Roger, Data Analyst

Q: What is your name and job title?
Roger Dioquino, a data practitioner working in the Data Services Department of Datahold in the Philippines. …read more »

The data industry is undergoing a dramatic transformation. This has implications for agencies, clients and brands alike. After all, nearly every integrated campaign has customer and prospect data as its foundation. …read more »

Jed Mooney, managing director at Datahold explains his view that far from being doomed, outsourcing is stronger than ever before, despite claims to the contrary… …read more »

Under the 1998 Data Protection Act, any company that “determines the purposes for which data is used” has to conform to the Act’s regulatory framework.  This data controller is also responsible for compliance, even if the actual data processing is undertaken by a third party. …read more »

According to Ventoro Consulting, 19 per cent of all companies have an offshore strategy.  When it comes to the US’ top 1,000 firms, the number of companies jumps to 95 per cent.  Even a few Government departments are quietly outsourcing back-office functions to Asia. …read more »

Your Legal Q&A (January) make the point that exporting personal data outside the EU is prohibited unless exemptions apply. …read more »

Since privatisation, Britain’s energy supply has been able to meet demand without the lights going out. However, this same period has coincided with peak oil production and self-sufficiency for the UK. Estimates for when domestic sources will run out vary, but there is a common view that up to 80 per cent of our gas will soon be coming from overseas, much of it via politically unstable countries.

While still some years off, the question needs to be raised now as to what would happen to your business if the lights went off. How business-critical is your marketing database? And what business continuity plans does your organization – or our outsourced marketing services provider – have in place?

It is an issue which some suppliers have addressed sooner than others. Datahold is an offshore data capture operation based in the Philippines. “In the early Nineties, the country had problems with its electricity supply. But in the three years we have been in our present building, we have had a power cut just once for three hours,’ says managing director Jed Mooney.

He compares this with his experience 15 years ago working in the UK when his database bureau lost power for 1.5 days after a workman drilled through the mains cable in an outside road. Datahold has its own back-up generators to cover any such eventuality now. “They can be up and running within five to 20 seconds, so there is not an interruption to our supply,” says Mooney.

But his company’s planning for business continuity goes further than just power. “We keep regular back-ups of everything that happens on a daily basis and three years’ worth of records are kept. We probably do more than UK-based companies, he says.

Data capture is the first link in the chain that leads to a fully operational database. If records were to be lost just as they are created, it is possible they could be gone forever. That is why backing up is an essential precaution.

In theory, if a business’ systems did go down at the end of a working day before backing up, some 18 hour’s worth of data processing might be lost. In reality, the dynamic feeds in and out mean the loss is more likely to be around three hours.

Through the law of unintended consequences, it could be that the move towards both outsourcing and offshoring has put business continuity higher on the corporate agenda. Many company bosses are now turning their minds to ensuring the resilience of their operational infrastructure.

A recent survey by the British Standards Institute (BSI) suggests they have been making the right preparations. Among FTSE 250 companies, 80 per cent believe they would last up to a week before feeling serious effects from a disruption. Comprehensive supply chain failure plans are in place at 45 per cent, with 41 per cent fully prepared for business relocation.

Closer to home for database marketers, 51 per cent are very well prepared for IT systems failures. Many have no doubt taken on board the Business Continuity Management standard, BS 25999, developed by BSI, which sets out what needs to be done to keep a business going during unexpected events.

Celerity Information Systems has developed its own set of plans. “They are well documented and propagated through the organisation. As best as possible, everybody knows what to do in certain eventualities – for example, power failures or if all the staff are on a bus trip and it falls off the edge of a cliff,” says Darron Gregory, head of analysis.

He identifies the latter possibility as the most challenging. “Any organisation depends on people, either key individuals or the simple provision of staff. If they are out for a period of time, it is hard to come back from that,” he says.

His company has arrangements with employment agencies to provide replacements as quickly as possible. In recent years, this has become a bigger concern, with the threat of avian flu suggesting that human resources could be just as vulnerable as physical and technical ones.

“To mitigate any effects, we have well defined and documented processes for what to do. For example, if we were midway through an analytical project for a client, somebody could pick up from where I left off. Some intellectual property would die with me, but the process could still be followed,” says Gregory.

Service level agreements with clients set out what period of time can elapse before full service is restored and under what circumstances. This is a key part of the detailed negotiations with new clients, since there are differing levels of expectations.

“For some clients, if they are working in near realtime, it is more urgent. Certain clients demand priority. Their auditors come down and walk through our procedures, or we document them and provide evidence. But if something major does go down, then so does demand,” he adds.

