How Do You Test Your Recovery Procedure?
Published on 16/06/2021
Having a disaster recovery plan to protect against unforeseen circumstances is essential to getting your business back online should the worst happen. With that in mind, how do you test that the recovery plans you have invested in are robust enough to guarantee that your critical applications can be swiftly and accurately redeployed in the event of a release?
Ensuring your disaster recovery plans can be implemented successfully, ensuring complete access to your critical applications begins with a Software Escrow Agreement.
At SES, all of our Software Escrow agreements benefit from our UKAS accredited ISO: 27001 and ISO: 9001 certifications and limitation of liability up to £5 million. This ensures that our customers most prized software assets are protected to the highest standards in the industry.
In addition, SES’s agreements are platform-independent and can protect applications hosted on any platform, including Amazon Web Services (AWS) Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform.
Finally, our SaaS Escrow agreements ensure access to the most up to date version of your applications' data with unlimited data deposits up to 100GB included as standard on all of our agreements.
Whilst a highly robust Software Escrow agreement is a strong start to ensuring accurate recovery when you are facing events which are out of your control. For applications that are revenue-generating, business-critical, bespoke or highly customised, it is recommended that Software Validation services, coupled with simulated release events are included with your Software Escrow agreement to ensure that your valuable applications can be redeployed quickly as well as accurately, minimising downtime and the loss of revenue associated with it.
Remote Code Validation with simulated release events involve your Software Developer (Licensor) rebuilding the application in their own environment. An SES testing consultant witnesses the full rebuild of the application via a secure remote connection and documents the entire process. (This process can also be completed with the SES testing consultant on-site at the Licensors premises if required).
The independent report compiled by the SES testing consultant coupled with the audio and visual recording of the build enables you or a third party to accurately redeploy your software application in the event of a release.
An additional benefit of this service is the simulated release event which demonstrates the build documentation is sufficient for a Software Developer to rebuild the application upon release.
Whilst this service works in a similar way for hosted applications, there are a few minor deviations. Remote Code Validation testing for SaaS applications involves a full build of the source code into the working application by the software owners development team and a full deployment of the application in the nominated hosting environment which is remotely witnessed by an SES representative.
Further to this, to guarantee complete and rapid accessibility to hosted applications in the event the hosted environment or supplier is no longer available to provide the service, SES has created an industry-leading SaaS Continuity service called the Licensee Continuity Plan (LCP).
This market-leading service is a live and functioning disaster recovery solution. When called upon, SES will be responsible for rapidly recreating the working service on your behalf. Following a confirmed release, the LCP will provide a guaranteed period of service continuity. Providing invaluable time to make alternative arrangements – whether that’s bringing the service in-house or transitioning to a replacement. This period of continuity is built into the coverage from the start and guaranteed by SES.
Testing your Escrow deposits and performing simulated release events are the only way to provide complete assurance that your Software Escrow deposit can be swiftly and accurately redeployed whilst minimising downtime in the event of a release. To speak to one of our specialists about your business continuity requirements or discuss our LCP Agreement in more detail, please get in touch.
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