Free Essay

Uaa Case Study

In: Computers and Technology

Submitted By SubaruTribeca
Words 1324
Pages 6
UAA Case Study
Subaru
In the document “Outage at UAA: A Week Without Critical Information Systems” the Executive Summary describes that it is rare for a disk failure to result in an outage at a system level. The term “rare” is subjective and cannot be measured without measuring impact. Is it rare if it only occurs once every year? The answer depends on how much pain is inflicted on the organization when the event occurs. If an organization experiences once a year an enterprise wide service interruption that lasted between a day, then the organization would not consider it a rare occurrence. For those who are accountable to the service outage, they may explain the outage as the result of a rare occurrence to save their credibility (and perhaps their job). The impact resulting from disk failures at UAA had a harsh impact on the organization. Some organizations might not survive a similar outage. In the case of the University of Alaska at Anchorage, comprehending the potential causes and impact of an EVA failure before the fact would have led to better planning for the potential of an EVA failure. A BIA and subsequent BCP would have reduced the effect EVA outage on the entire UAA organization. To further comment on the perspective of a disk failure being rare please note that from an IT operations perspective, I reject the notion a disk failures are rare. Although a hard drive manufacturer may quote meat-time-between-failure (MTBF) in the thousands of hours, hard drive MTBF can vary significantly in a storage array. Drive failures can increase or decrease due to the next firmware revision. When drive failures increase, the storage array vendor/manufacturer ALWAYS recommends a firmware upgrade. This underscores the importance of an experienced IT operations team. Although the Outage document discusses that the CIO is challenged by limited technical personnel available in Anchorage, a more experience SAN engineer would have made better decisions in the days leading up to the EVA failure. The case study states references at article titled “Up in Smoke” (Ross, Tyran, Auer, Junell & Williams, 2005.) that “Many universities in particular lack the both the resources and foresight to develop a disaster plan.” Disaster plans, in its simplest form, can be the tactical situational decisions that a group of IT people make in order to avoid a disaster. If you are a university and lack the foresight to avoid disasters, then you should find the resources to close the gap because the disaster is coming. If you are a CIO for a university in Anchorage running a complex infrastructure, and you have been managing through years of staff cutbacks, then risk of a major outage is high. An experienced IT operations team will go a long way to compensate for weaknesses in infrastructure and planning. The business impact analysis of a failure is ideally planned well in advance of potential failures. However, if you do not have a business impact analysis and continuity plan in advance of such a problem, then do not make configuration changes or upgrades on a mission critical system without taking time to understand the impact of the failure. Despite the EVA being in a fragile state, there was time to step back, comprehend the impact, determine if there were steps that would allow a reduction of the impact. For example, coordinating completion of backups with the start time of reboot or system changes would reduce the recovery point objective. This could have improved their position of the Blackboard recovery. A statement of business impact and back-out plan is a best practice in change management, and if time allows, even during emergency changes. The Outage document indicates that the UAA ITS team had implemented ITIL processes to improve efficiency. Change Management is an ITIL process, thus I question the UAA ITS change management processes and/or the execution of these processes as a probable contributor to the impact of