The Acid Test for the On-Demand Data Center

Transcription

1 The Acid Test for the On-Demand Data Center A CIO s Evaluation and Selection Guide July

2 Introduction Defining Characteristics of a Strong Data Center Scalability Multi-tenancy Upgrade management Service level consistency Hardened security Acid-Test Criteria for the Data Center Security Compliance Uptime Performance Flexibility Conclusion How NetSuite Meets the Acid-Test Criteria About the author Phil Wainewright is one of the world s foremost authorities on emerging trends in business automation. He is a prolific writer with a ZDNet blog on Software as a Service, an ebizq blog on The Connected Web, and a series of influential analyst reports to his name. He serves as CEO of Procullux Ventures, a London-based strategic consultancy working with leading business automation vendors and their customers. Software as Services: The Connected Web: Procullux Ventures: Detailed biography: This document presents independent research and analysis prepared and published by Procullux Ventures. The work was commissioned and funded by NetSuite Inc. 2

3 Introduction More and more enterprises are turning to on-demand solutions, often for business-critical functions such as financials, supply chain management and e-commerce. Software as a Service (SaaS) is becoming a mainstream choice, with 76% of U.S. businesses forecast to use at least one SaaS business application by the end of the year, according to market research firm IDC. 1 Adopting a SaaS business application means entrusting the operation of core systems to a third party, and therefore the strength and capacity of the SaaS provider s data center infrastructure is a key component of any evaluation. If the data center, the server infrastructure or the application itself becomes unavailable, the organization s operations may be impaired or stopped completely. Proper governance dictates that the IT organization must fully evaluate the provider s data center capabilities to ensure that they measure up to requirements in key areas such as security, uptime and performance. A reliable infrastructure is vital in order to minimize any chance of disruption. Information security is critical, with every possible step taken to eliminate potential breaches. In all respects, a data center must maintain the highest standards for assuring the integrity and functionality of the services it provides. This paper sets out a framework for evaluating a data center. It considers the special factors that apply to an on-demand infrastructure, many of which go well beyond the standards applicable to the average enterprise data center. It maps out the key parameters to evaluate in order to objectively establish absolute confidence, trust, and satisfaction with the provider s operational capabilities. Finally, the paper provides a reference table that provides the specifics on how NetSuite measures up to the acid test criteria. Defining Characteristics of a Strong Data Center It s a given that any provider s data center infrastructure should at least match, and preferably exceed, the standards set for a customer s own internal infrastructure. But this falls far short of being an adequate benchmark. An on-demand infrastructure must serve hundreds or thousands of customers, each with their own compliance policies, varying distributions of users, and peaks and troughs of usage. Consider the additional constraints this imposes compared to a typical single-enterprise environment: Consistent performance delivery. The infrastructure must deliver acceptable response times to all users, irrespective of location, time zone or working hours. Ready to sustain peak load, on demand, at any time. Although the overall load on an on-demand provider s infrastructure will be smoothed by the varying activity patterns of individual customers, it clearly has to support average levels of activity that are orders of magnitude larger than the peak loads most enterprise data centers experience. At the same time, it must be able to handle surges in demand without the level of advance insight into customer activity that an individual enterprise IT team will have from its inside knowledge of the organization s established patterns of activity and forward plans. 1 Robert P. Mahowald, Economic Crisis Response: Worldwide Software as a Service Forecast Update, IDC, November

4 Minimal downtime across all time zones and business cycles. The typical ebb and flow of activity within an individual enterprise means that system usage is low, or even completely idle, at certain times of the day or days of the year. Planned downtime is usually arranged to coincide with such times. A provider that serves large numbers of customers doesn t have the same homogeneity of usage especially if it has a globally dispersed customer base leaving no convenient times to take servers offline. This requires a radically different approach to handling software upgrades and patches than most enterprise data centers experience. Even major upgrades must be completed in a few hours at most, ideally in a phased process that avoids imposing downtime on customers when they are most active for example, a followthe-dusk pattern that upgrades at night in each time zone. It should be possible to implement the majority of patches and fixes to the underlying technology without disturbing the business logic layer. This allows the system to keep up-to-date with the latest infrastructure enhancements without interrupting customer usage of the applications. Multiple security standards. An on-demand provider has to exceed the security requirements of all of its customers, each of which is likely to emphasize different aspects of security. These requirements for performance, scale, minimal downtime and comprehensive security are met by specific architectural features that are unique to an on-demand infrastructure. It's not enough to merely replicate a conventional enterprise implementation in a provider's data center even using virtualization and other cloud computing technologies as this produces increased costs and management overhead while still failing to achieve all of the desired results. Scalability An on-demand data center must be built to web scale, meaning that it s designed to support thousands of companies, millions of end users and billions of transactions per month. This requires an architecture that s engineered for scalability and implements a holistic approach to technology infrastructure that maximizes resource sharing. Multi-tenancy Many of the core characteristics of an on-demand data center are built on the foundation of a single, shared multi-tenant architecture. When every customer is using an identical instance of the application and database code, a provider can consolidate operational management and instrumentation on a scale that s unattainable with other, more diverse architectures. Operating the infrastructure as a holistic, shared resource yields huge economies of scale in resource usage, management, tuning and troubleshooting. Single unified overview. Monitoring a single, replicated multi-tenant instance allows the provider to collect and analyze aggregated data on usage, behaviour and performance. This is especially beneficial when the provider is also the application developer, enabling close collaboration between those responsible for operations, application maintenance and service delivery. Single oversight contributes to better performance, reliability and uptime in a number of ways: 4

