1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:00,870 In this lesson, 2 00:00:00,870 --> 00:00:02,880 we're going to cover availability. 3 00:00:02,880 --> 00:00:05,730 Now, availability in information security is used to ensure 4 00:00:05,730 --> 00:00:09,060 that information, systems and resources are accessible 5 00:00:09,060 --> 00:00:12,210 and operational when needed by authorized users. 6 00:00:12,210 --> 00:00:14,310 In simpler terms, availability is all 7 00:00:14,310 --> 00:00:16,200 about making sure that services, systems 8 00:00:16,200 --> 00:00:19,590 and data are always available when they're supposed to be. 9 00:00:19,590 --> 00:00:20,700 Let's pretend for a moment 10 00:00:20,700 --> 00:00:22,440 that you have an important online meeting scheduled 11 00:00:22,440 --> 00:00:25,050 for 10:00 AM tomorrow but just minutes before that, 12 00:00:25,050 --> 00:00:26,910 your internet connection goes down. 13 00:00:26,910 --> 00:00:28,740 This would be super frustrating for you 14 00:00:28,740 --> 00:00:29,640 and now you're not going to be able 15 00:00:29,640 --> 00:00:31,080 to attend the meeting, right? 16 00:00:31,080 --> 00:00:33,600 Well, this situation emphasizes the importance 17 00:00:33,600 --> 00:00:36,720 of availability in our increasingly connected world. 18 00:00:36,720 --> 00:00:39,210 Just as you'd want your internet to always be up and running 19 00:00:39,210 --> 00:00:42,090 especially during critical times, in that same vein, 20 00:00:42,090 --> 00:00:44,100 businesses need their systems and services 21 00:00:44,100 --> 00:00:45,750 to be available around the clock 22 00:00:45,750 --> 00:00:47,280 to meet their customer demands 23 00:00:47,280 --> 00:00:49,650 and to maintain their brand's reputation. 24 00:00:49,650 --> 00:00:51,030 When you're considering which system 25 00:00:51,030 --> 00:00:52,470 or service provider to use 26 00:00:52,470 --> 00:00:53,700 you're often going to hear them refer 27 00:00:53,700 --> 00:00:54,870 to their availability status 28 00:00:54,870 --> 00:00:57,390 by a number of nines that they can provide. 29 00:00:57,390 --> 00:00:58,830 For example, three nines 30 00:00:58,830 --> 00:01:02,400 of availability equates to 99.9% uptime. 31 00:01:02,400 --> 00:01:05,640 This means that in a standard calendar year with 365 days, 32 00:01:05,640 --> 00:01:08,430 we have 8,760 hours available. 33 00:01:08,430 --> 00:01:12,240 So a system with 99.9% uptime can be down 34 00:01:12,240 --> 00:01:15,030 for a maximum of 8.76 hours. 35 00:01:15,030 --> 00:01:16,830 If that's too much downtime for you though, 36 00:01:16,830 --> 00:01:18,300 you can actually go and find a provider 37 00:01:18,300 --> 00:01:20,520 who has more nines of availability. 38 00:01:20,520 --> 00:01:22,710 For example, I used to work for a service provider 39 00:01:22,710 --> 00:01:25,560 that had to maintain five nines of availability. 40 00:01:25,560 --> 00:01:28,140 Now, five nines is considered to be the gold standard 41 00:01:28,140 --> 00:01:30,270 and this means we have to achieve a system uptime 42 00:01:30,270 --> 00:01:33,210 of 99.999%. 43 00:01:33,210 --> 00:01:35,460 Now, if you translate this into minutes or hours 44 00:01:35,460 --> 00:01:37,920 this actually means that our system has to guarantee 45 00:01:37,920 --> 00:01:39,330 that we are going to have a downtime 46 00:01:39,330 --> 00:01:43,950 of no more than 5.26 minutes in any given calendar year. 47 00:01:43,950 --> 00:01:45,000 Achieving this gold standard 48 00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:46,800 of availability ensures that services 49 00:01:46,800 --> 00:01:48,750 and applications are virtually always going 50 00:01:48,750 --> 00:01:51,660 to be accessible to our users, and it minimizes disruptions 51 00:01:51,660 --> 00:01:53,820 and potential revenue loss events. 52 00:01:53,820 --> 00:01:55,200 To put this into perspective, 53 00:01:55,200 --> 00:01:57,690 while a 99% uptime may seem high, 54 00:01:57,690 --> 00:02:00,450 it still allows you to have over 3.5 days 55 00:02:00,450 --> 00:02:02,880 of downtime per year, whereas the five nines 56 00:02:02,880 --> 00:02:06,780 of availability slashes that down to a mere five minutes. 57 00:02:06,780 --> 00:02:08,910 This level of reliability means we're going to have 58 00:02:08,910 --> 00:02:11,370 to have a robust infrastructure, proactive monitoring, 59 00:02:11,370 --> 00:02:14,250 redundancy measures, and swift disaster recovery mechanisms 60 00:02:14,250 --> 00:02:17,100 in order to achieve five nines of availability. 