Automation changes the face of disaster recovery

How the OpCon automation platform works

We have a saying at SMA Technologies: if you’re going to do something twice, you might as well automate it once. OpCon is our flagship workload automation platform. It automates tedious manual processes to increase speed, efficiency, and reliability while reducing human error.

OpCon ties complex digital environments together into a single, customized automated ecosystem. Usually, OpCon automation helps organizations speed through complex workflows and time-intensive tasks. However, it can also easily integrate failover and replication duties in all major operating and supporting systems because OpCon remembers the last task it was working on and can immediately resume from that point during DR operations. Consequently, it ensures maximal uptime—even after events such as natural disasters, equipment malfunctions, or cyberattacks.

The inefficiencies of traditional disaster recovery

Disaster recovery teams handle the bulk of disaster recovery processes. They oversee the entire timeline, from declaring disaster to meeting recovery time objectives (RTOs) and recovery point objectives (RPOs). They coordinate communications, individual responsibilities, tasks, and timelines for personnel across business units.

The disaster recovery team represents a lot of moving parts and institutional knowledge. To prepare for disasters, organizations undertake constant planning, training, and exercising to ensure that they can respond to emerging or likely threats. Key disaster recovery team members must continually meet to review and revise their plans, and they must take responsibility for all involved personnel.

During disaster recovery procedures, each successive step depends on the completion of the previous one. With so many people and processes involved, RTOs can be difficult to meet, which compounds stress from the disaster itself.

Ultimately, disaster recovery is a high-stakes, all-hands-on-deck affair for personnel, most of whom have very little experience with the process. Any missing team member or mistake could have outsized consequences for restoration goals or the health of the organization. Unfortunately, disasters don’t always elicit efficiency in people, and human error is all too common during such stressful times.

How the OpCon automation platform simplifies disaster recovery

The OpCon automation platform simplifies difficult and time-consuming processes by removing the need for manual operators. So, when something unfortunate interrupts your business, OpCon eliminates the likelihood of human error.

The last thing you want is to rely on the presence and perfect coordination of an underprepared disaster recovery team. That goes double for issues that compromise the health and safety of your staff, such as earthquakes or pandemics. The fewer people that need be involved, the more resilient your disaster recovery plan will be.

OpCon allows organizations to initiate and run their entire disaster recovery process automatically or with a single operator. LOHR, a European industrial manufacturing group, needed to increase efficiency to stay competitive through the financial crisis in 2008. They looked to automation to simplify daily tasks, but they also wanted to improve their disaster recovery planning.

Before using OpCon, disaster recovery at LOHR took a well-trained team of experts several hours to restore operations. OpCon enabled a single operator to complete their recovery process in a half hour. The entire plan could be executed without the need for any platform experts.

Read more about how OpCon helped LOHR with automated disaster recovery here.

Why disaster recovery is an integral part of modern automation services

Disaster recovery is only one small facet of what the OpCon automation platform can handle. Yet, when faced with an existential threat, any organization should strongly consider making disaster recovery planning a priority.

Fortunately, disaster recovery with OpCon is simple. After all, what’s easier than giving your entire disaster recovery team a single “autopilot” button? Automation provides better speed, accuracy, reliability, and value, all while reducing stress and human error in high-stakes situations.

Request a demo today to see how OpCon can simplify your digital environment.