by: VMware Head of Physical Security & Resiliency (PS&R) Prasad Saranjame and VMware Senior Manager, Business Resiliency Cheryl LaTouche
VMware is a fast-growing, multi-national enterprise running a large private cloud. The company’s various offerings provide a dynamic and efficient digital foundation to more than 500,000 customers globally, aided by an ecosystem of 75,000 partners.
Given this comprehensive and intertwined ecosystem, it was critical to focus on Resiliency to ensure ongoing viability if a disaster or breach should occur. In response, VMware’s global Resiliency program was launched to address how teams respond to events that threaten the safety and security of employees, visitors to the company’s geo-dispersed locations and the ability to perform business at an acceptable level.
The program enables VMware’s growth and innovation by maintaining the security and resiliency of key assets in a manner consistent with the company’s core values. It relies on collaboration with various VMware subject matter experts and the executive leadership’s strategic guidance and oversight.
Governed by a global charter, key program components include physical security and emergency response, crisis management, IT disaster recovery planning, and business continuity planning—all under a common resiliency framework.
The resiliency philosophy
Since resilience is one of the pillars of VMware core values, teams are dedicated to attaining and sustaining a state of resilience. This is accomplished through continuous improvement as outlined below.
- Testing program capabilities against enterprise risks and high-impact scenarios, conducting internal audits and third-party program assessments, and measuring against KPIs and metrics.
- Coordinating resiliency planning and design responsibilities across multiple functions.
- Relying on resiliency sponsors and coordinators at the lines-of-business level to ensure risk resiliency is integrated in our operating culture and DNA.
VMware global resiliency best practices
Employing class-leading products such as VMware Site Recovery Manager™ and VMware Cloud™ on AWS, our company was able to implement the following global resiliency best practices:
- Live communications—No one left in the dark
Utilizes internal social media platforms, collaboration tools and two-way multichannel communications to provide and receive real-time information during disruptive events. - Leverage the cloud for disaster recovery
Harnesses the power of our disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) cloud computing solutions to ensure maximum accessibility. - Site resiliency planning
Applies an interdisciplinary approach to create a worldwide site-by-site approach to resiliency and continuity planning. The approach includes an assessment framework for evaluating unique site-specific conditions, as well as likely geo-specific risk factors ranging from natural disasters to disruptive social and environmental incidents. - Resiliency as a management core competency
Equips people managers and team leads with easy-to-adopt resiliency and continuity tools since employees first turn to their managers for guidance when work is disrupted by unplanned events and emergencies. VMware’s People Manager Team Resiliency planning tools provide managers/team leads with guidance and instructions to minimize the impact of a disruption to their team and the business.
Check back for future updates on this important and fascinating journey.
VMware on VMware blogs are written by IT subject matter experts sharing stories about our digital transformation using VMware products and services in a global production environment. Contact your sales rep or [email protected] to schedule a briefing on this topic. Visit the VMware on VMware microsite and follow us on Twitter.
