Over the last weeks I’ve been in and out of disaster recovery plans, vendor presentations and summing up my advice to a CIO of a mid-size company (around 250M Euro turnover).

I’ve been spending some time on the phone with her and vendors have presentation after presentation on the need for full redundancy, 5×9 uptime, exceptionally expensive systems being proposed and basically the fear of God, hell, or Sarbanes-Oxley being blown in your face.

I can’t believe it all. For the first few presentations I was nodding in agreement, yes… sounds sensible…. until…

Until you realise that there is frequently, very frequently, almost always no requirement for anything past 2 9’s uptime. Maybe 3, but almost never 5. Let me clarify this a little though.

If I’m in front of an ATM and I can’t get money out of it (an example I’ve heard a lot the last few days - no idea why, the client has nothing to do with the financial industry), I am NOT about to move banks. In fact, as in Europe there are almost never cross-bank charges for withdrawal of money, I really don’t care which ATM I go to.

Knowing my money is secure in the bank is a feature, not knowing the bank’s ATM’s are ALL 100% up.

Banking, access to your money is a critical feature - so with banking I can image for some systems a 5×9 uptime is essential. ATM’s do not belong in that category. Vendors: Stop using silly examples.

Many of the examples given are off-topic ones because the real on-topic example are few, far between, and not likely to hold water with a little close examination.

My challenge here is this: If you are led by suppliers to believe you need 5×9’s uptime, I believe there is a 5×9’s probability you don’t. Get a second opinion, and not from a company specialised in HOW to do 5×9’s uptime, but one looking after your business interests.

Advice to vendors?: On-topic examples without the ‘fear-of-god’ factor, and with a huge dose of reality & practical alternatives to hugely expensive to maintain systems.