[ E11A ] The Best Solution for Building BCP

Distributed Server Management Prevents BCP Building

Company K, a metal processing manufacturer with production sites and sales bases in ten locations throughout Japan, has ERP systems installed on the head office core servers and business servers at each site in order to handle orders, production, and shipments. However, the management of servers distributed in the Kanto, Kinki, and Chugoku regions had always been a problem for the IT managers at the head office. Although there were system administrators at each site, they were not dedicated to IT infrastructure and lacked expertise and specialized knowledge, so all they could do was to follow the instructions of head office when they could find the time.

“Because our business servers were distributed throughout the country, we at the head office didn’t have enough manpower to manage them all, so maintenance work was completely left to each site,” explained Mr. W, a manager at Company K’s information system center. “Head office staff visited each site once every six months, but that was far from being a decent management system.”

Then, a problem occurred. When the server went down in a blackout, critical ERP inventory data was lost, resulting in a temporary suspension of business. The important data was almost lost despite having a standby UPS installed in the server room. It failed in backing up the data because the batteries were dead. Fortunately, they could recover the backup data from a few hours prior, so it didn’t cause significant damage at that time. But, the system vulnerability had caught the whole company’s attention, and building a solid BCP suddenly became a major priority.

“Reliability” and “Cost” Dilemma. What to Do as a Company?

This problem was caused by the use of an inexpensive standby UPS that allowed frequent battery operation, which deteriorated the batteries, rendering them unable to function properly in power outages. So, the company considered introducing a more reliable UPS using the double conversion topology.

Mr. W installed the hybrid UPSs at a few sites on a trial basis to verify their effectiveness. The result, as expected, was confirmation of a drastic reduction in power consumption. In addition to the power consumption issue, other management problems were solved. The cooling fans are durable, so replacement is unnecessary. Battery self-tests are automatically performed at regular intervals, ensuring reliable UPS operation in the event of a power failure, unlike their past power troubles. “Fans and batteries are designed to last for a long time, and with power management software, UPS status can be displayed on remote computers whenever we wanted,” explained Mr. W. “Management has become stable and our management workload was reduced by 30%.”

Furthermore, the use of LAN interface cards enabled them to remotely and centrally manage all the regional server-backup UPSs at the head office, eliminating the need for complicated management of each site. Currently, Company K manages all the site servers in this manner.
“More than the cost aspect,” concluded Mr. W, “what I cared about most was my organization’s responsibility to build a solid BCP.” It can be said that his wishes have finally been fulfilled.