Despite the willingness of the public sector to embrace business continuity by looking towards the cloud for an always-on environment, there are still significant challenges to overcome. A recent Veeam V-Club event held in Pretoria examined some of these.
Gregg Petersen, regional director for MEA and SAARC at Veeam Software, says the introduction of bimodal IT has changed how the business continuity environment is approached.
"For many government departments just managing one technology implementation can be a challenge due to resource limitations. Throw in a second project, often happening concurrently, then that pressure is amplified. What is more, how can business continuity be guaranteed when data is compromised during a two-speed IT implementation?"
For Carl Kruger, lead of the IT Governance Centre of Excellence at Deloitte and keynote speaker at the event, there is a move towards increased understanding of the difficulties in managing compliance requirements, particularly when it comes to public sector business continuity.
"The public sector has to be focused on not only aspects such as keeping the lights on, ensuring water supply, and other services critical to the running of the country, but it also has to factor in the associated business continuity and governance concerns."
Kruger says governance is pervasive and forms part of the strategic and operational enterprise objectives of the public sector.
"There is a need to ensure value from the IT-enabled investment as well as managing an increasing array of IT-related risks. But, just like in the private sector, IT activities and business activities cannot be separated in the government environment. Continuity has to be managed as part of a programme, use an executive sponsor, and show its attainable objectives. All of this has to be focused on delivering business value."
According to Marco Vieira, country manager for storage at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, part of the solution to this is to look at the approach from a holistic perspective.
"This is essential but it has to happen quickly. No public sector department can afford not to have recovery happening at the right point in time - simply restoring data that is already a month old won't work. Internally, the archival policies need to be examined to understand exactly which data needs to be retained."
Adding to this are concerns around data sovereignty and the impact that the Protection of Personal Information Act (Popi) has on data availability.
"As soon as certain customer data - in the case of the public sector, citizen data - crosses the border, you need approval from the individual affected. While the Act has been signed into law (in 2013), there is no regulation yet around it further complicating matters," says Petersen.
Pricing is another area of concern for the public sector in as much as there is a focus on how departments need to not only deliver on their mandates but also on citizen delivery models. While arguments can be made that availability often boils down to a question of money - if you have enough money, it is easy to be Always-On - the dynamics are more complex.
"We live in a continuously changing environment. The public sector is adapting but it still needs to address these traditional challenges especially in light of ever-evolving compliancy requirements. Irrespective, data has to be protected and always accessible," concludes Veeam's Petersen.
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