If your organization needs an updated disaster recovery plan, yet you cannot commit to the necessary time and cost to implement one, then it’s time to consider the prospect of a shared-service DR partnership. Shared-service entities are a new – but growing – attraction in the IT industry that might soon revolutionize DR for executives who struggle to balance lower budgets with high service expectations.
Shared-Service: A Pool of Resources
Shared-service partnerships are increasingly becoming the go-to solution for government agencies, commissions, NGOs, not-for-profit, and peer organizations with budget constraints. The concept is simple: separate agencies (or departments, or boards) work together and pool resources to create a unique business entity – one that provides services that each entity uses for mutual benefit. Most likely, all participants own, or hold a stake.
For example, several departments of the Government of Ontario worked together to create Service Ontario, a business that provides customer service for each of the different departments under one roof. Using the shared-service concept provides big savings for each department, while simultaneously offering broader, more accessible, better quality service to the public.
Experts say the shared-service concept could easily translate to disaster recovery and business continuity services, making it an affordable option for budget-conscious organizations that can’t afford a “standalone” DR program of their own.
How Would Shared-Service Work For DR?
For example, your organization would find other organizations to partner with. Together, you would pool resources to find and acquire a location for a shared DR facility; ideally a building that already is – or easily could be – tailored for DR purposes: with rooms with HVAC for computer equipment, raised floors, built-in communications infrastructure, and security systems.
Then, depending on your requirements and the needs of your shared-service partners, you would bring in processors, storage capacity, and applications. Leveraging the commonalities between the businesses at these levels, some of this equipment could be shared, while some of it may be dedicated to only one of the partners.
Finally, you and your partners would add the “resiliency tools” – the DR and business continuity technology and processes – necessary to implement the DR and BC plans. The facility would have a work area where each of the partners could place IT personnel in case of a disaster. Furthermore, the shared facility might provide optional on-site services and staff that could aid each of the partners in creating, maintaining, or executing DR plans at the time of disaster.
Co-operative DR: Better Service to Your Customers?
Shared-service DR partnerships could operate like a co-op, but for organizations instead of people. The partners don’t pay the profit margin to a private enterprise, but rather use savings (as stakeholders decide) to re-invest and improve the service to their member organizations.
A system such as this works best among organizations with common interests, whether it is through natural affiliation, non-competitive, or just a commonality of activity and purpose. For example, health care or public utilities within a specific jurisdiction could pool their resources to create common facilities that also act as a DR center in time of emergency.
At a time when public, not-for-profit and private funding resources are stretched to the limit, organizations should consider shared-service DR facilities. Though a relatively new concept, it’s one that simply makes sense. With excellent cost-efficiency and a wealth of mutual benefits, it’s well worth some serious consideration at very least.
