Security and continuity of business processes

2020: $200-300 thousand are losses of the Russian banks from short-term failures of servers

On January 27, 2020 the Schneider Electric company published results of a research within which losses of the Russian banks from short-term failures in operation of the equipment were counted. According to the experts, in two hours of idle time of servers or storage systems financial institutions lose on average $200-300 thousand.

For example, minute of transactions on trading transactions of the Russian bank from top-20 costs an average of $10-20 thousand. Banks from the first five — have even more. If any equipment, for example servers or storage systems, leaves service, recovery time, as a rule, borrows of two o'clock, the report says.

Banks in Russia can lose $200-300 thousand because of failure of the equipment

According to specialists, one of the main tools providing banks of profit is information processing for which IT solutions are actively used. So any failure in work technology and the equipment can incur for itself huge losses.

Schneider Electric also says that every year in the financial sector there will be more and more technologies of Internet of Things, and  emergence of 5G networks will become one of drivers: speed and  volume of data transmission will grow repeatedly. Key the mobility, cyber security, the deep analysis of Big Data and  personalisation of offers for  clients will become trends of digitalization of services in banks, to opinion of analysts.

Digitalization will come also  to offices of banks:  using technologies of Internet of Things in  them optimal conditions for  employees and  clients will be created to increase performance of the first and  loyalty of the second, it is specified in the report.

Poll of the specialists responsible for  integration of IIoT-solutions (industrial Internet of Things) in  different spheres of business is the cornerstone of a research.^[1]

2012: Steve Wozniak predicts to cloud services "awful problems"

One of founders of Apple company Steve Wozniak, answering questions of the audience of Mike Daisy's program, popular in the USA, was recognized that he is seriously concerned by rapid approach of cloud solutions. Wozniak considers that in the next five years the cloud waits for "a set of awful problems". The users who placed the data in a cloud, in fact, are not their owners any more. In accordance with the terms the standard agreement about provision of services, providers do not bear any responsibility for safety of information of the clients. The more data it is transferred to a cloud, the less at users remains opportunities to control them. And as clients are not owners of cloud resources, their information at any time can disappear or be modified without any preliminary warning.

2011: Security and the continuity of business processes – task No. 1 for the Russian companies

By 2011 the efficiency of business directly depends on normal functioning of IT infrastructure. Though it is represented obvious, not all companies are given to this aspect of due attention. For this reason there are such situations with data loss, violation of business processes and as a result, the company loses clients, loses profit.

As it usually happens in company N: affairs go uphill, sellers sell, marketing specialists revealed customers needs long ago, production workers prepared batches of new products, the HR department carries actively out personnel recruitment in connection with increase in production volume, documents freely circulate between departments of the company, and even programmers quietly write the codes. Suddenly the IT system fails, it is unimportant for what reason. For the company the main thing – result. And result is as follows:

• sellers and marketing specialists have all data on customers in the CRM system, transactions break;
• the HR department has no access to personal data, selection process of personnel is stopped;
• documents in electronic form (payment orders, agreements, etc.) are not available;
• for accounting of an effect will be deplorable (threat of delay of tax payments and assignments).

The investigation - the company loses not only money, clients, but also reputation in the business world. The aforesaid is not for anybody a secret, but, nevertheless, similar occurs and is quite frequent.

For solution it is possible to select one of methods: support of operability of the IT system by own forces (IT service of the company), transfer of the IT system in a cloud according to the SaaS model and transfer of function of maintenance of the IT system to the contractor (IT company).

The most traditional and, at first sight, the most economic method of the solution of this task – work of own IT service. Really, IT specialists of the company are much better informed on features of the organization of the IT system and interested in its successful operation. And the salary of the system administrator and costs for updating program and the hardware are a part of costs. But it should be noted some shortcomings of similar approach. The IT specialist can be "too given" other full-time job, and he does not have time to keep track of security of a system and safety of information. Not all companies are able to afford the whole staff of qualified professionals in the sphere, non-core for the organization. Besides the company does not consider the hidden costs for the content of IT structure: overtime IT specialists in cases of failure of a system, time spent for addresses of users with questions (how to bring contact in CRM how to copy from Word in Excel, etc.) and also fixed costs for updating of licenses, replacements of the equipment, etc.

The following option – the innovation. The SaaS model practices in the market of IT services not the first year, but nevertheless still treat it watchfully. Advantage of this approach is, certainly, a reduction of the IT budget. Many companies first of all pay attention to the IT service price, and then to quality. SaaS provides flexibility, high scalability of the IT system. The company leaves from need to be engaged in activity, non-core for itself, and that the most important, occurs transfer of responsibility for functioning of the IT system on the contractor here. The efficiency of implementation of the IT system at SaaS the solution becomes also important strategic advantage to the company. Normal implementation can continue within several years, for SaaS so much time is not required. So why large business structures are not sure whether it is worth transferring the IT systems to SaaS? A lack of this approach is security issues of information and personal data. It is for certain unknown how the contractor can use confidential data of the company. Though this aspect is stated in the agreement and nevertheless the Russian customer still doubts.

The third way of solving the problem of ensuring continuity of business processes are services of the IT company in maintenance and technical support of IT systems. This solution is intermediate between traditional IT service of customer company and the innovation IT outsourcing according to the SaaS model. The IT company takes the responsibility on maintenance of working capacity and fault tolerance of a system, but all program and hardware remain with the customer. Advantages of this approach are the same reduction of the IT budget, release of IT department of the organization from routine work that will give the chance of participation of IT department in strategic management by the company. And such obstacles as security, confidentiality of data, accessory of the rights to personal data are minimized. It is possible to carry the overestimated quotations of the IT companies, the aspiration to type as much as possible projects to shortcomings, without caring for service quality. But these problems are solved due to careful selection of IT service provider.

Summarizing the above, the companies can recommend to weigh all pros and cons and nevertheless to take care of ensuring continuity of business processes with any of methods.

Notes