High Availability Systems

["Mclaughlin, Kevin (mclaugkl)" <mclaugkl () UCMAIL UC EDU>]

Hi Everyone:

I have been asked to try and find out what other IHEs are doing in regards to establishing and maintaining high 
availability systems?   If you are willing to share you can send an email directly to me.  I am willing to compile the 
findings and share back with the group.

Background:
We are looking to take 9 critical systems as defined by our BIA and take a look at whether it would make sense to 
design high availability architecture for these systems that will bring them up in minutes/couple of hours instead of a 
DR architecture that will bring them up in days.   As you are aware, high availability systems tend to cost a lot more 
than pure DR systems.
We had a bit of an extended power outage that caused some core systems to be down for awhile. Senior management then 
asked us to work up a solution that would enable these core systems to be brought up quickly in the event of a future 
outage.   Now they have asked what other IHE's are doing and whether the focus is more on DR or quick 
restore/availability.

What I am looking for:
So I was wondering if you would mind sharing with me what your current approach/strategy is and whether it has high 
availability and redundancy built in for core systems.   Example:  If you lost your datacenter would all of your main 
systems like Finance, HR, Student Systems, email, Web Presence, Network, Identity Management, etc.  be able to be 
brought up in minutes or less than 3 hours?  System replication, storage mirroring, etc.


Thanks and warm regards,
- Kevin




Kevin L. McLaughlin,  CISM, CISSP, GIAC-GSLC, CRISC, PMP, ITIL Master Certified
Assistant Vice President, Information Security & Special Projects
University of Cincinnati
513-556-9177

The University of Cincinnati is one of America's top public research institutions and the region's largest employer, 
with a student population of more than 41,000.

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