5 The infrastructure and application can be tuned to enhance performance, robustness or security based on observing actual aggregate usage Escalated support calls can be related to real-time observations A unified team can assess and validate proposed modifications from all aspects of the application delivery lifecycle Any enhancements or fixes are implemented immediately and are instantly available to all customers Elasticity. The resources deployed for any individual customer within the common shared infrastructure can be scaled up or down dynamically in response to actual usage, as a largely automated process. Granularity. Whereas some vendors implement multi-tenancy using a small number of very large instances, many others including NetSuite prefer to replicate identical instances across a large number of commodity servers. Using an N+1 architecture, this more granular approach facilitates isolation of hardware faults before they affect uptime, and ensures that any failover process affects only a small proportion of customers. NetSuite s Tiered Multi-Tenant Architecture Ensures a Unified, Elastic and Granular Data Center. 5

6 Upgrade management In an on-demand data center, planned downtime for major release upgrades must last no longer than a few hours. This can be enabled by an architecture that maintains a disciplined separation between each layer of the shared multi-tenant code and any customizations or extensions that customers add. There must be three layers of upgrade capability: Infrastructure upgrades. Patches and fixes must be managed so that they do not impact the operation of the application. This means building in sufficient redundancy so that a portion of the underlying infrastructure can go offline for upgrades without any impact to the customer experience. Application upgrades. Functional upgrades must be planned to cause minimal downtime to customers, giving as much advance notice as possible. The design of the multi-tenant architecture allows existing customizations and extensions to migrate automatically to the new version without recoding, eliminating downtime that would otherwise result from having to rework custom code at each upgrade. Phased upgrades. For some customers, there may be times when suspending operations for an upgrade simply isn t appropriate such as during seasonally busy periods or an audit. A granular architecture based on commodity servers can be structured to allow larger customers to delay upgrades until a time that suits their business, while preserving the integrity of the multi-tenant infrastructure. NetSuite gives customers access to sandbox instances and beta versions so that they can review and prepare for changes and new features. NetSuite provides an insulated instance option-allowing businesses to schedule application upgrades at a time of their own choice rather than at have them imposed by the provider. Service level consistency A web-scale, multi-tenant infrastructure is the key to achieving consistent performance and uptime for all customers of an on-demand data center. In the first half of 2009 (the time of writing), NetSuite achieved system uptime of 99.98% equivalent to less than 30 minutes of unscheduled downtime each quarter, and significantly less than the weekly unscheduled downtime permitted by its 99.5% service level commitment. Hardened security A web-scale infrastructure will already incorporate the highest level of security to lock down every potential vulnerability and monitor continuously against new threats. Hardened security requires full-time certified security professionals always on watch, together with state-of-the-art intrusion detection and prevention systems and a tiered architecture for strong defense against any attacks. In addition, many customers of an on-demand provider will carry out their own intrusion tests to satisfy themselves of the robustness of the precautions in place. In a multi-tenant architecture, any strengthening of the infrastructure benefits all tenants, and thus the cumulative effect of so many different tests over time is that the provider s infrastructure becomes battle-hardened to withstand virtually any imaginable security threat. 6