the outage. It’s also notable that the review panel recommended the escalation of incident reports to a more holistic view. This is indicative of poor ITIL problem management processes. On a larger scale, if the UAA had performed an advanced, thorough business impact analysis on a failure of the EVA, they would have been in a better prepared to react to the failure of the EVA. Assuming the BIA would have revealed that the maximum acceptable outage was less than 24 hours, then the outcome of the BIA may have been to purchase the infrastructure redundancy, including a redundant array. However, I agree with Levine (cited in the document) that “a good disaster plan can enable a company to recover despite of financial straits.” Note that redundant infrastructure adds significant complexity to the infrastructure, the expertise to maintain that infrastructure and to fail over elegantly when an outage occurs. A thorough BIA and subsequent BCP would have revealed numerous gaps in maintenance process that, once mitigated, would have reduced the overall recovery time of the failure of the EVA. The subsequent BCP would have required testing of the recovery plan. Ideally this would include regular testing of the EVA, including reboot and test restore. In the case of the UAA, this type of testing would have been performed during school breaks and holidays. Regular testing is also an opportunity to update firmware and apply patches. Recovery testing would also have revealed that the parallel recovery method was not as effective as serial, forcing more focus on business impact and the priority of recovery of services (BIA). An better understanding from the stakeholders would have helped the UAA ITS prioritize the order of service recovery. Through a BIA, the UAA ITS would have had stakeholder agreement that recovery email was the highest priority and should occur as soon as the EVA was restored. An advanced comprehension of a BIA would have revealed to the UAA ITS that they did not have an adequate communication capability to compensate for the potential loss of the email system. CDW used to run a television commercial that joked about sending a company wide-email to notify the “email server is down.” There are numerous ways to compensate for emergency communications in the event of an email service outage, including call trees, text broadcasts and Twitter. IT teams usually improve as an outcome of a disaster. It’s like the old saying, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Comprehending the impact of outages forces better processes for both avoiding and managing disasters, which makes the organization stronger. Experienced IT operations gain critical experience through disaster recovery. IT teams learn the most about the impact of outages because of the outages. The most thorough BIA/BCP will not foresee all that is possible to cause an outage. Consequently, BIA/BCP should improve as the result of outages. We use the anecdote that “always take advantage of a good outage” which means that the pain of an outage will help loosen purse strings and/or make policy modifications to ensure the pain is not felt again. When CIO Whitney meets with the Provost and the Deans, I do not think he should recommend redundant infrastructure at this point in time. His plan for avoiding a similar disruption of service should begin with the following: 1) A thorough BIA/BCP for all services provided by the UAA ITS. The outcome of these may indicate that there is cost benefit to adding additional redundant infrastructure. 2) Improvement in maintenance processes including recovery testing of the EVA and backups. 3) Implement a formal policy for software patching and firmware upgrades. 4) Identify gaps in personnel technical expertise and staff for those gaps. The UAA ITS needs at least one experienced SAN administrator. 5) CIO Whitney should also be prepared to articulate how outages will be communicated to stakeholders and the user community. Good communications during an outage always diminishes the impact of an outage.

