Asking and learning, what does it take to become Sarbanes-Oxley compliant, and can tools help?
I’ve been doing a lot of research lately for a couple of white papers about Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, mostly centered around backup and recovery of databases. In my research I’ve been talking to BMC DBAs about what tools they’re using, and I am really interested in all I’m hearing at the BMC Forum about real-life implementations of compliance efforts. It sounds like tools really can be a help, although you also have to ensure everyone’s following the policies and not using the tools outside of the policies. Check.
This afternoon I attended Ronnie Docherty’s session about BMC CONTROL-M and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance. BMC CONTROL-M is an enterprise-wide batch scheduling solution that lets you monitor, manage, and automate all job scheduling. No small feat, I say.
I learned that the BMC CONTROL-M product has a neat replay feature that lets you go back and view a previous (stored) configuration and view what the batch processing did at that particular point in time. Basically, you can store historical job flows, which graphically show all jobs that have been run, and then, you can replay the events by simulating the application environment at a point in time. Operations management folks and your external auditors can validate past production runs using this feature.
I’m learning good stuff, meeting cool people, and now it’s time to enjoy the Heavenly Bed at the Westin and watch The Daily Show. Good night.
Edited to add:
You can sign up for Ronnie’s next presentation at http://www.bulldogsolutions.net/BMCSoftware/BMC10262005/. Here’s the information.
Sarbanes-Oxley and Operations Management—A Guide to Compliance Survival
Date: Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Time: 11:00 AM Pacific | 2:00 PM Eastern
Duration: 1 Hour