MAX Insight. Workstations: Disaster Recovery s untouched opportunity. Whitepaper. By Nick Cavalancia

Transcription

1 MAX Insight Whitepaper Workstations: Disaster Recovery s untouched opportunity By Nick Cavalancia

2 Table of Contents What do you consider a disaster? 3 What s in a workstation? 4 Recovering the workstation: Let me count the ways 5 Disasters: Your opportunity in the cloud 7 Conclusion 8 Workstations: Disaster Recovery s Untouched Opportunity 2

3 What do you consider a disaster? Often, the mention of Disaster Recovery produces thoughts of monsoons and hurricanes, complete chaos, no power, etc. In reality, your customer defines it simply as an event that creates an inability for the business to function. Disasters come in many shapes and sizes the natural disasters we all think about, but also chemical spills, building fires, broken water pipes, and, on a much smaller scale, a virus-infested server. When you ask a company about their IT disaster recovery plans, you ll inevitably hear about backups of data and servers, use of server virtualization, even hot or cold disaster sites. But rarely do you hear about workstations. And that s odd, because while it s great that a company can get all their IT infrastructure back up and running, but if there are no client machines to connect to the infrastructure, what good is it? At best, workstations are an afterthought. But the reality is without them, a business simply cannot operate. Even MSPs are guilty of being ill-prepared when it comes to workstations. Many of you may lean back on the we have a workstation image line of thinking, but it s worth considering that, while an image may serve as the basis for a workstation, a given machine usually has been modified from the image by either managed changes, such as Group Policies, scripts, manual updates, etc. or by unmanaged changes a.k.a., the user of that workstation customizing it to their liking. For a user to be productive, they need a workstation recovered to as close to the last known state as is possible. The issue for MSPs really comes down to what your SLA dictates you need to provide in the wake of a disaster as it pertains to workstations. It is merely a simple image or are you supposed to reestablish each workstation back to a place where the user can be productive? If it s more the latter, the image simply won t cut it. And, for the MSP, that s actually a good thing as you will see in this whitepaper, it means you have an opportunity to make more revenue while providing better service for your customers. The goal of this whitepaper is to introduce you to Cloud-based backup and recovery as your most comprehensive, most reliable, highest available, and fastest means to recover workstations and conveying the value to your customers. We ll do so by establishing what needs to be recovered, discussing the ways you can recover a complete workstation (with pros and cons of each), and covering when you will need to recover. Workstations: Disaster Recovery s Untouched Opportunity 3

4 What s in a workstation? When considering the recovery of a workstation, let s start by thinking of it in three parts: Operating System Applications Personal Settings Each of these parts is necessary to, in sum total, create a secure and productive working environment for the user. The OS is the obvious winner of the Most Critical award. Recovery needs to consider not just the basic OS, but the current version of the OS, including patches and updates. That means you have to hit a constantly moving target. Also, different parts of a customer s business may require different OSes to accommodate application, security or accessibility requirements, so you ll need to consider, in extreme disaster cases, the recovering more than one type of OS. Applications are in a similar situation. As business needs change, versions of applications are updated, applications are replaced with competitors, and no two departments use all the same applications. One part of accounting may be using version11 of the accounting app because they haven t been upgraded like the other half that are on version 12. Every workstation OS and the corresponding specific applications need to be considered; it s more than just installing Office. Personal Settings are a bit of a conundrum how much value should you place on them? Can users work efficiently and effectively without them or do they need their exact old environment to function? Consider the value of a single shortcut, say, on the desktop of a Windows 7 machine (the most prominent OS in use at the time of this paper s writing). What s it worth to the customer (and, therefore, is it worth recovering)? Take this example about a shortcut to heart to see the value in every part of personal settings: A user s Windows 7 machine is recovered and the icon for Microsoft Word that used to be on their desktop is no longer there. So they call the helpdesk and say My Word got uninstalled. The helpdesk technician asks them to find it in the Start Menu (it s there, of course), then proceeds to ensure it s installed via the Control Panel. Then it dawns on them oh they mean the shortcut is missing! The technician decides to help them create a new shortcut to Word. Would you right click your desktop, point to New and choose Shortcut? to which the user responds I did and nothing happened. Are you right or left-clicking? The story could keep going on, but even this much helps make the point that something so seemingly insignificant as a shortcut has now taken up about 10 minutes of two people s time in your customer s organization. What s that worth? Now apply this example to drive mappings, printers, application settings, saved passwords in a web browser, and more. Each of these small parts of the overall user workspace will add up to a lot of lost time and productivity if not recovered. It s safe to say, you need to recover personal settings. Workstations: Disaster Recovery s Untouched Opportunity 4