Similar Documents

Free Essay

Role of Power

...contemporary organizational issue you find intriguing. Use one field site or example for the entire paper. Also, be explicit about the level issue. For example, if you are using the concept of personality then it is an individual level issue. A list of concepts and their related levels is provided in a separate document. Focus of paper-related requirements: Outline: Submit a formal outline for your paper, complete with references. The purpose of the outline is to help you organize your content, which also results in increased clarity, improved logic, and better structure of the paper. There may be adjustments from this document to your final paper, but at this stage the paper should not require major revisions. Final Paper: Use a case study format for the structure of your paper. Identify and analyze issues using course concepts, and propose recommendations for the organization you are focusing on. Use of course concepts 1. Use a minimum of 8 concepts for the paper. Include a list of the concepts you used at the beginning of the paper. 2. Briefly define each concept you use within the text (a paragraph or two). 3. For each concept, write a diagnosis at one level (e.g., the person level). For example, you might write “The employee misses work frequently due to stress from conflict with her supervisor.” Note, stress and conflict would require definitions.) 4. For each concept, write a solution or solutions. Identify the level(s) you addressed in Step 2...

Words: 594 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Ungs2050

...Calendar Overall for Case-Study Presentation & Mid-Term Exam – MGT 4760 (Strategic Management) Sem 1, 2012/2013 Sec 8 (M-W) No. | Week | Topics | Class Day | Date | Schedule | Details | | 1 | Chapter 1: The Nature of Strategic Management | 1- Mon 2- Wed | 10/912/9 | | | | 2 | Chapter 2: The Business Vision and Mission | 3- Mon 4- Wed | 17/919/9 | | | | 3 | Chapter 3: The External Assessment | 5- Mon 6- Wed | 24/926/9 | | | | 4 | Chapter 4: The Internal Assessment | 7- Mon 8- Wed | 1/103/10 | Quiz 1 (Chapter 1.2.3) | | | 5 | Chapter 4: The Internal Assessment | 9- Mon 10- Wed | 8/1010/10 | | | | 6 | Chapter 5: Strategies in Action | 11- Mon 12- Wed | 15/1017/10 | | | | | BREAK(22/10 – 28/10) | 13- Mon 14- Wed | 22/1024/10 | | | | 7 | Chapter 5: Strategies in Action | 15- Mon 16- Wed | 29/1031/10 | Case Presentation Session 1Case Presentation Session 2 | Group 1:L: Lia Hilaliah (Case Study 3)Group 2:L: Mas Syairah bte Mohamad (Case Study 5) | | 8 | Chapter 6: Strategy Analysis and Choice | 17- Mon 18- Wed | 5/117/11 | | (Mid-Term Exam 7/11 Wednesday)Seminar Room 1.1 | | 9 | Chapter 6: Strategy Analysis and Choice | 19- Mon 20- Wed | 12/1114/11 | Case Presentation Session 3Case Presentation Session 4 | Group 3:L: Mohamed Sheikh (Case Study 9) Group 4:L: Izzati Nor binti Salleh (Case Study 14) | | 10 | Chapter 7: Implementing Strategies: Management and Operations...

Words: 418 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Ob, Arctic Minings Consultants, Case Study

...ARCTIC MINING CONSULTANTS Case Synopsis Arctic Mining Consultants is a mining company that deals with mineral exploration. In this case study, the project given is staking 15 claims in Eagle Lake, Alaska. The project Manager was Tom Parker, who has a wide experience and specialized knowledge in all nontechnical aspects of mineral exploration. He is a geological field technician and field coordinator for Arctic Mining Consultants. He assigned his previous field assistants John Talbot, Greg Boyce and Brian Millar to help him complete the project. The job required them to stake at least 7 lengths each day in order to be completed on time. However, the whole team has became very tense and agitated, especially Tom Parker, as the deadline was just around the corner and there’s still many to be finished within the limited time. The problem became worse with the way Tom managed and treated his team. The only motivation to the team was the $300 bonuses promised by the company when the job is done on time, otherwise, they might wished to give up already. This happened because working as a field assistant and in long-working hours only giving them low wages, which is considered unreasonable compared to what they have to do. During the eight hard days, everything had actually proved the strengths and weaknesses of each of the team members, including Tom. Case analysis symptoms 1) What symptom(s) exist in this case to suggest that something has gone wrong? The symptom(s) to suggest...

Words: 2346 - Pages: 10

Premium Essay

Case Study Sample

...Running head: CASE STUDY XYZ Case Study XYZ: An Examination of Project Procurement Management Practices Group 12 John Doe Jane Smith Bobbie Sue University of Maryland University College Project Procurement Management, Semester XXXX, Section XXXX Professor Stephen R. Guth MMMM DD, YYYY [No Abstract or Introduction required for this assignment] The Inception Phase Rating Scale: 5—Excellent, 4—Very Good, 3—Good, 2—Poor, 1—Very Poor |Project Management Area |Inception Phase | |Scope Management | | |Time Management | | |Cost Management | | |Quality Management | | |Human Resource Management | | |Communication Management | | |Risk Management | | |Procurement Management | ...

Words: 804 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Organizations Conflicts

...policy. 2) Employee conditions: a. Lack of motivation  b. Compensate for low wages by over indulgence of free food allowance c. High turnover rate due to availability of high application rates. d. Employees are mostly college and high school students e. Lack of respect for managers. f. No incentive to increase motivation. In the case study Perfect Pizzeria, the area supervisor has many problems that need his attention. The largest appears to be the organization. In this case study I will assume that the area supervisor has the authority to affect change within his organization (i.e. he is the franchise owner). Being in an area with few job opportunities should give him the perfect opportunity to recruit bright, ambitious, and motivated people to staff his pizzerias. How can the area supervisor change his organization to achieve a more fluid corporate culture? I think this change can be achieved by human resource changes, structure changes, motivational changes, and reward for good performance as well as accountability for poor performance. Each one of these areas will require a change from the corporate level. For the sake of my case study I am going to assume that the area supervisor (franchise owner) can lobby to achieve this change within the organization. The first area to look...