7 Acid-Test Criteria for the Data Center It is clear that an on-demand data center has to meet quite different standards than the typical enterprise data center in many aspects of its operational infrastructure. Let s now examine the key parameters that you should consider when evaluating a provider s infrastructure in order to establish confidence and trust in its on-demand capabilities. Security Physical Security. The data center should be physically secure against any disaster or physical attack. Measures in place should include earthquake preparedness, sophisticated fire suppression, back-up power systems, and redundant Internet connections. Limited Access. There should be robust controls to limit access to production systems and a full audit trail of all system administration activity. Steps to limit access to the data center should include guarded premises, photo ID cards, video surveillance, portals and man traps, and even palm identification systems. Vetted Personnel. Since most security risks come down to the people operating a system, look for a provider that conducts exhaustive background checks and accreditation when hiring staff for data center and systems administration roles. Certified Processes. It s a given that processes are documented in a SAS 70 Type II audit report. SAS 70 Type II compliance indicates that the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants or its designees have conducted an in-depth audit of the controls and safeguards of both the data center and the application. Similarly, e-commerce systems that process credit card payments must have PCI Level I accreditation, which adds strong security for protecting customer account data (such as credit card numbers). 100% of NetSuite s security team has been CISSP certified for the past four years. NetSuite is fully compliant with SAS 70 Type II, U.S.- European Union Safe Harbor, and PCI DSS to ensure compliance with industry best practices for maximizing security, privacy, safeguards and controls. Strong Encryption. Ensure that strong encryption is used to protect data in transmission and also when stored, both in databases and in backups. This includes 128-bit Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) data encryption. Backups. Establish how tape backups are secured and stored. Understand who is responsible for carrying out restores, the granularity of restores and time taken. 7

8 Compliance Documentation. To assure compliance with your own standards, all documentation, including SAS-70 Type II, PCI and U.S.-European Union Safe Harbor where applicable, should be open for inspection. Expect to review each document to ensure that the provider s processes measure up to best practices and are implemented satisfactorily. NetSuite s PCI DSS compliance ensures third-party validation of its strong protection of customer account data. Sarbanes-Oxley. The provider should show documentation of processes that conform to best practice in Information Technology General Controls (ITGC) required by Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX). A benefit of an ISV-operated on-demand service is that there is a single SOX audit trail, simplifying compliance. Change control. Ensure that the provider operates robust change control processes for modifying the application. Look for separate sandbox and beta test platforms that allow your own staff to set up their own additional change control processes. Privacy. Your customers are protected by privacy legislation when they share information with you. Evaluate your provider to ensure your data receives appropriate privacy protection. Netsuite adheres to the U.S.-European Union Safe Harbor requirements for privacy and security. 8

9 Uptime Investment. Evaluate the provider s investment in availability and uptime. How much emphasis is placed on maintaining continuity of service? What is the provider s track record? Non-disruptive scheduled downtime. Establish when scheduled downtime normally occurs and its mean and maximum duration. Evaluate that the investment made in ensuring planned downtime is timed to cause minimum business disruption. Time to fix. Find out how rapidly the provider is able to resolve unexpected failures. Evaluate the infrastructure and investment committed to minimize fix times. Recovery. Evaluate backup/restore processes and commitments. In the event of a catastrophic loss of infrastructure, what are the processes to restore service? Penalties. If downtime service levels are not met, then the provider must commit to penalties and escalation clauses. The rigor of these clauses should be evaluated as part of any vendor selection. For example, look at whether the provider issues a full refund or a partial one. NetSuite provides concrete commitments around scheduled downtime with every Saturday night 10:00pm 10:20pm Pacific Time reserved for routine scheduled maintenance as needed. NetSuite commits that if it misses an uptime SLA by any margin, the customer gets all that month s fees back as credit to future payments. Performance Status dashboard. An openly available dashboard that publishes real-time system status demonstrates the provider s own confidence and transparency, as well as being an invaluable source of information in the event of a failure. Track record. Evaluate the provider s performance over time, not only for absolute uptime (taking into account both unplanned and scheduled outages) but also for consistency of response times. Published SLA. Evaluate the provider s published service level commitments and the extent to which its performance has exceeded the minimums set out. Ensure that uptime is calculated based on application availability and is not overstated by measuring network connectivity alone. At the time of writing, NetSuite has achieved 99.98% availability for the 12 months ending June At status.netsuite.com, NetSuite provides complete visibility into current and historical availability. 9

10 Flexibility Open Access to Data. Evaluate the data providers APIs and data export capabilities to ensure free access to your data. Storage Capacity. Ensure that the provider offers sufficient data storage capacity to meet current and future needs without the hidden risk of unexpected extra charges later on. NetSuite includes 10GB of storage with the standard subscription fees per site, more than any other provider. Conclusion Unlike traditional managed hosting providers and outsourcers who work within the guidelines set out in SLAs, on-demand application providers take responsibility for providing business continuity to their entire customer base 24/7 and 365 days a year. When evaluating a provider, don t simply focus on whether it is capable of meeting a certain arbitrary uptime measure. Instead, establish whether it has the necessary infrastructure to keep its customers business operations running smoothly, with next-to-no interruptions. In addition, enterprises must ensure the provider follows processes that will safely and securely maintain compliance and governance undertakings for which they themselves must answer. Finally, an on-demand provider must build into its infrastructure sufficient transparency and reporting to allow enterprise customers to maintain confidence and trust in its performance among their own user base. As set out in this document, there are many ingredients that go into a world-class on-demand infrastructure. NetSuite s 10-plus years of experience delivering mission-critical business applications to thousands of customers has allowed it to hone and provide a data center infrastructure to meet the most demanding business requirements. 10

