Voice Communications Disaster Recovery Can Your Business Survive a Phone System Outage? Continuity Insights May 10, 2006 Sheraton, New Orleans John Coyle VP Business Development Virtual PBX Agenda Why are you here? Positioning Voice Implementation Considerations Types of Implementations Wrap-Up Why Are You Here? 1
Positioning of Voice The greatest tragedy in all of life is to suffer the pain and miss the lesson Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 18 th Century poet/writer Positioning of Voice 43%* of companies have had a disaster that required them to activate their DR plans DR has gone from nice to have to mandatory Disaster Recovery now a line item in IT budgets Manifested in at least two ways: Increase in regulatory requirements Business requirements of customers * Network Computing, 2006 Positioning of Voice Some companies still haven t learned When coping with data deltas as a result of a disaster, 66%* of companies said they would: Re-key or re-enter the data Go without the delta data Don t know what they would do Reality Check: If this is the solution for their data, what about their voice communications? * Network Computing, 2006 2
Positioning of Voice Importance of Voice Importance = $$ 2005 international telecom revenue = $1.8 trillion* Telecom failure ranked as the highest concern of IT and DR professionals after data security (virus, denial of service, unauthorized access)** Even if someone has to take a message, this small step in reassuring customers and partners that business is continuing is key in curtailing losses David M. Goldes, President, Basex * Telecommunications Industry Association ** EnvoyWorldwide, June 2005 Positioning of Voice We really underestimated the time frames and the surge of calls we got following [hurricane Wilma] Citizens Property Insurance We weren t prepared for so many claims from one location Southern Farm Bureau Casualty Insurance Insurance companies KNOW their call volume will swell during natural disasters What about the rest of the business communities? Cost of No Voice We ve all seen cost of data loss scare tactic slides: Brokerage operations lose $6,500,000/hour Credit card sales lose $2,600,000/hour Pay-per-view loses $150,000/hour Catalog sales lose $90,000/hour Reality Check: 43%* of companies have no idea what their downtime costs Bottom Line: Unanswered calls mean lost revenue * Value of Business Continuity Survey, August 2005 3
Cost of No Voice What is the cost of telecom downtime? Voice communications have lots of intangibles Individual contributors vs. call center Bottom Line: Could cost the same as data loss Voice Communication Plan Content In the IT industry, DR is top-of-mind: Redundant storage hardware Clustered and redundant servers Redundant networks Most BC/DR plans contain: People Data Network Facilities Question: Telecommunications Why is voice BC/DR Minimal: Leave it up to carriers not a higher priority? Overkill: Redundant PBXs, etc. Voice Communication Plan Process Identify key voice services and personnel Assess voice vulnerabilities Business Impact Analysis (cost of downtime) Recovery Time Objective (RTO) Regulatory or legal requirements Budget Implementation Test 4
Voice Communication Plan Process Personnel are key assets Very apparent during Katrina Employee communication starting to become policy Implement an Employee Emergency Hotline Employees Call in to check status Check in to give their own status DR/IT Teams Communicate with each other Status checks Voice Communication Success Factors Backup phone system should be: Located remotely from the customer s facilities As self-managed by customer as possible Have it s own BC/DR processes Divert on Failure (DOF) pre-planned with carriers Can be automatic or manual SLA needs to be in place Types of Voice Communication On site Off site (redundant or 2nd site) 5
Types of Voice Communication On site: Power Failure Transfer (PFT) Immediate failover if main PBX goes down or power failure Relays transfer over to analog lines 80-90% of enterprise PBX installations have PFT Still inside of building If no electricity, no one in building to take advantage of phones Doesn t account for building evacuation Types of Voice Communication On site: UPS or Battery Room Continuous operation, immediate failover 10% of enterprise PBX installs include UPS/battery room Can be expensive if large battery room ~4-8 hours of uptime Doesn t account for building evacuation Types of Voice Communication On site: Backup Phone System Potentially same system On site Temporary phone system delivered to site; SLA = few hours Expensive; capital in equipment that might not be used Doesn t account for building evacuation 6
Types of Voice Communication Off site: Company-owned or temporary mobile site Must use local/toll-free carriers for Divert on Failure (DoF) Toll-free: Direct Termination Overflow (DTO) on switched toll-free Potentially automatic, most likely manual failover on dedicated tollfree Local: Carrier dependent Potentially automatic, most likely manual failover Types of Voice Communication Off site: Company-owned or temporary mobile site Carrier Divert on Failure (DoF) Examples: Qwest: Business Continuance Routing The New AT&T: Enhanced Alternate Routing MCI: Enhanced Call Routing Focal: Failsafe Types of Voice Communication Off site: Redundant Phone System Potentially fully functional mirror phone system No learning new system Expensive Potentially not a smart use of capital Potentially overkill for most companies Bottom Line: Only 15-20% of large enterprises have the resources to implement this type of strategy* * Basex 7
Types of Voice Communication Off site: Voice over IP (VoIP) Long term costs are much lower than traditional PBX Greater flexibility than traditional PBX Integration with other systems (CRM, databases, etc.) Employees can work out of alternate locations Startup cost roughly the same as traditional PBX VoIP security measures can cause degradation of QoS VoIP is time-critical; not tolerant of disruption or packet loss Firewall issues: VPN is usually required for offsite connection Types of Voice Communication Off site: Voice over IP (VoIP) continued Be mindful of E-911 issues with dispersed employees Softphones are a very real security risk Implementation not as cheap as the marketing says 60%* of companies have not implemented VoIP because of initial cost, cost of upgrading network, or lack of reliability Only 6% of companies with between 20 and 100 employees were using VoIP in 2005; this percentage is even lower for smaller companies** Bottom Line: VoIP needs BC/DR just like a traditional PBX * Network Computing Ready Survey, 2006 ** Infonetics Research, 2006 Types of Voice Communication Off site: Satellite Systems Can work even if local communications and electrical is down Can be implemented immediately or within a few hours Expensive Might be overkill for most companies Reality Check: Satellite was key communication channel during Katrina (besides text messaging) 8
Types of Voice Communication Off site: Virtual Hot Standby Phone System Same functionality, but no premise-based equipment Saves capital expense of secondary phone system Can be hosted far from customer site to avoid geographic disasters All routing, functionality set up in advance Could be hybrid of hardware phones + hosted phone system May not be exact mirror of current phone system May not connect into data systems (CRM, databases) Customer responsible for alternate phones (cell phones) Types of Voice Communication Off site: Virtual Hot Standby Phone System Comparison with hardware phone system Secondary PBX (or VoIP) could cost as much as primary system Acquisition, support, maintenance Not cost effective; capital resources sit unused Types of Voice Communication Off site: Virtual Hot Standby Phone System Comparison with hardware phone system Hosted phone system is a portion of larger PBX (multi-tenant) Replacement of primary PBX, no on-site hardware/software Most use PSTN, typically reliable in electrical outage Can be re-routed, even in most geographic disasters Some use VoIP, though not as prevalent yet Hosted Phone System 9
Voice Communication Wrap-Up Don t forget voice communication failover Downtime can be costly Implementation costs may be lower than originally thought Backup phone system should be located remotely from customer facilities Backup phone system should be self-managed Divert on Failure (DoF) should be pre-planned with local/toll-free carriers Think outside the box, literally Thank You 10