Words: 445 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

Why Financial Intermediaries Exist

...letters in industry or for a class, knowing your purpose and audience will help determine what information to include. Generally, business letters follow a particular format, although your instructor or company may require you to use alternative formats. This guide provides writers with an introduction to writing business letters. Case Studies: This guide examines case studies, a form of qualitative descriptive research that is used to look at individuals, a small group of participants, or a group as a whole. Researchers collect data about participants using participant and direct observations, interviews, protocols, tests, examinations of records, and collections of writing samples. Starting with a definition of the case study, the guide moves to a brief history of this research method. Using several well documented case studies, the guide then looks at applications and methods including data collection and analysis. A discussion of ways to handle validity, reliability, and generalizability follows, with special attention to case studies as they are applied to composition studies. Finally, this guide examines the strengths and weaknesses of case studies. Desktop Publishing: Desktop publishing is the process of laying out and designing pages with your desktop computer. With software programs such as PageMaker and Quark Xpress, you can assemble anything from a one-page document to a...

Words: 795 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Brussels and Bradshaw

...Brussels and Bradshaw In response to the case study, Brussels and Bradshaw is a well-established financial institution that offers their clients competitive and innovative solutions for their community and work environments. The banking institution offers a summer internship to bright and driven individuals. The internship includes 14 weeks of very intense training and long hours. Interns are paid $20,000 for the contract. During the screening process, out of all the possible candidates Audrey Locke was selected. Audrey has some experience as an assistant, assurance analyst and financial planning analyst. Brussels and Bradshaw is operating in more than 25 countries globally; this case study takes place in Toronto. Many behavioral issues in the Brussels and Bradshaw institution are unprofessional and stressful. Job stress is defined as feeling one’s capabilities, resources, or needs that do not match the demands or requirements of the job (Hitt, Miller, & Colella, 2011 p. 249). Working 70 and 80 hours per week or possibly 120 hours will put a major burden on anyone, especially someone new to the working environment. Audrey is excited with her internship and very eager to learn. She is assigned a mentor and buddy by the business development manager, Kelly Richards. Kelly has 10 years of experience. Although associates consider her human resources, Kelly’s job is strictly administrative. Audrey is never introduced to her mentor and her buddy, Christine Page is very...

Words: 509 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Coach Purses

...Business case studies determine and define the primary issues that a company faces in the modern world market. A well designed business case study can provide a detailed contextual analysis of limited conditions and their horizontal relationships to other entities. In the case of Coach, they are an international clothing accessory company with a reputation of making pristinely handcrafted items with unique designs and a label that represents over seventy years of craftsmanship. In order to fully understand Coach’s business model, empirical data must be collected and analyzed to include the historical and current financial statistics, an in-depth analysis of the company overall, an analysis of the company’s business model, and finally current issues and future forecast that affect the longevity of the enterprise. By studying the history of Coach, both investors and those with an interest in the company can gain insight into key factors that motivate company decisions. Background/History The history of Coach starts in 1941 in a small family run leather workshop with six primary artisans in Manhattan that had skills passed down from generation to generation. It was not long until leather good become sought after for their high quality and workmanship. Through the guidance of the longtime and current CEO, Lew Frankfort, Coach expanded their business from just 6 million dollars 30 years ago to current sales exceeding 3.6 billion dollars. (Coach, 2012) From 1941 to present, the...

