTTC this coming September on "Creating Fault Tolerant Solutions for OnBase" that will cover the most important concepts people should be aware of as well as give practical examples of what types of things we have seen and how they were addressed. This is also a great time to have discussions with Hyland experts in this area to talk about specifics of your organization.
When it comes to Disaster Recovery Planning (DRP) every solution will need a unique approach because of the variances in components, business continuance objectives, and the skill set of the people involved.
Here are the major things to look for that will cause an inevitable problem to be worse than it should be:
- Single Points of Failure
- A single server hosting multiple databases and applications is one of the more common things we see
- User Errors
- Allowing users to access the database directly instead of forcing them to use a secure application can be a problem
- Failure of Process
- Not having rehearsed the DRP is one of the most common examples of a failure of process
I am a firm believer that if the DRP process has been properly executed then the other things will eventually be mitigated as far as risk. There is no fail-safe system in the world, but if the common things were addressed it would significantly reduce the number of problems that come up.
Process control is therefore essential. With OnBase Checklists for Process Control your organization can effectively define the process that needs to take place to establish a good business continuance plan. By automatically creating checklists that people will be assigned to you not only define your process but you also hold people accountable for that process. This also allows your organization to easily see in real-time how well the process is working and whether any problems exist.
As a practical example you can see in the first screen shot below the initial checklist that would be run in the event that users start calling the help desk with information about being unable to connect to a database application. This "Level 1" checklist could be run before the problem is escalated because most problems will be able to be addressed at this level.
Should the problem require more sophisticated skills then a "Level 2" checklist can be run, which is shown below.
Once this checklist has been completed if necessary the problem could escalate to higher levels. This process would even include an export of the checklists into an external file or print-out in case this particular system was affected by a problem that prevented you from accessing the procedures!
Running a DRP with a well-thought out process is essential in order to retain control over the problem and to effectively address likely areas where the problem is rooted. The OnBase Checklist solution also retains information so that after the DRP rehearsal or actual DRP response the data from the event can be analyzed and specific problems can be identified and the process can be improved.
OnBase Checklists for Process Control even captures the amount of time it takes to complete checklists so your organization can see valuable reports at the click of a button about how well people are working in this type (or any type) of activity. This kind of information makes a huge difference in having an effective business continuance plan (you know exactly how long it will take to recover from a disaster) vs. an unrehearsed DRP where nobody really knows how long it will take to recover from a serious problem.
I hope you come to OTTC where we will be presenting 3 valuable hours of disaster recovery planning. More information about OnBase Checklists for Process Control can be found here: https://www.hyland.com/community/onbase_solutions/onbase_checklists_for_process_control/default.aspx
