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Managing disaster recovery: the role of satellite broadband
Simon Watts, Chief Engineer, Hughes Europe, says that in a world where people are used to being connected all the time, communications should never be the weak link in the chain in disaster recovery planning
Generally recognised as a central element within an organisation's broader business continuity strategy, disaster recovery planning involves the restoration of business-critical processes and technology infrastructure after a major disruption to the organisation.
Under normal conditions, primary terrestrial communications solutions provide a high level of resilience, yet installing a separate back-up to a second exchange is likely to be prohibitively costly, especially in more remote locations. Wireless can today provide a highly cost-effective alternative: however, this too will be dependent on the core terrestrial network and can also vulnerable to congestion and outages.
In providing rapid back-up in an emergency, wireless and satellite communications can be moved to the disaster site and deployed rapidly. In addition, satellite can very easily accommodate two routes to different satellite connections: at the same time, this flexibility also ensures that it is easy to allocate appropriate bandwidth to meet demand.
Depending on the application and the environment, the bottom line is that the most appropriate disaster recovery solution is likely to combine a mix of primary and back-up communications technologies.
Phased response: Support will be required at each of the four main phases of a disaster, in ensuring continuity of operations at every stage.
In the immediate aftermath of an incident, vehicles fitted with advanced satellite broadband systems provide the ideal degree of mobility to be delivered and installed on-site quickly and provide the secure, easy-to-deploy and cost-effective bandwidth required to restore communications. The rapid availability of mobile broadband is not just important in supporting the emergency services but is also critical in getting businesses up and running as quickly as possible.
And, in a world where people are used to being connected all the time, it provides essential communications for individuals affected by the disaster to let others know they are safe or to find out what is happening.
During the subsequent recovery phase, mobile communications are also the key to restoring normal services as part of the broader reconstruction and rehabilitation effort. Over the longer term, in addition to the need for business continuity connections to be repaired or installed in order to prevent or mitigate the impact of any future interruption, there will also be a need for training and education to ensure relevant lessons are learned.
And finally, communications also play a critical role in the ongoing preparedness phase, for reliable data gathering and alarms, in making sure that civic authorities, businesses and individuals are fully ready for, and get early warning of, any future threat.
Technology development: The key to improving the speed and quality of response is the greater availability of resilient broadband capacity. And here a number of developments are helping make this available to all those involved in dealing with disasters, of whatever scale and however remote the geography.
Central to this is the increase in Ka-band capacity, with the launch in 2010 of Europe's first dedicated high-throughput Ka-band broadband satellite. Importantly, this will also reduce the overall operating costs of satellite services, both in bandwidth utilisation and systems hardware.
In another development, the benefits of BGAN (Broadband Global Network) are also currently being made more widely available, enabling enterprises and individuals to realise the advantages of full satellite communications - by providing two-way voice and data access, wherever they are located – and are particularly well-suited to harsh environments.
In an emergency situation therefore, it is ideal both for either single users such as press journalists with bandwidth-hungry applications including live video, or for small emergency teams needing a temporary office with full two-way links to the outside world.
In summary, in supporting fast and effective disaster recovery, the best of today's mobile satellite solutions are capable of rapid deployment, require little support infrastructure and are secure and low-cost.
Simon Watts, Chief Engineer, Hughes Europe
