AS400 Disaster Recovery Plan

For modern businesses that want to ensure they can maintain business-critical applications amidst unforeseen circumstances, protect valuable customer or internal data, minimize downtime, and adhere to compliance regulations, it’s practically necessary to implement an AS400 disaster recovery plan. But before we get into the details about what a disaster recovery plan is and what it can do, let’s take a closer look at the context surrounding the AS400 (A/S400) system.

In 1988, IBM released the AS400, a midrange server that could be used in small, medium, and large web and mobile applications. It quickly became a popular choice due to its wide array of functionalities and uses. Additionally, the AS400 is a highly secure, stable, reliable, and scalable system, and for these reasons and many others, it became a popular choice among some of the world’s industry leaders. 

Since then, IBM has rebranded AS400 several times. In 2008, when the most recent rebranding took place, it became known as IBM Power Systems. IBM i is an operating system that runs on the modern IBM Power Systems. While the AS400 and iSeries are older, legacy hardware servers – and in many regards, AS400 is the predecessor of the IBM i platform – many users still refer to the modern technology by antiquated names like “AS400” or “iSeries” in an innocent manner. 

So what should be included in a disaster recovery plan for your AS400? Creating a disaster recovery plan – especially an AS400 disaster recovery plan – can be a lengthy and involved process, but preventative measures are a necessity in modern business applications. A solid disaster recovery plan will help businesses minimize downtime, ensure regulatory compliance, protect data, maintain brand perception, and improve a business’s ability to adapt quickly. 

Minimizing downtime is increasingly important as consumers and other organizations expect downtimes to be minimal; interruption of service can have a serious impact on customers’ perception of the organization and significantly contribute to financial losses while operations are halted. 

Data privacy and security are also big concerns for modern consumers and businesses alike. A disaster recovery plan can provide businesses with guidelines for backing up and securing data and safeguarding against data loss in the event of a disaster. Taking steps to ensure that customer and business data is safe and secure also goes a long way to bolster the reputation of the organization. A disaster recovery plan can also ensure business continuity in the event of unforeseen or uncontrollable external events or occurrences.

Overall, a disaster recovery plan provides businesses with the framework and tools necessary to mitigate damage from a disaster and to recover quickly to ensure that any losses are minimal. 

IT Disaster Recovery Plan

Disasters can strike at any time, so preparedness and having a disaster recovery policy are the keys to mitigating the damage when a disaster does occur. But how can a business prepare for something that hasn’t happened yet? Skytap offers Disaster Recovery solutions for IBM Power environments (AS400, IBM i, AIX, Linux on Power) and can help provide your organization with robust IT disaster recovery solutions as well.

Whether your organization needs to implement an AS400 disaster recovery plan or a more general IT disaster recovery plan, it is vital to have a comprehensive plan in place to ensure the continuity of business operations and minimize potential losses or disruptions to operations. The more time an organization spends trying to recover from or rectify a disastrous situation, the less time that organization has to tend to regular operations which can hurt employee morale, stymie profit margins, and reflect poorly on the organization as a whole. 

For those interested in implementing an IBM disaster recovery plan, you might consider looking at an IBM disaster recovery plan template to garner an understanding of the framework involved in preparing for disaster scenarios. Assessing another organization’s disaster recovery plan can help a business identify potential weaknesses within its own operations. Similarly, businesses can learn from previous disasters and how organizations managed operations during those times, as well as how they were able to recover. 

For example, SPAR, one of the largest grocery retailers in South Africa, found itself in a precarious situation when civil unrest erupted throughout the country. Food suppliers were under threat, as was SPAR’s data and ability to reliably stock stores, so they sought to immediately migrate mission-critical IBM Power Systems workloads from the data center to Skytap on Azure. By having an IT disaster recovery plan in place, quick thinking and decisive actions can help businesses mitigate or even prevent incalculable losses. Read the full case study here.