11 How NetSuite Meets the Acid-Test Criteria NetSuite s fully multi-tenant application provides specific support for the security, compliance, performance and flexibility criteria outlined in this document. The table below provides a summary of how NetSuite meets the criteria. Key Criteria Acid Test NetSuite s Security Vetted Personnel 100% of NetSuite s security team has been CISSP certified for the past four years. Data Management Physical Security Product Security NetSuite provides strong data management including an N+1 system of redundancy, hot backups and offsite tapes stored in an offsite facility that exceeds industry storage requirements, and is 100 miles away from the data center. The NetSuite data center is located in a secure facility with NetSuite-only access. The facility is seismically braced against earthquakes, has redundant Internet connections and sophisticated fire suppression systems, and is under video surveillance. All sessions to NetSuite are handled with 128-bit Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) data encryption. NetSuite also tracks each transaction by the user s login details and provides a timestamp for each event. Compliance Certifications NetSuite is fully compliant with SAS 70 Type II, U.S.-EU Safe Harbor and PCI DSS, ensuring compliance with industry best practices for maximizing security, privacy, safeguards and controls. Uptime Scheduled Downtime Support NetSuite s routine maintenance window is just 20 minutes every Saturday night, from 10:00pm 10:20pm as needed. NetSuite provides an SLA commitment of two hours to follow up on a support request NetSuite s basic Silver support offers follow-the-sun local time support 8:00am-7:00pm (Monday-Friday, excluding holidays). Gold and Platinum support is available 24x7 worldwide. Performance SLA Commitment NetSuite commits to 99.5% availability. At the time of writing, NetSuite has achieved 99.98% availability for the 12 months ending June Penalties NetSuite commits that if it misses an uptime SLA by any margin, then the customer gets all that month s fees back as credit to future payments. Flexibility Upgrade Flexibility NetSuite provides an insulated instance option allowing businesses to schedule application upgrades at a time of their choice. NetSuite also gives customers access to sandbox instances and beta versions so that they can review and prepare for changes and new features. Storage Access to Data NetSuite includes 10GB of storage with the standard subscription fees per site, more than any other provider. NetSuite offers the ability to export your data into an IIF file (tab-delimited format recognized by various applications) or a Comma Separated Value (CSV) file. NetSuite provides complete web services access to your data. 11

12 Software Satisfaction Awards Best Enterprise & Mid-Range CRM Software ISM Top 15 CRM Software Solutions Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Silicon Valley Software and IT Companies CODiE Award Best E-commerce Solution CPA Technology Advisor 5-Star Rating Customer Interaction Solutions Magazine CRM Excellence Award CPA Technology Advisor Gold Cup (5 of 5 Stars) eweek #1 Enterprise CRM Product United States Corporate Headquarters 2955 Campus Drive, Suite 100 San Mateo, CA Tel: Fax: Europe/Middle East/Africa 1 Grenfell Road, Maidenhead Berks SL6 1HN United Kingdom Tel: +44(0) Fax: +44(0) Japan Akasaka 1-chome Mori Bldg., 6F Akasaka, Minato-ku Tokyo Tel: Fax: Denver 8000 S. Chester Street, Suite 100 Centennial, CO Tel: Canada 5800 Explorer Drive, Suite 100 Mississauga, ON L4W 5K9 Tel: Fax: Australia Suite 2, Level Arthur Street North Sydney NSW 2060, Australia Voice: +61 (0) Fax: +61 (0) Hong Kong 6th Floor, 100 Queens Road Central Hong Kong Voice: Fax: Singapore 1 Raffles Place #19-03 OUB Building, Singapore Tel: Fax: None of NetSuite s rivals have packaged together the full complement of back office, front office and e-commerce capabilities into an integrated, software-asservices offering. Laurie McCabe Vice President AMI Partners NetSuite breaks the limitations of traditional CRM systems by integrating complete back-office and front-office systems in a simple application. For the first time, mid-market companies can go from lead to sale to shipment to service without ever having to integrate data from disparate systems. Denis Pombriant Managing Principal Beagle Research Group [With NetSuite] a customer begins to realize ROI immediately with no hardware to procure, no up-front license fee, and no complex set-ups. Jayson Maynard Research Analyst Credit Suisse We were spending 3% of our revenue on SAP. By switching to NetSuite, we reduced that cost to 0.1% of revenue. David Stover Chief Financial Officer Asahi Kasei Corp. s Dorlastan fiber division 12