“According to Gartner Group, in any given year 15 per cent of laptops suffer a hardware failure, 10 per cent are stolen and 32 per cent of data is lost due to user error”

This is an important point about business continuity – there are two sides involved. Supply and demand might both be affected, for example, if there was a national power cut. It is more often local difficulties that cause problem, because they only have an impact on one side of the equation.

In regulated markets, there is a growing concern about how disruptions might affect their compliance. Under various pieces of legislation, from the Data Protection Act to the retention of data in telecommunications provisions, businesses have an obligation to ensure that their data is secure and accessible, even in the event of a disaster.

While businesses may have put in place plans covering core operating systems, this no longer guarantees that key data files are protected. “Resilience is also about the loss of a laptop. Companies have moved from being centralised locations with one big database to distributed files across laptops and desktops, many of them used remotely at home. Data is more distributed,” says Tiny Haynes, hosting product manager at Telstra Europe, a telecommunications service provider which offers a range of back-up systems to third parties.

According to Gartner Group, in any given year 15 per cent of laptops suffer a hardware failure, 10 per cent are stolen and 32 per cent of data is lost due to user error. Telstra’s Remote Backup is an automated service that generates an off-site copy of specified files and folders.

“Users load the software agent and it backs up everything selected, whether the full set or just certain documents. If there is any change to them, it does an incremental back-up of the changes. Then, if the laptop is lost, you can remotely access the data,” says Haynes.

The current operating environment for most database managers probably does not require this level of resilience. But there is an increasing amount of work done off-site and a growing volume of traffic across the Internet. As both digital channels and e-commerce increase, the specifications of database continuity plans are likely to become more heavy duty.

The same is also true of the value of individual records. Until recently, marketing databases were not always perceived as valuable assets in their own right, since they were usually built from extracts of operating systems. But as marketers have started to add insights and data variables not used elsewhere, the marketing database is becoming a core asset in itself.

Gary Buxton, business unit leader of data delivery at Acxiom, says: “As most data and marketing-centric businesses are aware, their customer data assets are of vital importance. The subjects of disaster and business continuity are issues that should be taken seriously.”

As a service provider, his business has a commercial imperative and also contractual obligations to ensure resilience. We go further to ensure that we plan for every data loss scenario, large or small. Whether it’s just a section of information that is lost, or a disaster meaning the entire database is compromised, it’s our responsibility to make sure that we have the measures in place to prevent those losses,” says Buxton.

Darren Gregory: “Any organisation depends on people, either key individuals or the simple provision of staff”

Some of those measures are to do with the physical infrastructure. Raised flooring in buildings allows air conditioning and cable management, which gives the best operating conditions. Early-warning smoke detection systems are in place, plus dual back up generators.

“Along with a dedicated building management system and a site which is above the 500 year flood line, our client data is fully covered,” he says. Other measures are more hi-tech, such as infrared intruder detection, biometric entry systems and computer system security, including off-site data back-up.

Acxiom operates across two locations, providing a fail over facility. “We also take a proactive stance – acting in advance of problems occurring, to be on the safe side. For example, we monitor world weather reports so that, if any disasters occur, we can be on top of the problems before they begin,” says Buxton.

Jed Mooney: ‘We keep regular back-ups of everything that happens on a daily basis and three years worth of records are kept”

The most resilient service imaginable would also be unimaginably expensive. It would require at least two, ideally three, different suppliers in different locations operating different hardware and software in mirror of each other. Even financial companies in the City do not go to these lengths.

But there are smaller steps which can go a long way towards ensuring business continuity. “Make sure that the supplier does not have single points of failure. For example, key servers should have hot standby replacements which can be pressed into action with minimal disruption to service. The same applies to individuals,” says Barry Carino, chief technology officer at Occam.

He also argues for the use of escrow. “Copies of the data and any proprietary software, together with operating instructions, should be put into escrow on a regular basis. In the event that supplier goes out of business, the items could be retrieved from escrow to rebuild the service. Ideally, the use of escrow to rebuild the service should be demonstrated on a regular basis,” says Carlino.

Amid fears about whether Gazprom will switch off gas supplies to the UK, or if a migrating swan will lead to the death of 10 million people, the greatest risk to marketing databases is more prosaic. Many outsourced services providers are small businesses operating on tight margins. And, in fact, data is less likely to be lost through a disaster than through a business failure, so it would pay to be prepared for any eventuality.

Source: Precision Marketing
Publication Date: January 2007