(8-Oct-10) No data center is exempt from disaster. The truth is disasters happen all the time, caused by such things as human error, system breakdowns, and natural disasters. Worst of all, you never know if or when it will happen to you. The main question is: Are you ready for a disaster if it happens to your data center? Part of being ready for a disaster in the enterprise is knowing how to test a disaster plan and also how often you should test it. Here are a few suggestions to help you prepare for when disaster strikes.
James Quin, lead research analyst with Info-Tech Research Group, says a disaster plan should be a priority in any data center. Quin says disaster preparedness ensures that the IT operations of an enterprise are able to recover from some form of outage-inducing interruption. “Given that enterprises these days are essentially completely reliant on their IT operations to perform their business operations, the ability to recover from such outages means that they are able to continue to operate as a viable functioning business,” Quin says. (For tips on what to include in your disaster recovery plan, turn to “Disaster Recovery Planning” on page 8.)
According to Steven Rodin, CEO of Storagepipe Solutions (www.storagepipe.com), a number of trends are pushing the increasing need for data center disaster planning. First, Rodin says data is growing at an alarming rate; in fact, many companies are reporting data growth rates of 50% or more per year. Secondly, he says the current trend for business is moving toward a geographically dispersed, 24/7 service model. “Customers want to submit purchase orders online, pay bills online, and access their accounts through customer-facing online portals from anywhere, at any time,” he says. “The productivity cost of unplanned downtime is increasing, and so is the revenue cost from lost transactions and service failure.”