61 00:02:17,100 --> 00:02:18,810 Now, as cybersecurity professionals, 62 00:02:18,810 --> 00:02:20,490 we do value availability 63 00:02:20,490 --> 00:02:22,650 because it helps us to ensure business continuity, 64 00:02:22,650 --> 00:02:23,880 to maintain our customer trust 65 00:02:23,880 --> 00:02:26,610 and to uphold our organization's reputation. 66 00:02:26,610 --> 00:02:27,810 Now, first, we need to talk 67 00:02:27,810 --> 00:02:29,850 about ensuring business continuity. 68 00:02:29,850 --> 00:02:31,440 Every minute your system is down 69 00:02:31,440 --> 00:02:34,260 your business might be facing significant losses. 70 00:02:34,260 --> 00:02:35,430 For an e-commerce site, 71 00:02:35,430 --> 00:02:37,170 this can mean a direct loss in sales. 72 00:02:37,170 --> 00:02:39,930 For a hospital, it can mean a life-threatening situation 73 00:02:39,930 --> 00:02:42,240 if a critical system isn't operational. 74 00:02:42,240 --> 00:02:44,970 For example, in the telecommunications industry, 75 00:02:44,970 --> 00:02:47,310 a single hour of downtime can cost them 76 00:02:47,310 --> 00:02:49,530 on average $2 million. 77 00:02:49,530 --> 00:02:51,570 That means that for every minute of downtime, 78 00:02:51,570 --> 00:02:55,170 they're losing about $33,000 per minute. 79 00:02:55,170 --> 00:02:57,900 Second, we have maintaining customer trust. 80 00:02:57,900 --> 00:02:59,910 Now, if customers can't access their accounts, 81 00:02:59,910 --> 00:03:01,800 purchase their products or use services 82 00:03:01,800 --> 00:03:03,690 because your system is down, their trust 83 00:03:03,690 --> 00:03:05,730 in your company is going to go down. 84 00:03:05,730 --> 00:03:08,250 If you suffer from a prolonged unavailability event, 85 00:03:08,250 --> 00:03:09,750 this can actually cause your customers to look 86 00:03:09,750 --> 00:03:12,390 for alternative solutions and purchase products or services 87 00:03:12,390 --> 00:03:15,450 from your competitors, causing you to lose revenue. 88 00:03:15,450 --> 00:03:16,320 Third and finally, 89 00:03:16,320 --> 00:03:19,020 we have upholding your organization's reputation. 90 00:03:19,020 --> 00:03:21,060 Now, if you have repeated downtime events, 91 00:03:21,060 --> 00:03:23,400 this is not only going to affect your business operations 92 00:03:23,400 --> 00:03:25,650 but also tarnishes your organization's image 93 00:03:25,650 --> 00:03:26,580 in the long run. 94 00:03:26,580 --> 00:03:27,870 And this will make it more challenging 95 00:03:27,870 --> 00:03:30,420 to regain those customers' confidence in your organizations 96 00:03:30,420 --> 00:03:32,490 if they leave you for another provider. 97 00:03:32,490 --> 00:03:34,650 Now, in order to overcome the challenges associated 98 00:03:34,650 --> 00:03:36,930 with maintaining high levels of availability, 99 00:03:36,930 --> 00:03:38,910 the best strategy is to use redundancy 100 00:03:38,910 --> 00:03:41,520 in all of your systems and network designs. 101 00:03:41,520 --> 00:03:43,170 Now, redundancy is the duplication 102 00:03:43,170 --> 00:03:44,760 of critical components or functions 103 00:03:44,760 --> 00:03:48,090 of a system with the intention of enhancing its reliability. 104 00:03:48,090 --> 00:03:50,700 In simple words, it's about having backup options 105 00:03:50,700 --> 00:03:52,530 to ensure uninterrupted service. 106 00:03:52,530 --> 00:03:53,970 If one of your systems fails, 107 00:03:53,970 --> 00:03:57,330 the backup should take over, ensuring constant availability. 108 00:03:57,330 --> 00:03:59,730 Think of it as having a spare tire in your car. 109 00:03:59,730 --> 00:04:02,130 If one tire gets punctured, you're able to go out 110 00:04:02,130 --> 00:04:03,660 and immediately replace it with your spare 111 00:04:03,660 --> 00:04:06,600 and continue your journey without a significant delay. 112 00:04:06,600 --> 00:04:09,450 For example, I used to live on the island of Puerto Rico 113 00:04:09,450 --> 00:04:11,370 and down there we often faced hurricanes 114 00:04:11,370 --> 00:04:12,840 and other natural disasters 115 00:04:12,840 --> 00:04:15,060 that could affect our business operations. 116 00:04:15,060 --> 00:04:17,670 Now, to overcome the threat of losing internet at my office 117 00:04:17,670 --> 00:04:19,950 I actually had three different internet connections. 