Peer to Peer Magazine

www.iltanet.org 32 Peer to Peer CASE STUdIES M ost small firms have rudimentary risk mitigation practices in place, but many believe that going beyond the basics is cost prohibitive. Good risk mitigation practices, procedures and systems are a solid investment for a firm regardless of size. Thinking of all the "bad things" waiting to happen can consume a good portion of any manager's day; and, in fact, determining and preparing for business interruptions is a worthwhile endeavor. Working in a single location, I sometimes daydream about having another office for redundancy. It would be nice to have my own WAN accelerator and a "hot site" that was our backup in the event of disaster. Then I come to my senses and remember how much I like keeping things simple! There is always risk; my task is to balance what is acceptable risk and to mitigate what is not. Until, that is, the price tag is larger than our budget. PLAnnInG IS eSSenTIAL Businesses of all sizes need disaster recovery plans for woes small and large that can befall them. For example, they need to have an extra hard drive for the array, some UPS units, backups that actually work and an extra switch. These are the relatively easy pieces of the puzzle. But what happens when you lose the whole server room to water damage? Or what if power is disrupted for several days? Or what if an event near you prevents onsite access for an extended period? These are real possibilities, but do they warrant the cost of a completely redundant failover site? It would certainly be ideal, and it would certainly be expensive. THe CLOUD IS THe "PIe In THe SKY" So how do small firms plan for business interruptions while keeping the expense of those plans in check? This firm's answer: Cloud computing. Consider for a moment the cost savings in not having to maintain an e-mail server: No onsite backup systems, no hardware, no licensing, no maintenance, and the "server" is immune to the broken water main above the data center. Sure, there is a monthly fee per user, but it is surprisingly low. Now, factor in the data replication to two entirely different geographic areas, hosted in a very secure facility, with power generators and around-the-clock technicians who specialize in e-mail server operations and security. If users can get an Internet connection, they can access e-mail, even if the office is offline for any reason. That's one way for small firms to mitigate risk and reduce costs. Now consider doing the same thing with the document management system. Building redundant servers and co-locating them have similar costs for implementation, whether you're a 10 attorney firm or 500 attorney firm. Hosted solutions for e-mail and document management, based on number of users, provide an attractive, affordable solution. VIRTUALLY RISK-FRee At Chester Willcox and Saxbe LLP, there are servers that remain on premise; yet, we've controlled costs by utilizing virtualization. Server virtualization allows, to some extent, redundant hardware. If I have to restore an entire server, and it is virtualized, I can quickly restore it to different hardware. In this manner, we're addressing the risks of losing one server and losing an entire server room. Additionally, it is possible to "There is always risk; my task is to balance what is acceptable risk and to mitigate what is not. Until, that is, the price tag is larger than our budget." Small Firm, Big Plan: Chester willcox and Saxbe LLP by Tim Hooks

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