As modern businesses continue to rely more on technology and data storage to house their digital operations, they will have to develop and implement safeguards to protect said information in the event of a disaster. To ensure business continuity, protect against data loss, and improve basic security measures, businesses must invest in the development and implementation of comprehensive disaster recovery protocols. In contemporary marketplaces, the competition is so steep that there is relatively little room for error or mismanagement, so it is vital that businesses begin taking steps to safeguard their organizations from various disasters. 

Disaster Recovery Procedures

When determining the best solutions for your company’s disaster recovery policy, it can help to review information about various disaster recovery procedures, disaster recovery methods, and disaster recovery objectives as well. 

One of the first steps in developing a comprehensive disaster recovery plan is to identify the vulnerabilities and potential risks to your organization and business operations. For some companies, the primary disasters they could face may be environmental, like hurricanes, earthquakes, or forest fires. Other organizations may be more vulnerable to man-made disasters like nefarious cyber attacks, catastrophic equipment failures, and even war or civil unrest. By assessing the risks your business could face, you can develop a sensible disaster recovery plan that addresses the specific needs of your organization. 

After an initial assessment, businesses can prioritize critical operations and data security. This can involve determining which systems and data sets are most essential for sustaining business operations and developing an easy-to-follow plan for restoring systems in a disaster scenario. Organizations may find it useful to consider implementing backup recovery plans as well, including on-site and off-site backups, to confidently ensure that valuable business data is protected and can be rapidly restored if disruptions to service occur. 

Another crucial aspect of disaster recovery planning involves training and inspection initiatives. Regular training and inspection of disaster recovery plan protocols and functionalities can help your organization identify potential weak points and ensure that all personnel understand their roles and duties in a disaster situation. Organizations should also provide adequate training to employees on how to best respond in a disaster situation, including steps for how to ensure their own safety and the safety of others, as well as basic protocols for restoring critical business operations. 

Businesses should also prepare to adapt and revise disaster recovery procedures as necessary. As technology continues to advance and develop, new cyber threats will emerge, and disaster recovery plans will likely need to be amended or updated in order to safeguard against new threats. Conducting regular checks and assessments and implementing updates when necessary can help ensure that a business is prepared for virtually any eventuality – no matter the nature or magnitude of the disaster. 

Ultimately, having a robust disaster recovery plan in place is a vital aspect of any organization’s risk management strategy. 

Disaster Recovery Plan for Software Application

Because of the unpredictable nature of disasters, it can be difficult to know what disaster recovery strategies are best for your organization, and practical disaster recovery examples can be a good way to find out how other organizations have recovered from disastrous events. As technology continues to advance at a near-exponential rate, businesses must strive to update their disaster recovery strategies.

While it may be a noble endeavor to attempt to prevent any type of disaster from occurring, there are simply some disasters and circumstances that are beyond any human control, and businesses must take steps to ensure that they are as prepared as possible to withstand unforeseeable circumstances. A robust disaster recovery plan and business continuity plan can help ensure that your organization is able to continue IT operations, regroup, and forge ahead in the event of a disaster. 

To develop a better information technology disaster recovery plan, why not consult an IT disaster recovery plan example PDF? Or if your organization needs a disaster recovery plan for software application operations, a disaster recovery plan checklist can ensure that nothing gets missed during the recovery process. 

Once your organization has assessed its weak points and vulnerabilities and devised a comprehensive disaster recovery plan, the work becomes more about maintaining training initiatives and updating the disaster recovery plan to address potential new threats. 

In today’s digital era, contemporary businesses must rely heavily on technology in order to operate and compete with other organizations within the industry. And having a sound disaster recovery plan is essential to ensuring that a business can minimize the impact of service disruptions and other outages that may occur as a result of a disaster. By identifying all the potential risks and prioritizing workflows that are critical to operations, in addition to providing employees with sufficient training, businesses can prepare for any type of disaster or disruption that may take place.

Skytap gives your business peace of mind with a cloud-based disaster recovery and high availability solution (HA/DR) to facilitate your AS400 disaster recovery plan. This includes cold and warm off-site recovery for applications running on IBM i, AIX, Linux on Power, and x86 platforms within your datacenter, as well as across Skytap’s geographic regions. Learn more about Skytap for disaster recovery here.