The Problem
This customer has over 1,000 separate systems that are critical to ongoing operations and are located in a core data center. The systems are a combination of Mainframe, UNIX variations (AIX, HP-UX, LINUX, etc.), and Windows. They use SAN and NAS storage (the Mainframe CKD over FICON I include in the SAN), with over half a Petabyte of unique data and various additional copies. They have SAP and other systems that have data flowing between different them, often with different operating systems, with no easy way to perform data isolation (picture an interaction of web services, shipping, billing, and warehouse data and you get the general idea). The customer wanted to implement business restart, with clear business requirements.
I like Vince's blog. He spends as much time on the problem as the answer.
