Following my last blogpost, I promised to give you the results of the Backup and Restore test we performed for Pernod Ricard.
The technical part:
We wanted to know how much time it would take to get a fully functional environment, how much data would be lost and what it would take to get everything up and running from a technical and functional perspective.
- How much data will I loose? RPO, short for Recovery Point Objective.
For this project, the RPO was maximum 24 hours. There is a daily backup.
- How much time will it take to setup a new infrastructure? RTO, short for Recovery Time Objective.
In this project, the RTO was a bit less than 7 hours to have a complete functional environment, including driving to pick up the tapes. That's an incredible result. In less than 1 working day, you have your whole company up and running again!
The restore went without a hitch. The backup was fully functional and included everything that was necessary. From userprofiles and passwords to data, as well as the necessary configurations.
The functional part:
EASI has license keys for the operating system for this kind of situations, all our systems are on full maintenance in case there is a hardware issue and we have multiple systems just in case the law of Murphy tries to gives us a visit.
While all data was physically there, it took up to 4 days to get the necessary license keys from a third party that enabled Pernod Ricard to actually start up their ERP system. The license key was based on the hardware serial number and considering it was a different machine, it was different serial number.
Once everything was up and running, we created a VPN and Pernod Ricard tested their environment without even coming on site! You could work from anywhere in the world.
The conclusion:
- Backup: success!
- Restore: success!
- VPN: success!
- Tests: success!
- License keys ERP system: We have made a documentation on who'm to contact in case of emergency to speed up the progress.
We also documented the whole procedure in case of a real emergency. Next test, with all documentation in place, we might even beat those 7 hours! We like a challenge at EASI, no matter how complex it is, we'll do it.
I really like these kind of tests. They prove that the implemented backup works as intended, and the work to implement a decent backup was worth it.
In this case, Both IT at Pernod Ricard and EASI will sleep better at night knowing if - and let's hope we never have to - something happens, we are prepared and business can continue in less than one working day!
