Guy Hains, the president of
Computer Sciences Corporation's Europe Group, has spoken of the
causes and lessons learned from a
crash at the company's Maidstone datacentre last
year.
The crash caused a loss of systems for NHS trusts on an
unprecedented scale. About 80 NHS trusts lost the use of some of
their main IT systems for several days.
" I believe that the biggest risk in the computer industry
generally at the moment is unreliable power supply. Generally
across the world power has become more spiky which is ruinous to
any sort of IT system,” Hains told a Health Committee inquiry into
aspects of the
NHS's National Programme for IT [NPfIT]:
CSC ran into difficulties after power problems caused a short
circuit which damaged a storage device. The firm had to bring
experts over from Japan to fix the problem.
"We transferred the operation between our Maidstone centre and
the reserve centre which was effected without data loss, as was the
pass back to the primary data site some weeks later. We learnt
several things from that.
"First, we learnt that as we scale up the system it is better to
have four centres than two, which is what we have invested in, so
that data is now not only mirrored but effectively held
simultaneously in two places.
"Second, out of that experience with the authority we have
tightened our targets and expectations of how quickly systems need
to be brought up,” he said.
Under the new plans, the expectation is that key systems are
back on line within 24 hours, rather than 72 hours previously.
Other more critical systems are back online sooner.
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