Vol.1 No.4 (November, 2006)

Special Issue: Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery

TANIGISHI Kazuyoshi
Senior Vice President

YAMAGUCHI Makoto
Executive General Manager
NEC, Systems Services Operations Unit

At NEC, we have always focused on business continuity and disaster recovery planning in our efforts to live up to the absolute trust deposited on us by the Japanese society. Our perception is that in order to ensure life savings and business continuity in case of a large-scale natural disaster or accident it is essential to establish a social infrastructure that allows for self-help, mutual help, and community-level assistance through the cooperation among companies, local governments, and communities. Based on this perception, we provide products, services, and solutions in a systematic way to support this effort in the IT/network aspect. In this special issue, we explain NEC's Business Continuity (BC)/Disaster Recovery (DR) services, and also NEC's own activities in that area.

MARUYA Hiroaki
Professor, Institute of Economic Research, Kyoto University
Chairman of the Board of Directors, A Specified Non-Profit Japanese Corporation
Business Continuity Advancement Organization

Incorporated under the NPO Law and with the approval of the Cabinet Office, the Business Continuity Advancement Organization (BCAO) officially commenced activities in June 2006 as a Specified Non-profit Japanese Corporation. At the certification commemorative seminar on July 10, the text of fundamental standards for business continuity was unveiled, and a business continuity specialist certification system to be implemented within this fiscal year was announced. Currently a subcommittee meets on a monthly basis, and various seminars and meetings to exchange views are planned. Together with all concerned with Business Continuity (BC), we hope to conduct activities to further the facilitation of the mission of this organization.

David SCHULENBURG
Lead Consultant, CBCP SunGard Availability Services
OGATA Hideyuki
Consulting Manager,Managed Services Division,NEC Systems Services Operations Unit

The SunGard Availability Service is a pioneer of the disaster recovery industry and one of the leading providers of Information Availability solutions, which include business continuity/disaster recovery, managed IT and professional consulting services. Since its establishment in 1978, SunGard has maintained a 100% successful rate in handling over 2,500 disaster recoveries for more than 10,000 clients in North America and Europe.
In 2004, NEC Corporation concluded a knowledge transfer agreement with SunGard in order to access its portfolio of services. The terms of the agreement included consultation on Business Continuity (BC) issues, business continuation via alternative systems in case of disaster and recovery testing and training. The expertise provided by SunGard has helped NEC in starting its new BC service that mainly targets Japanese enterprises by using NEC itself as a reference point. The service is also based on the experience and achievements that NEC has gained in long years of experience with regard to its SI and outsourcing business.
This report is intended to introduce the concepts developed by SunGard with regard to next generation BC as well as a description of the actual services it has developed in North America and Europe; it also defines the relationship of SunGard with NEC.

Overseas Trend

UENO Masayuki

In examining how the Japanese market might address Business Continuity (BC) in the future it is essential to fully understand the situation in the overseas markets as these tend to be more advanced with regard to BC realization. This paper introduces the approaches to BC adopted by the user companies in the U.S., business trends among venders, the related special qualifications and the trend by the ISO toward the adoption of international standardization.

NEC's BC Service Solutions

SASAKI Shinobu, KUMASHIRO Hirokazu, MIYAZAKI Norifumi
KOMAGOME Daisuke, AKASHI Takabumi, HOSOKAWA Youichi

NEC offers a consistent result-oriented services menu for the development of business continuity plans (BCPs). It covers all of the requisite elements, from business impact analysis (BIA) to a review of facilities, business continuity management (BCM), BCP development and walk-through/exercise plans. NEC has achieved significant results in the development of BCP since 2004 and has acquired valuable experience in establishing the PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) cycle. As a result, the company is now capable of promptly providing domestic customers with efficient BCP development solutions. This paper introduces the pattern of these solutions, which are now being applied by Japanese enterprises and proposes specific promotion systems for customers as well as outlining their order of deployment at the corporate level.

YAMATO Jun-ichi, KAN Masaki, KIKUCHI Yoshihide
TAKAYA Masahiro, TOMI Mitsuhiro, ADACHI Tadashi

This paper discusses aspects of IT systems from their basic architectures to a function model of the disaster recovery (DR) that enables continued service provision even in the case of a disaster event. In doing so it focuses on data protection, which is the core of service continuity.

TAKAYA Masahiro, TOMI Mitsuhiro

This paper is intended to consider the range of recoveries from disaster, describe the systems architectures of disaster recovery (DR) systems and indicate some key points of relevance to effective solutions. It also summarizes the data replication systems offered by NEC from the viewpoint of systems layers, and introduces individual products together with their features. Finally, it also explains the concepts that are underpinning the development of network circuits.

