Many organizations consider the chance of a disaster occurring to be minimal but the reality is that disasters can and do happen. Disaster recovery is the process an organization uses to recover access to their software, data, and/or hardware that are needed to resume the performance of normal, critical business functions after the event of either a natural disaster or a disaster caused by humans. Disaster recovery planning doesn’t have to be time- or cost-prohibitive, especially if you make cloud-based disaster recovery part of your overall plan.
Data backup, replication and disaster recovery (DR) are often, mistakenly, used interchangeably. Let’s start first by saying that neither data backup nor data replication constitutes a DR plan. Second, data backups involve data recovery but not disaster recovery. Third, replication has everything to do with DR, but there are many more components to a quality disaster recovery plan.
Data backup, replication and disaster recovery (DR) are often, mistakenly, used interchangeably. Let’s start first by saying that neither data backup nor data replication constitutes a DR plan. Second, data backups involve data recovery but not disaster recovery. Third, replication has everything to do with DR, but there are many more components to a quality disaster recovery plan.
Back it All Up
Many iON Management cloud customers rely on us to back up their data according to predefined time windows and to provide ongoing retention. iON Management will back up customer data on iON hardware, manage data backup on customer-provided hardware, rotate tapes and manage customer’s backup library, or replicate data to alternate sites as needed. It takes 30 seconds for iON to perform a complete backup.
Data backup is making a copy of your data files. It is a scheduled event recording all changes to your data. The backup is often made onto physical hard drive, disk or to a virtual tape library (VTL) that is kept offsite. Backup serves multiple purposes:
Data backup is making a copy of your data files. It is a scheduled event recording all changes to your data. The backup is often made onto physical hard drive, disk or to a virtual tape library (VTL) that is kept offsite. Backup serves multiple purposes:
- To retrieve the lost or damaged critical data without interrupting company workflow
- Rebuilding the server in its entirety during disaster recovery
- Adhering to critical compliance requirements
The Limitations of Backup
Relying only on backup is similar to using a shovel to dig the foundation of a house. Both are possible, but the methods are slow and time-consuming. Depending on the amount of data, size of bandwidth and the performance of the disk, a lone backup may take an hour or, in some cases, more than 24 hours. Restoring that much data during a disaster will be a painfully slow process.
Additional factors also need to be considered in deciding whether backup is sufficient to restore your business in a timely fashion.
Additional factors also need to be considered in deciding whether backup is sufficient to restore your business in a timely fashion.
- If you have strict compliance requirements and don’t restore data as quickly as required, your company may pay penalties.
- Hurrying the data restoration process often results in coding errors, which can result in further downtime.
- The rest of your workforce will be in limbo, unable to work while the data is restored.
- Customers can become frustrated, lose confidence in your company and possibly go elsewhere if they are unable to get online access for purchases, support, services or information.
How Much Backup is Enough?
Recovery requirements are measured by the following metrics:
- Recovery Point Objective (RPO) – the age of the data you want the ability to restore in the event of a business interruption. This answers the question “How much data can you lose?”
- Recovery Time Objective (RTO) – the time needed to recover from a business interruption. This answers the question “How long can this application/function be down?”
Replicate the Critical
Data replication involves copying and moving data to another location, typically in real time or near-real time. Doing this for all of an organization’s data would be extremely expensive, which is why replication is reserved for only the most essential applications, processes and data, for keeping a business up and running in the event of disaster.
A key component of a data replication strategy is to define recovery time objectives (RTO) and recovery point objectives (RPO)
iON Management provides customers with solutions according to their needs, tailoring the most cost-effective and efficient means possible to achieve their objectives. Using industry best-practice software and procedures, iON will manage data replication between one or more pairs of Windows or Linux servers. This includes asynchronous, near-synchronous and synchronous replication. iON’s Recovery Cloud employs continuous data protection (CDP) versus scheduled replication happening a few times a day, which results in less data loss in the event of a failure.
A key component of a data replication strategy is to define recovery time objectives (RTO) and recovery point objectives (RPO)
iON Management provides customers with solutions according to their needs, tailoring the most cost-effective and efficient means possible to achieve their objectives. Using industry best-practice software and procedures, iON will manage data replication between one or more pairs of Windows or Linux servers. This includes asynchronous, near-synchronous and synchronous replication. iON’s Recovery Cloud employs continuous data protection (CDP) versus scheduled replication happening a few times a day, which results in less data loss in the event of a failure.
Equipped to Recover, But Ready?
Data replication and RTO/RPO are essential to an effective DR plan, but that is not all that is required. Replication means only that you have a copy of company-critical information available to you and that you have the raw material for declaring an emergency and consequently enacting a comprehensive DR plan. In turn, a DR plan will be a component of a larger business continuity (BC) plan, which is becoming a regulatory compliance necessity in some industries such as healthcare.
A huge benefit of DRaaS is that it affords the ability to regularly test your DR plan, which is one of the most ignored aspects of self-provided DR planning. Once you have defined your RPO and RTO, tested your plan and clearly defined the parameters necessary to declare an emergency, the rest happens automatically with DRaaS. This includes another frequently overlooked aspect of DR … failing back to the production site once the emergency has passed.
Understanding that the nature and purpose of backup, replication and DR are complementary but not interchangeable IT functions will help you design and implement the right combination of each to the advantage of your entire organization. It’s the business requirements that define how you construct your backup and DR plan.
A huge benefit of DRaaS is that it affords the ability to regularly test your DR plan, which is one of the most ignored aspects of self-provided DR planning. Once you have defined your RPO and RTO, tested your plan and clearly defined the parameters necessary to declare an emergency, the rest happens automatically with DRaaS. This includes another frequently overlooked aspect of DR … failing back to the production site once the emergency has passed.
Understanding that the nature and purpose of backup, replication and DR are complementary but not interchangeable IT functions will help you design and implement the right combination of each to the advantage of your entire organization. It’s the business requirements that define how you construct your backup and DR plan.
The DRaas Option
An alternative to relying solely on backup is to go with a DRaaS provider to ensure your business needs are met. DRaaS works much like insurance. You hope you don’t have to ever use it. But if you ever have a catastrophic event at your company and your servers go down, you are covered. Your business will quickly be up and running in the cloud. You know this, because it’s a disaster strategy designed specifically for you, rehearsed with you, and it is routinely tested for problems. You make your declaration and failover to the cloud where:
- Mission critical production is restored in a matter of hours
- Your staff and customers can keep doing business throughout the DR process
- Backups help restore the entirety of your data with minimal data losses
Conclusion
DR planning should never be a foreign language, and to that point, backup and DR no longer translate into one and the same thing. Backup is a component of DR, but DR uses far more tools, and more modern tools. It also includes planning and testing your strategy regularly, to ensure you have continuous and comprehensive data protection, rapid recovery times in the event of disaster, all in an environment that supports your compliance needs.
In 5 minutes iON Management can do a complete restore, and in only 30 seconds we can do a complete backup
Contact us at iON Management now to learn about our Disaster Recover as a service
If you have questions or would like to set up a free consultation contact
By Phone
904.203.1369
|
By Email |