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FinTech Trends Newsletter Week 29th May-2nd June 2017
Backup and Disaster Recovery Solution. When do you need it?
Alternative Investment Companies, big and small, that rely heavily on IT, should know that backup is not a luxury but a
requirement, and having a duel failover solution (something Storm IT Financial advises all its clients on having) is impera- tive as we’ve seen this week from the British Airways Outage, Backup & DR prob- lems. Whether it’s your internal documents, investor financial details or infor- mation, investment strategy & holdings or fast-changing transactional data – it needs to be protected and backed up, especially with MiFID II fast approaching. Losing data is a disaster by itself, and can cause even more disastrous conse- quences if it is not restored in reasonable time.
An analogy to help illustrate the issue would be to imagine if the IT was your car that enables your business and your data were the wheels. If your car has a flat tire, you can replace a wheel with a spare from the boot (i.e. restore your data from the backup). That assumes the rest of your car is fine and can run. Assuming your spare tire is exactly the same as your primary (and not a mini-spare),you can use them interchangeably.
When we talk about disaster recovery, however, we usually mean more than simply backing up the data, or even taking a snapshot of the system image.
The basic litmus test for backup vs. DR goes like this: if you lose some or all of your data, but your computing environment is fine, backup function will allow you to bring your data back and load it onto your sys- tems, and get your IT service back on track. But if your IT environment itself is not available you have nowhere to bring the saved data back to. This means that having your data protected is not good enough in cases when you have lost your environment, whether it is power (BA’s problem), hardware, software, or network. So the difference between backup and disaster recovery is simple:
- Backup takes care of your data by periodically saving it in a secure location (on -site or off-site), and bringing it back to you when you need it.
- Disaster recovery is a function that replicates your entire computing environment – data, systems, networks and applications – and makes it available when your primary environment is unavailable.
Ultimately, the Disaster Recovery function provides you with a complementary, redundant environment “on-demand” where you not only can load your data, but can rebuild and run your entire IT service until your primary system is back. Following our earlier analogy with a car, think of it as a rental car, when your own vehicle is in the garage (or, you don’t know where it is).
Recovery environments in this technological world would normally be remote and cloud based. If, like what happened in the British Air- ways scenario where they had a power outage that caused their IT disruption and their Disaster Recovery Failover & Backup solution was also powered by the same power source (NOT ADVISABLE !), your entire power supply has been significantly disrupted, you will find yourself in a situation when you need to failover to a remote cloud with a separate power supply or UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) unaffected by the same calamity. How fast that can happen depends on your requirements and the capabilities of the DR provider or MSP (Managed Service Provider) solution.
By now you may have a better idea about when a Disaster Recovery solution is needed. But if you find yourself short of resources and funds for your disaster recovery strategy, the idea of scraping together a “do-it-yourself” solution can be tempting. Proceed with cau- tion. The DIY approach to disaster recovery is riddled with hidden issues and costs. Advances in cloud technologies make it possible to get an all-in-one backup, disaster recovery and failover solution so speak to trusted experts like Storm IT Financial for advice and con- sultation. We’re here to help.
For more information on Hedge Fund/Alternative Investment backup, disaster recovery & failover advice & IT Services, feel free to contact Storm IT Financial.
Storm IT Financial FinTech News & Trends picks: Week 29th May – 2nd June 2017
Protect Windows Server System State to cloud with Azure Backup!
Empower enterprises to recover from security attacks, corruptions, disas- ters, or data loss situations quickly, securely, and reliably:
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/windows-server-system-state-backup-azure/
Microsoft to buy cyber security firm Hexadite for $100 million
Microsoft has agreed to acquire cyber security firm Hexadite:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/us-microsoft-m-a-hexadite-idUKKBN18K12K
Red Deer and Westminster RPA partner to provide end-to-end MiFID II solution
Fintech company Red Deer & Convergex’s Westminster RPA work together on end-to-end MiFID II solution for the asset management industry:
Is technology destroying the quality of human interaction, asks Standard Chartered Bank’s Group CIO
Digital with a human touch:
https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/30652/digital-with-a-human-touch
HSBC partners with AI startup to combat money laundering
HSBC has partnered with artificial intelligence startup Ayasdi Inc to auto- mate some of its compliance processes:
Morgan Stanley’s 16,000 Human Brokers Get Algorithmic Makeover
Call them cyborgs. Morgan Stanley to upgrade its workforce with fully automated platforms called robo-advisers:
Dell EMC Announces New Hybrid Cloud for Azure
Dell has announced a new hybrid cloud for Microsoft Azure to provide firms ability to implement & maintain cloud faster and more easily:
https://solutionsreview.com/cloud-platforms/dell-emc-announces-new-hybrid-cloud-for-azure/
UK firms suffer the highest number of cyber attacks in Europe
UK firms are second only to US firms when it comes to being attacked:
ING’s rolling out its fintech app Yolt more widely in the UK after beta testing
Dutch bank ING is making more waves in the UK market with the wider roll out of its smartphone app Yolt:
IHS Markit Launches MiFID II Solution for Regulatory Outreach and Repapering
IHS Markit launches new platform designed to address specific regulatory issues presented by the upcoming implementation of Europe’s MiFID II:
http://www.finalternatives.com/node/35230
Public preview of disaster recovery for IaaS VMs comes to Azure
New disaster recovery capabilities for Azure was launched for public review:
Legacy IT is the least of a bank’s problems
The decision makers are symptom of the root problem with banks legacy IT…:
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