Medium-sized companies are being forced to examine how they deal with blackouts, power surges and other problems with electricity supply.
Some are spending millions of rands upgrading their own data centres to deal with power issues, while others are exploring the viability of outsourcing.
This is according to Mike Sewell, group executive: Africa, UK & Coastal Regions, who says organisations around the country have heeded the call from municipalities to put contingency plans in place to deal with the risk that power faults pose to their businesses.
Smaller and medium-sized businesses have had to do the most soul-searching, as it is these that can often not afford state-of-the-art ICT facilities.
Although it is more difficult to quantify the loss of information assets than lost turnover, the former can mean the end of a business. Additionally, governance laws, best practices and regulations place responsibility on companies to ensure they protect their information assets and put reasonable business continuity plans in place.
As it is a specialised function, companies can and often do outsource business continuity measures to duly qualified service providers. Specialist companies house newer processing and cooling equipment that puts less of a load on the electricity grid per unit of computing power delivered than in-house infrastructure does. These companies also have the economies of scale that allow them to invest in power backup infrastructure of a quality, scale and size that few companies can justify as an in-house investment.
Sewell says although the fiduciary responsibility of keeping a company running in extraordinary circumstances rests with the senior executives, where elements of infrastructure and/or services are outsourced, responsibility for selected elements is put in the hands of the outsourcer.
However, the feasibility of this often depends on the level of trust the business feels it can place in the outsourcer. "Where relationships are sound and capabilities proven, it`s not generally perceived to be an issue to outsource continuity plans," he says.
Companies that are opting to tackle the problem by investing in their own infrastructure have to install redundant battery supplies, generators and electrical connections in their data centres. Across the board, companies are looking to protect their systems against risk at branch and retail store level by investing in infrastructure such as uninterrupted power supply (UPS) units and generators.
Sewell says outsourcing firms design their data centres according to the most rigorous international standards to ensure mission-critical systems will stay alive during power outages. This allows them to provide a service that many internal data centres at user companies are not able to match. "Outsourcing firms follow the dictates of legislation and guidelines of international and local best practice to ensure their services can meet the most stringent corporate governance requirements."
He adds that there are no short-term solutions to the electricity problems South African businesses - and especially those not large enough to have extensive in-house ICT capabilities - face. "The electricity grid is already running at full throttle while a growing economy is spurring even more demand for power. Of course, the growth in the economy also creates demand for reliable data centre services as local businesses are increasingly competing in a globalised and networked world.
"This means businesses must recognise that reliable electricity supply will remain a long-term challenge. In response, they should seek out flexible solutions that can cater for their growth in the future. It is imperative for South African businesses to have ICT reliability ratings that match the rest of the world if they are to be globally competitive," he concludes.
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