118 00:04:19,950 --> 00:04:20,910 One was from a dedicated 119 00:04:20,910 --> 00:04:22,770 microwave wireless service provider, 120 00:04:22,770 --> 00:04:24,990 one was a connection from my local cable company 121 00:04:24,990 --> 00:04:27,300 and one was provided by a cellular modem. 122 00:04:27,300 --> 00:04:29,100 Now, if the microwave link went down, 123 00:04:29,100 --> 00:04:30,630 then our systems automatically switched over 124 00:04:30,630 --> 00:04:31,680 to the cable modem. 125 00:04:31,680 --> 00:04:33,330 If the cable modem also went down, 126 00:04:33,330 --> 00:04:35,220 we would switch over to the cellular modem. 127 00:04:35,220 --> 00:04:37,680 This way, regardless of what kind of outage occurred, 128 00:04:37,680 --> 00:04:38,940 we had redundancy in place 129 00:04:38,940 --> 00:04:41,610 to maintain the continuity of our operations. 130 00:04:41,610 --> 00:04:42,630 Now, there are various types 131 00:04:42,630 --> 00:04:44,010 of redundancy that you need to consider 132 00:04:44,010 --> 00:04:46,200 when you're designing your systems and your networks. 133 00:04:46,200 --> 00:04:48,930 This includes server redundancy, data redundancy, 134 00:04:48,930 --> 00:04:51,570 network redundancy, and power redundancy. 135 00:04:51,570 --> 00:04:53,730 First, we have server redundancy. 136 00:04:53,730 --> 00:04:56,010 Server redundancy involves using multiple servers 137 00:04:56,010 --> 00:04:59,070 in a load balance or failover configuration, so that if one 138 00:04:59,070 --> 00:05:01,680 of those is overloaded or fails, the other servers 139 00:05:01,680 --> 00:05:04,860 can take over the load and continue to support your users. 140 00:05:04,860 --> 00:05:07,080 Second, we have data redundancy. 141 00:05:07,080 --> 00:05:10,200 Data redundancy involves storing data in multiple places. 142 00:05:10,200 --> 00:05:12,300 This way, if one storage site fails, 143 00:05:12,300 --> 00:05:15,090 the data can still be accessed from another location. 144 00:05:15,090 --> 00:05:18,870 Often we achieve this locally using raids or using a hybrid 145 00:05:18,870 --> 00:05:21,810 of on-premise and cloud-based backup systems. 146 00:05:21,810 --> 00:05:23,910 Third, we have network redundancy. 147 00:05:23,910 --> 00:05:25,320 Now, network redundancy ensures 148 00:05:25,320 --> 00:05:26,730 that if one network path fails, 149 00:05:26,730 --> 00:05:29,130 the data can still travel through another route. 150 00:05:29,130 --> 00:05:31,710 This is how I set up my old offices in Puerto Rico so that 151 00:05:31,710 --> 00:05:34,290 if the microwave link went down, we switched over to cable. 152 00:05:34,290 --> 00:05:35,460 If the cable went down, 153 00:05:35,460 --> 00:05:37,590 we switched over to cellular, and this way we 154 00:05:37,590 --> 00:05:39,240 could continue providing network connectivity 155 00:05:39,240 --> 00:05:40,770 to all of our users. 156 00:05:40,770 --> 00:05:43,320 Fourth and finally, we have power redundancy. 157 00:05:43,320 --> 00:05:46,020 Power redundancy involves using backup power sources, 158 00:05:46,020 --> 00:05:48,960 like generators and uninterrupted power supply systems 159 00:05:48,960 --> 00:05:50,550 to ensure that your organization's systems 160 00:05:50,550 --> 00:05:53,370 remain operational even during periods of power disruption 161 00:05:53,370 --> 00:05:56,100 or outages within your local service area. 162 00:05:56,100 --> 00:05:59,430 So remember, availability is used to ensure that the data 163 00:05:59,430 --> 00:06:02,280 and systems are always ready for use when they're needed. 164 00:06:02,280 --> 00:06:04,530 The principle of redundancy plays a pivotal role 165 00:06:04,530 --> 00:06:06,390 in guaranteeing this uninterrupted service 166 00:06:06,390 --> 00:06:08,670 and achieving your higher levels of availability. 167 00:06:08,670 --> 00:06:10,680 So you should associate the term availability 168 00:06:10,680 --> 00:06:13,440 with redundancy because they go hand in hand. 169 00:06:13,440 --> 00:06:15,030 In a world where time is money 170 00:06:15,030 --> 00:06:16,590 and every second is going to count, 171 00:06:16,590 --> 00:06:18,240 ensuring the constant availability 172 00:06:18,240 --> 00:06:20,460 of your services is not just beneficial, 173 00:06:20,460 --> 00:06:23,220 it's imperative for your organization's continued success 174 00:06:23,220 --> 00:06:24,483 in this digital age.