Words: 1026 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Muller Case Study

...Case Studies and Exercises Lecture 2. The Rise of Multinational Companies Case: MUELLER: China Bound? (A), (B) and (C). (308-358-1, 308-359-1 and 308-360-1). Discussion Questions: 1. What are the primary ownership advantages of Mueller? 2. What are the major ways in which Mueller could serve the China market? 3. What are their primary advantages and disadvantages?? 4. If Mueller decided to invest in China, what would be the main functions of its subsidiary? 5. How could the risks involved in the FDI to China be managed? Lecture 3. The Myth of the Global Company Case: Lafarge: From a French Cement Company to a Global Leader (304-019-1) Discussion Questions: 1. What are the main characteristics of Lafarge’s internationalisation strategy and competitive competences and how do these differ from those of other cement companies such as Cemex and Holcim? 2. What were the assumptions underlying Lafarge's strategy and how justified were these? 3. To what extent is Lafarge a French company with foreign operations, as distinct from a global MNC, and how is it likely to develop as a MNC? 4. What are the implications of Lafarge’s growth for the internationalisation of other French firms? Lecture 4. Competing Capitalisms in the 21st Century Case: Messier's Reign at Vivendi Universal (9-405-063) Discussion Questions: 1. What was Messier's strategy in transforming CGE into Vivendi, what assumptions was it based on and how justified were these? 2. What does this transformation reveal about the...

Words: 961 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

Research Case Study: Vodafone's Youth Market

...Research Case Study: Vodafone's Youth Market | | INTRODUCTION This case study will explain how the highly competitive telecommunications market lead Vodafone to set up an on-going 'panel' of respondents to give them a greater understanding of the youth market. THE CLIENT Vodafone is probably the biggest success story of the telecommunications market, becoming a household name with a penetration of 29% (TNS Telecoms panel Q3 2001) of the mobile phone market. Vodafone's media and planning agency, OMD UK plays an important strategic role in terms of researching the commercial market. THE CHALLENGE Operating in such a highly competitive industry meant that Vodafone had to look at new ways of researching how it could best profit from the hugely competitive youth market. The youth market is defined as anyone aged between 16-24 years old. Currently 90% of all 16-24 year olds own a mobile phone in the UK, amounting to 6.1m people in the UK. THE SOLUTION OMD UK, along with 2CV Research, recruited a panel of volunteers who receive monthly questionnaires over a long-term period in order to build up a profile of habits, attitudes and opinions of the young Vodafone user. The panel is made up of 200 respondents, all of whom must have an email address and a mobile phone (this is 85% of the youth market), and is maintained by 2CV. Questions sent out every month cover a whole range of areas, not just telecommunications. The idea is to build a very comprehensive picture of...

Words: 841 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Ac 505 Case Study I

...Case Study I Materials purchased $325,000 Direct Labor $220,000 Sales $1,350,000 Gross Margin 30% Cost of Goods Available for Sale $1,020,000 Prime Costs $545,000 Manufacturer Overhead 65% of Conversion cost Direct Materials $325,000 Beginning Inventory numbers: Raw Materials $41,000 Works in Process $56,000 Finished Goods $35,000 Formulas: Prime cost = Direct Materials cost + Direct Labor cost Conversion cost = Direct Labor cost + Manufacturing overhead cost (65% conversion) Prime cost = 325,000 + $220,000 545,000 ( Data given) Trying to get to the Conversion cost. Direct labor = 220,000 = 35% of conversion costs = 220,000/.35 = 628,571.42 Manufacturing Overhead = 628,571 - 220,000 = 408,571 Prime cost = direct material cost + 220,000 545,000 = direct material cost + 220,000 545,000 – 220,000 = 325,000 Direct material cost = 325,000 Gross Margin = 30% of $1,350,000 = 405,000. $1,350,000 – 405,000 = 945,000 Ending balance finished goods = 945,000 Cost of Goods Available for Sale $1,020,000 - Finished Goods Inventory (Beginning) 35,000 = Cost of Goods Manufactured $985,000 Cost of Goods sold: Beginning balance finished goods $ 35,000 + Cost of Goods Manufactured $985,000 Goods available for sale $1020,000 - Ending balance finished goods 945,000 Cost of goods sold $ 75,000 Manufacturing Costs: Direct Materials $325,000 ...