IWATA Yuichiro, EBATA Kazumasa

When operating business continuity and disaster recovery systems, it is necessary to transfer the data via WAN (Wide Area Network) to replicate the data from the currently operating system by accommodating it in a secondary office backup system. However, in some cases, it is difficult to ensure sufficient bandwidth or communications speed via the WAN, which connects the currently operating systems and the backup systems. This paper describes what causes such problems in WAN connections and how these problems can be solved by employing a WAN optimization system. The paper also describes how much improvement is enabled by WAN connections when a WAN optimization system is employed.

OGATA Hideyuki, OHSUKA Hideo, ABE Akiko
KONDA Nobuhiko, HIRAI Masaki, SHIMAZAKI Tomoyuki

Business continuity (BC) can be achieved by providing information systems that feature measures for enabling recovery from a disaster event by meeting RTO (Recovery Time Objectives) and RPO (Recovery Point Objectives). Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the current vulnerability status of the information system by applying effective measures based on cost efficiency and by accurately assigning the priority of each component. This paper describes the methods of applying effective BC measures of information systems, specific details of these measures and the work required for the proper operation of backup systems, as well as the managed service for implementation of the BC measures.

KURODA Yoshihide

The recent growth in the importance of IT data management has caused an increasing number of enterprises to study remote backup systems from the viewpoint of business continuity (BC) and disaster recovery (DR). The UNIVERGE Storage Network Solution solves problems related to system introductions; such as those related to the price, integrated system management and stable operation, by offering an outsourcing menu (resale of WAN circuits, rental of equipment and an operations administration & maintenance service) and also by adopting low-priced storage products.

BC/DR Supply Chain Activities of NEC

UMEZAWA Kaoru, YANAGIDA Tsutomu, ENDO Tsutomu

IT provides the foundation for the supply chain that provides customers with merchandise and services. NEC has established a business continuity plan (BCP) by placing the primary emphasis in the supply chain field. In order to prevent IT from causing a bottleneck in business continuity when an unexpected event occurs, NEC is promoting activities including the establishment of BC/DR objectives that are consistent with business targets and strategies. These include priorities in dealing with failings, and assumed risks, countermeasures against them and the methods of managing funds to deal with them. This paper introduces NEC’s ideas with regard to these activities and the conclusions that have been drawn from them.

Future Technologies

KATO Masayuki

Business Grid Middleware (GMW) was developed as part of the national project led by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. A functional summary and features of the middleware are described in this paper, as well as an introduction of a business implementation example for disaster recovery control utilizing GMW at Mazda Motor Corporation, with results of validation experiments cited.
Furthermore, the WebSAM GlobalGridOrganizer, based on GMW currently being developed at NEC, will also be introduced in this paper.

Related Solutions

KINOSHITA Yukihiro, HIRAI Kiyomune

The environment surrounding organizations has been changing rapidly with numerous occurrences of natural disaster, terrorist attacks and scandalous affairs. Against such a backdrop, since the Great Hanshin and Awaji Earthquakes, NEC has been building disaster recovery systems for prefectural governments that utilize IT networks. This paper introduces the disaster recovery system, which has been prepared as a package and took more than ten years to build.

TAKAHASHI Yukio, SATOU Yumi, HIRAI Kiyomune

Confirming safety is a critical step that needs to be undertaken in order to cope with disasters, not only for the purpose of securing the safety of employees but also from the perspective of business continuity as well. This paper introduces the status confirmation solution being developed by NEC and companies of the NEC Group, along with four case examples that differ in terms of the systems used and their features.

Case Studies

Mr. Yoshiyuki Yoshida
Human Resources Manager,
Employ Relations,
Philip Morris Japan K.K.

Ms. Akemi Nishihama
Human Resources Manager,
International Assignment and
Office Administration,
Philip Morris Japan K.K.

Ms. Yoko Toyama
Information Security Officer,
Information Service,
Philip Morris Japan K.K.

Mr. Kazuhiko Sato
Project Manager,
Age Verification Vendor Project,
Corporate Affairs,
Philip Morris Japan K.K.

Philip Morris Japan K.K. (PMJ) provides import/sale, marketing, and sales promotion services for the Philip Morris International cigarette brands in Japan. The Business Continuity Planning Services of NEC were introduced at PMJ with the aim of establishing a business continuity solution for Japan as a part of the Special Situation Management System (SSMS) - a global scope crisis management program that is being tackled in each country around the world under the leadership of the parent company Philip Morris International (PMI). In the very short period of time of under 4 months, NEC worked in close concert with all concerned departments including the human resources management, general administration, information systems, and logistics departments, and devised a business continuity plan. To firmly root the system in the organization with a higher degree of realism, initiative was taken to commence plan deployment. Future plans aim at the complete realization of a business continuity plan that is high in dependability through training of all employees, exercises that are premised on circumstances faced in an actual disaster and other activities.

