Protecting Content During Business Disruption

A Florida Court System Prepares for the Worst
Florida’s 13th Judicial Circuit Court is located in a hurricane-vulnerable area, and weather could potentially interrupt court proceedings for days or even weeks. The Circuit has undertaken disaster planning initiatives that assure legal procedures continue as normal in the event of unforeseen interruptions.

First, the Judicial Circuit undertook a massive effort to digitize the copious documents that it generates. The Circuit has regularly imaged volumes of documents on Xerox multifunction devices for several years. Now, the digitized content is being integrated into a DocuShare ECM system, enabling secure storage and quick retrieval. Recognizing the importance of keeping documents in one central location that can expand as needed, the Judicial Circuit has implemented a storage area network (SAN) that allocates a full terabyte of storage for documents managed in DocuShare, and an additional 500 gigabytes for legacy documents on a DocuShare archive server. A Windows clustered environment protects the services with hardware failover, with DocuShare servers running in a cluster and their SQL Server database in a separate cluster. The content management system is also integrated with Omtool’s Accuroute middleware, which allows digitized documents to be faxed in as well as scanned.

Also, the judicial district is placing high priority on creating a duplicate system, at a remote location where not just DocuShare but other critical IT services will be able to roll over and continue in the event of not just storm damage but any circumstance that may close the court for more than one day.

As shown in the diagram (Page S7, Risk Management, Governance and Compliance, KMWorld Supplement, July/August 2008, or download the PDF) the Circuit’s failover system contains a duplicate SAN that supports regular backup of all critical court documentation and imaged documents in DocuShare. Should a hurricane strike and temporarily immobilize the district (or in the worst case destroy any IT infrastructure), the judicial court will not lose access to its critical documents and historical court records, and will be less likely to suffer long-term interruptions in business. And with a duplicate SAN, once the central court location is up and running again, the two locations may be "synced" overnight and all processes switched back to the original location quickly. In addition to backing up documents in the remote location, the judicial district is looking into other IT services that will allow continuing legal processes even if the central location is down—including running court proceedings over the network with audio-visual technology, and re-directing phone and IP telephony to the remote system. All servers are under management of a security services provider, Presidio Network Solutions. Employees are being trained to operate systems virtually, showing the Circuit’s commitment to preparedness.

In short, the 13th Judicial Circuit’s disaster recovery plans acknowledge that everything in court systems is time-critical—and its provisions for full replication of the content system reflect an understanding that documents are at the heart of its day-to-day proceedings.