Words: 328 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Amazon Case

...Mighty Amazon by Fred Vogelstein The story of how he started Amazon is now legendary. While working at Shaw in 1994, he read a study that predicted the Internet would explode in popularity. He figured it wouldn't be long before people would be making money selling over the web. After researching a host of items that could sell online, he settled on books. Almost every book was already catalogued electronically, yet no physical bookstore could carry them all. The beauty of the model, Bezos thought, was that it would give customers access to a giant selection yet he wouldn't have to go through the time, expense, and hassle of opening stores and warehouses and dealing with inventory. It didn't work out that way. Bezos quickly discovered that the only way to make sure customers get a good experience and that Amazon gets inventory at good prices was to operate his own warehouses so he could control the transaction process from start to finish. Building warehouses was a gutsy decision. At about $50 million apiece, they were expensive to set up and even more expensive to operate. The Fernley, Nev., site sits about 35 miles east of Reno and hundreds of miles from just about anything else. It doesn't look like much at first. Just three million books, CDs, toys, and house wares in a building a quarter-mile long by 200 yards wide. But here's where the Bezos commitment to numbers and technology pays off: The place is completely computerized. Amazon's warehouses are so high tech that...

Words: 707 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

Cra Case Study

...Assignment 1: Consensual Relationship Agreements Case Study Due Week 3 and worth 100 points Read the Consensual Relationship Agreements case study located in Chapter 2. In Questions 1 and 2, focus on non-ethical ramifications (save any discussion of ethics for Question 3). Write a six to eight (6-8) page paper in which you: • Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions. • Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length. On the Written Assignment, "Consensual Relationship Agreements"; it's due this week Sunday, October 28th, by 11:59PM. Remember also to be sure to proofread your paper thoroughly because for each typographical mistake, incomplete sentence, or non-response to the assignment questions, points will be deducted. In addition, APA formatting has to be used which certainly includes in-text citations and a Reference page; check the Resource Center for an example of APA guidelines. Finally, once the paper is submitted, that will represent the final grade for the assignment; there are no-resubmissions allowed. Organizational Behavior Perceptions & Attributes by Tara Duggan, Demand Media http://smallbusiness...

Words: 665 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

Cem 480 Week 1 Paper

... * Produces Nutritious Food * Reduces Family Food Budgets * Conserves Resources * Creates opportunity for recreation, exercise, therapy, and education * Reduces Crime * Preserves Green Space * Creates income opportunities and economic development * Reduces city heat from streets and parking lots * Provides opportunities for intergenerational and cross-cultural A community garden within the Southern Nevada area must have specific characteristics to be compatible with the dry arid climate and weather of the southwest. This paper will examine 4 case studies of successful community gardens within the Desert Southwest region. Each case study will explain the design including plant types and layout, as well as construction including materials and practices. These two case studies will provide the stepping stones into the proposed UNLV Community Garden. Case Study Number 1 –Tonopah Community Garden (http://www.tonopahcommunitygarden.org/) Location: 715 N. Tonopah Drive Las Vegas, NV 89106 Design: This community garden is on four acres of...

Words: 771 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

Diadeo Case Study Hns Hbs

...High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6c92feaa-fc0f-11e0-b1d8-00144feab49a.html#ixzz2Cu5c99bj Case study: Diageo By Abby Ghobadian The story: After a series of mergers, demergers and acquisitions, the management of Diageo, the conglomerate formed by the 1997 merger of Guinness and Grand Met, made a strategic decision to focus on premium alcohol drinks. Diageo was in charge of an expanding and wide-ranging collection of brands, some of which had broad appeal across many countries while others had more regional appeal, sometimes limited to just a few markets. The challenge: After both organic growth and acquisitions, three key dilemmas emerged by 2002. First, how to manage brands with significantly different appeal, such as Guinness, a brand with strong Irish roots but huge global appeal, or Buchanan’s, the leading Scotch whisky in Latin America. Second, how to rejuvenate tired brands and third, how to improve the market share of the most successful brands, such as Captain Morgan, J & B, Smirnoff and Johnnie Walker. The initial strategy: To help managers maintain focus and allocate resources, Diageo developed three brand classifications: global priority, local priority and category. The global priority brands were the big sellers that were...

Words: 1041 - Pages: 5