KISHIKAWA Noriyuki
Senior Manager,
Platform Systems Division,
NEC BIGLOBE, Ltd.

In recent years, the Internet has taken root in our everyday lifestyles as an indispensable tool for collecting and dispatching information. BLOGGING, which is a means of online information exchange, is now widely accepted as a useful tool for the rapid dissemination of on-site opinion and information, especially for communicating details of emergency situations. Internet, which is used in various aspects of every day life, is now required to provide a continuous service, even in disaster situations. It was ten years in July 2006 since BIGLOBE, an Internet service provider, began to supply services. The activities of BIGLOBE in promoting BC (Business Continuity) and DR (Disaster Recovery) as a reliable service provision for users are introduced in this paper.

KURIHARA Akira
Assistant General Manager,
East Japan Customer Support Division,
NEC Fielding, Ltd.

In order to indicate how to deal with the issue of business continuity methodology in Japan the official document "Guidelines for Business Continuity" was issued by the Cabinet Office in August, 2005. In establishing a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) in the context of this document, the IT systems that are one of the essential infrastructures of modern society must be capable of a quick recovery and stable operations when unexpected events occur.
NEC Fielding Ltd., which provides IT system maintenance services as its core service considers that we can contribute effectively to the BCP of our clients by ensuring that their IT systems remain in continuous operation. This idea derives from countermeasures taken by us when the Great Hanshin Earthquake occurred. NEC has been implementing a business continuity plan (BCP) and disaster recovery (DR) procedures in the maintenance services market that is based on experience gained from solutions adopted following various earthquakes and disasters.
This paper introduces NEC's activities in the BCP field as an actual case study.

General Papers

Daniele ABBADESSA, Telemaco MELIA

With the increasing development of 3G packet switched based networks, combined with the availability of advanced multi-mode terminals, a wide variety of new applications is becoming available. A fundamental requirement for a mass market adoption is an easy to use user interface. This paper introduces an innovative user interface for mobile TV. This new concept, which relies on the well known presence technology, provides notification and personalization as key features. The Mobile TV user is therefore able to enjoy new broadcast services (e.g. DVB, DVA) just by customizing preferences. We argue this opens new business opportunities and share revenue for Mobile Operators. The paper also describes an implementation prototype showing how the technology could work in a real deployment scenario. A business model, supporting the above considerations, is also provided.

ITO Isao
Supervisor,
Application Design Department,
Industrial Electronic Products Division,
Nippon Avionics Co., Ltd.

SUDO Takayuki
Supervisor,
Application Design Department,
Industrial Electronic Products Division,
Nippon Avionics Co., Ltd.

TAKABE Katsuaki
Staff, Engineer,
Application Design Department,
Industrial Electronic Products Division,
Nippon Avionics Co., Ltd.

MIYAZAWA Shinji
Manager,
Application Design Department,
Industrial Electronic Products Division,
Nippon Avionics Co., Ltd.

NAKAGAWA Tomofumi
Manager,
Application Design Department,
Industrial Electronic Products Division,
Nippon Avionics Co., Ltd.

Combustible garbage discharged by households and businesses are collected by garbage collection trucks and accumulated in the garbage accumulation pits, located in garbage disposal plants, where they are incinerated. Cases have been reported when the garbage gathered in a garbage accumulation pit ignited for some reason, which led to fire disasters, bringing about a large amount of damage to the garbage disposal plants. The garbage accumulation pit fire disaster monitoring system, introduced here, has been developed and delivered to garbage disposal plants for the purpose of offering support for rapidly extinguishing fires by providing an early forecast through the detection of rising temperatures of garbage accumulated in the garbage accumulation pit. The developed garbage accumulation pit fire monitoring system utilizes an infrared thermography system (TVS) developed by Nippon Avionics, which is installed along the perimeters of the garbage accumulation pit for the purpose of monitoring the temperature of the garbage. The system also partitions the garbage accumulation pit into blocks, making it possible to detect a rise in temperature through measurements taken by the TVS, reporting the location where the temperature rise is occurring, as well as the amount of rising temperature, to the central monitoring device as an alarm output, thereby preventing the occurrence of a fire disaster. A case study of this system, which has been delivered, is introduced in this paper.