Business Continuity Planning
Jade Star has a wide range of clients across New Zealand who rely on us to process their payrolls, manage their human resources data, and do it in a timely and reliable manner. We take this responsibility very seriously. We have a number of strategies in place to reduce the impact on clients, in the event of a disaster or other unforeseen adverse event.
Proven Track Record
In 2010, the Jade Star production environments were moved from Christchurch to Auckland, with the Christchurch datacentre becoming the secondary datacentre. The geographical separation between the majority of technical resources and the location of key customers means that we are able to provide a robust and resilient business continuity strategy.
We’re proud to say that Jade Star connectivity was maintained with no disruption to service through the Christchurch earthquakes of 2010 and 2011.
Primary & Secondary Servers
Jade Star resides on servers operated by Jade Software Corporation in Auckland. Jade maintains secondary servers in their Christchurch datacentre which mirrors the primary servers in Auckland.
The Auckland and Christchurch datacentres are connected through a secure, resilient private network that can operate across any telecommunication provider’s network.
Planned & Unplanned Outages
From time to time, Fusion5 need to schedule system outages. This may be for an application upgrades, system or environmental software upgrades, or hardware upgrades or maintenance.
You will be notified of planned outages in advance, and these outages will be scheduled outside core business hours.
In the event of an unplanned outage affecting the Auckland datacentre, Jade’s networking team will switch over to the Christchurch datacentre if the issue cannot be resolved in an acceptable timeframe.
Jade and Fusion5 are acutely aware that payroll is time critical and we endeavour to keep any disruption to an absolute minimum.
Backups
The Auckland and Christchurch servers have independent backup and data verification processes, with the respective backup media being stored securely off-site at each location.
Second and third generation backup cartridges are stored off-site and available for restore and roll forward if required.
In the event of a system restore, our system recovery procedures include disaster recovery services, automatic recovery, roll forward, and recovery from transaction logs.
Connecting to Jade Star
The majority of Jade Star clients use an internet connection to access the Jade Star servers, with a handful of clients using dedicated private lines or other non-internet-based network connections.
In the event that the Auckland datacentre is unavailable, those clients using internet-based connections will be automatically connected to the Christchurch servers.
Clients using non-internet connections will need to contact Fusion5 prior to the need arising to organise an alternate method of maintaining the Jade Star connection during an Auckland outage.
FAQs
As users save and update data in Jade Star, the information is replicated on the Christchurch server in as close to real time as possible.
In the event of the secondary servers in Christchurch coming online as the primary server, it is possible that some data may not be transferred but this is likely to be data entered within minutes of the Auckland server going offline.
The process of switching between the primary and secondary server can take approximately 30 minutes. However, we should point out that in the event of an unplanned outage, the technical teams need to investigate the cause and look to resolve the issue prior to deciding to switch servers as a last resort. During this investigation and switch-over time, the Jade Star environments may be unavailable.
Fusion5 will endeavour to keep clients informed of progress by email where possible.
Internet-based connections to Jade Star are dependent on your client network and internet connection being available.
In the event that your own network and / or internet connection are unavailable, you should contact your IT provider to arrange an alternative connection.
Yes, direct and File Handler printing will continue to be available.
Direct Printing
Direct printing means that the local printer is selected as a report is being run — the output is not available through the File Handler.
File Handler
File Handler printing uses the ‘Defer Immediate Printing’ output option and the output is available for later printing.
Yes, the Jade Star Self Service application will also be available through the secondary server in Christchurch and will be accessible through your internet / network connection.
