Why are most disaster recovery systems inadequate?
Preventable data loss measures, such as backing up data on a removable drive, may just not be practical for some businesses. Likewise, a portable drive shares the same vulnerabilities of being exposed to the elements, or otherwise damaged, lost, or stolen as laptops. Plus, many portable drives have limited security. Proprietary storage replication and storage grids are costly and may limit network performance, though during a disaster a limited network is superior to no network. It is important to know how many servers there are and space availability, as well as how and where they are configured. A system of this sort is usually located close enough to drive to and preferably it pulls power from a separate grid. The adequacy of this sort of set-up depends greatly upon the severity and scope of the disaster.
What is the solution?
Some managers may be leery of utilizing secure public Internet-based back-up or storage virtualization, since ‘secure’ and ‘public’ may be viewed as an oxymoron. Data storage is often outsourced as an alternative to purchasing extra equipment or space that may never be utilized. The outsourced vendor is then responsible for the management of day-to-day data storage as well as restoring systems and files for potentially displaced customers.
The storage virtualization software creates a big storage pool out of separate hard drives. It finds and utilizes more capacity where it can find it, eliminating the need to monitor individual drive usage. This cloud storage system increases efficiency and eliminates underutilization by allowing files to be stored wherever there is room, either on premises or in a private movable cloud
Hard drives loaded with virtualization software can even be added or replaced without downtime for reconfiguration. This is accomplished through mirroring data by keeping a redundant, constantly backed-up copy available and accessible while synchronizing databases. In case of hardware failure, data can be transferred to new storage equipment or moved to a remote site or spread across multiple sites. These sites can be located safely out of harm’s way, on the other side of the globe.
At the time of recovery, the affected servers are reconfigured and reconnected via a dedicated fiber director. This allows the servers to ‘see’ the storage area network (SAN) in the company’s shared server pool. Once the affected servers are brought back online and made available, the company is back in business.
These capabilities allow businesses 24/7 availability even in the midst of disaster. And all of this is accomplished, ideally, without missing a single order.
John Cantu is a project manager at ATW Management Inc., North Texas. Reach him at [email protected] or (281) 931-8400.