Resource Redundancy – A Staffing Factor using SFIA

Abstract

There are many technologies and associated protocols that can provide different levels of redundancy in order to ensure continuous twenty-four-seven network connectivity and associated corporate services. The basic design principle of redundancy is to ensure there is no single point of failure hence the use of additional resources (active/active; active/passive or active/standby) to take over when the active component fails. It is important to address all aspects of the IT infrastructure such as utilities, power supplies, switching fabric etc. Configurations with no single point of failure are able to offer an annual down time of 0.5 hours or less. A detailed analysis of a large corporate network clearly demonstrated that it conformed to ‘world’s best’ practice for a highly redundant network design. However, an analysis of their network staffing profiles clearly indicated the lack of a systematic approach to the provision of skill set redundancy. The authors recommend the use of the Skills Framework for an Information Age (SFIA) as a simple, quantifiable reference model for the more effective management of human assets.