5 Recovering the workstation: Let me count the ways This is the point when the conversation usually turns to talking about using images. MSPs like you are usually big on standardization, which is perfect for images. Or is it? The problem with using images even those that are standardized is an image meets the business needs at the time it was created and not necessarily today. Business and security needs change, which results in patches and updates being applied. Users are constantly customizing their personal settings, moving farther and farther away from the standard. So, if you want to stick to your guns about imaging, you ll be pushing images of machines down, then requiring them to update, then need to install or update applications, and then somehow push out a (presumably) backed up copy of personal settings. This doesn t sound like the fast and effective way for an MSP to recover workstations and make money doing it. Virtualization is another possibility. Many of you may mandate servers be virtualized for easier recovery, monitoring and management, so building a workstation farm could be a possibility. If this idea resonates with you, it would stand to reason that you wouldn t be creating exact duplicates of each and every workstation (complete with personal settings) but, instead, creating a standard virtual image for accounting, sales, marketing, etc. Applications would need to be installed, personal settings would likely be largely dismissed, and users would need a hardware or software-based thin client to access the virtual workstation. To be effective, this would need to be lying in wait or you ll be investing as much time as imaging in addition to the incurred hardware and software costs to setup the virtualization in the first place. Lastly, there s cloud-based backup. With a virtually unlimited storage capacity, block-level backups for small daily transmission sizes and the potential for a hybrid implementation that includes on-premise backups for fast (and redundant) restores, cloud backup presents itself as a viable method of backing up every workstation. Restores would comprehensively put each workstation back into its unique last known state, including OS, applications and personal settings. Table 1 shows a number of ways you could recover Workstations after a disaster. RECOVERY METHOD RECOVERY RATING 4 BEST 2 GOOD 0 POOR RECURRING REVENUE? RECOVERY TESTING FEES? PROS CONS OS 4 No Yes Standardized images to lower support times Multiple OSes require separate images IMAGING Applications 2 Personal Settings 0 Multiple machines can be imaged simultaneously Base images won t include OS updates & patches Won t address specific Workstations: Disaster Recovery s Untouched Opportunity 5

6 application needs Won t recover personal settings OS 4 Possibly No Fastest way to get the customer working IF already setup Requires additional server hardware and some kind of thin client VIRTUAL- IZATION Applications 2 Personal Settings 0 Quickly scalable solution Same multiple OS issue as imaging Probably have one environment for multiple clients so applications won t be setup No personal settings recovered You still need to recover each physical workstation (unless you move the customer to virtualized workstations) OS 4 Applications 4 Yes Yes Can singularly create an exact copy of each workstation Local storage only scales with additional hardware at time of backup Personal Settings 4 Block-level changes for speedy backups HYBRID CLOUD RECOVERY Infinitely scalable Can be used for bare-metal recovery Completely restores a workstation back to its last known state Table 1: Comparing the pros and cons of each method of recovering workstations Workstations: Disaster Recovery s Untouched Opportunity 6

7 Disasters: Your opportunity in the cloud Once you ve identified customers that are concerned with recovering from any kind of disaster (which is every one of them), you now have an opportunity to include workstations and provide that recovery service in a way that benefits both the customer and you. Hybrid cloud backup and recovery of workstations provides the highest level of reliability and availability as part of your solution. With world-class data centers throughout the world providing multiple levels of redundancy and the highest encryption available, your customer can rest assured that what is backed up is secure and available at a moment s notice. The obvious Achilles heel of the cloud side of backup and recovery is the customer s Internet connection if it s too small or down, the conversation about restoring from the cloud comes to a screeching halt. Which is why hybrid cloud backup and recovery is the only viable way to make the cloud work in this situation. By utilizing an on-premise NAS device (provided by you or the customer) and a unified backup solution that manages both local and cloud-based storage, you now can offer the speed of an on-premise solution with the reliability, redundancy and availability of a cloud-based solution. It s not just the customer; there are benefits for the MSP as well. Unlike imaging, which is a one-time service, cloud backup and recovery creates a few sources of revenue: Monthly recurring storage fees priced per GB, the more the customer wants to put in the cloud, the more revenue for the MSP. Yearly or Quarterly recovery testing fees depending on the SLA with the customer, you will need to be testing recoveries from both local and cloud-based storage to ensure response times are accurate. Recovery Planning fees This one applies, regardless of whether you choose the cloud as your recovery method. If you re going to be responsible for anything from a single workstation to all of them, you ll need to build the workstation recovery plan and integrate it into your recovery plans for servers and the network. Recovery fees It s important to also note that a hybrid cloud backup provides you with the most automated (read: least amount of manual work) method of recovering workstations, making this the most cost-effective way for your business to enter the workstation recovery market and make the most money doing so! Workstations: Disaster Recovery s Untouched Opportunity 7

8 Conclusion As it turns out, disasters are great for business! Yours, that is. And it s not just your business that benefits; your business relationship with your customers also improves. By offering a comprehensive disaster recovery solution to your customers, you are providing them with a better product that keeps their business running while increasing your revenue. There s nothing more solidifying in a business relationship than you having their back. Workstations are the obvious red-headed stepchild of disaster recovery. They need to be a part of the plan to effectively get a business running again. You ll need to convince your customers of the need to include them, the challenges of users being effective with only a base environment instead of their workstation, and the benefits of completely getting all of the business back to a pre-disaster state. Once you ve cleared this hurdle with your customers, it s obvious hybrid cloud backup and recovery is the best option not only for your customer (who benefits from the most reliable, secure and fast recovery method available), but also for you, by increasing your recurring fees, lowering labor costs and providing the highest level of service. Workstations: Disaster Recovery s Untouched Opportunity 8

9 USA, Canada, Central and South America 4309 Emperor Blvd, Suite 400, Durham, NC USA Europe and United Kingdom Vision Building, Greenmarket, Dundee, DD1 4QB, UK Australia and New Zealand 2/148 Greenhill Road, Parkside, SA WP0030-v1.0-EN Disclaimer 2014 LogicNow Ltd. All rights reserved. All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners. The information and content in this document is provided for informational purposes only and is provided as is with no warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. LogicNow is not liable for any damages, including any consequential damages, of any kind that may result from the use of this document. The information is obtained from publicly available sources. Though reasonable effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the data provided, LogicNow makes no claim, promise or guarantee about the completeness, accuracy, recency or adequacy of information and is not responsible for misprints, out-of-date information, or errors. LogicNow makes no warranty, express or implied, and assumes no legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of any information contained in this document. If you believe there are any factual errors in this document, please contact us and we will review your concerns as soon as practical. Workstations: Disaster Recovery s Untouched Opportunity 9