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If you’re a disaster recovery professional -- or even if you’re responsible for some of your company’s corporate data assets -- protecting information against extreme circumstances is an important part of the job. While they may not happen very often, fires, earthquakes, hurricanes, floods and other catastrophic events can cost companies millions and bring business to a screeching halt; so being prepared for them just makes sense.
That being said, focusing solely on rarely-occurring catastrophes is a mistake. In reality, smaller, day-to-day data losses can be almost as disruptive to the health of a business, if not as dramatic in their scope.
Smaller data disasters happen every day, and over time they make a significant impact. While losing one spreadsheet or coping with a server crash may not seem like a big deal, businesses rise or fall on how well they deal with these everyday problems. After all, when employees need access to key files or servers to get their jobs done, every minute counts.
More Access, More Quickly
In the past, planning for major catastrophes was good enough. Particularly within small companies, managers accepted the smaller, daily data losses that happened from time to time, and weren’t particularly worried about the consequences. If it took hours to restore a system or recover a file, so be it. While these small disruptions had negative effects, some of which rippled out through the business, few disaster recovery specialists or IT managers demanded more of their systems.
Increasingly, however, even small businesses have begun to expect 24/7 access to data -- or as close to 24/7 as your IT staff can achieve. And if key systems go down or important day-to-day files are corrupted, managers expect their IT staff to get things straightened out very quickly. While constant access used to be a luxury for large firms with million-dollar data centers, today it’s a business necessity for companies of all sizes.
To make this happen, businesses have to have a well-configured Rapid Recovery system in place, one that can restore not only lost or corrupted files, but also the applications, passwords and permissions needed to fully restore the digital infrastructure.
Companies need to establish an architecture that allows secure, ongoing backups of critical data without bogging down networks and servers. They need to make sure that the data is protected against larger-scale disasters. And they need to make sure that they can restore current data promptly. Solutions that tie up network resources with long backup windows, expose data to theft and corruption, or keep companies waiting for data restores just don’t do the trick.
Building a Rapid Recovery System
To build a Rapid Recovery system, companies should focus on making recent, fresh data available, rather than trying to offer access to every data asset. In fact, most companies have found that recovering 45 to 60 days worth of historical data gets them right back on their feet, enabling them to be back in business.
To bank this recent, business critical data, many companies are choosing to establish a disk-to-disk backup system rather than tape storage. While tape shines as a long-term, archival storage medium, it was never intended to serve as a Rapid Recovery medium. D2D, on the other hand, is best for restoring data and applications at a moment’s notice.
For one thing, when a partial data restore is necessary, disks can jump to whatever data is needed, and restore it right away, while tapes must spool out until they reach the right point. Also, D2D mirroring can back up data quickly and efficiently, copying data incrementally and merging it instantly. Not only that, D2D data backup systems are typically configured as a RAID array, allowing very fast throughput for backup and restore of data.
Perhaps most importantly, D2D solutions allows administrators to take a “bare metal” snapshot of a server, protecting not only the core operating system, but the passwords, permissions and settings needed to fully restore it to full operation. While restoring data is critical, data alone is not enough to get businesses going again if a server has failed, which is why technology initiatives such as Continuous Data Protection are not enough for companies. Restoring a server calls for a more sophisticated snapshot of a server’s operations. Think of it as the three legs of a stool; if one leg is missing, the stool won’t work. And neither will your computer system.
A true, complete disaster recovery plan also requires that companies store data offsite, in a place that lessens its chance of being destroyed by natural or human disasters or compromised by intruders. Traditional methods of storing data backups offsite, such as shipping tapes by courier, can be done, but a spate of recent news stories have revealed how vulnerable the data is to being stolen or lost. Numerous firms have had to publicly disclose the loss of valuable information being shipped offsite by tape. Rather than take this risk, companies can direct backups to electronic vaults far away from the company’s primary location, using digital rather than physical transportation of data. This data must be encrypted in flight, however, to lessen the risk of it being compromised.
Assembling the Solution
To build a complete Rapid Recovery system, companies have several alternatives, including pre-packaged products and piece-by-piece solutions. If you assemble the system yourself, you gain some control, but run the risk of finger pointing when, not if, something goes wrong. The basic premise that all machines ultimately fail also holds true for those machines designed to protect you when they fail. An integrated Rapid Recovery system, for its part, is engineered to work effectively as a whole; integrated hardware and software from one manufacturer increases the reliability and provides a single point of reference when help is needed.
A true Rapid Recovery system must include several key elements to deliver a comprehensive, affordable recovery solution that allows them to get back in business quickly:
1. Backup/recovery software
2. Disk-to-disk mirroring
3. High-speed networking
4. Onsite/offsite facilities
5. Electronic data vaulting
6. Point-in-time recovery
7. Multi-OS support
8. Integrated data encryption
Fortunately, the cost of an integrated system as outlined above, designed for SMEs, can run less than $10,000. This solution is far more comprehensive than standard data backups, and offers far more protection when a disaster inevitably occurs. An integrated Rapid Recovery system can restore not only data, but the specific configuration data that makes your system unique.
Picking Your Target
Ultimately, if you want to establish a true Rapid Recovery system -- one that can deal with calamities large and small -- it comes down to picking the right target. Rapid Recovery isn’t just difficult; it’s nearly impossible if your data is out of reach in a never-never land offsite. With tape as a primary storage target, backup data will always be hours out of reach, or else risk being destroyed when crises hit.
Without a doubt, however, tape-based solutions should and will continue to be an integral part of most companies’ disaster recovery strategy. Tape is affordable, durable and tested over time, and when it is used for long-term archival storage, can be a very effective solution. In fact, it’s probably the best solution available.
However, when it comes to establishing a Rapid Recovery solution, it’s critical to implement a system that is designed to work at digital speed -- an adaptable, scalable and durable solution that puts data at a company’s fingertips. Tape was never intended to play such a role, and simply does not do the job required of a primary target in a Rapid Recovery system.
In short, disk-to-disk technology simply must be at the core of your Rapid Recovery system if you want to address disasters both big and small. Even if you agree that today’s tape is far better than it used to be, companies that continue to depend on tape as their primary way of protecting and recovering their data are unlikely to get back in business as quickly as they’d like.
Conclusion
In the last several years, major disasters have focused companies’ attention on the immediate need for a true disaster recovery plan. Rapid Recovery is at the heart of this need, for small and mid-sized enterprises as well as much larger firms. The benefits are significant, as companies must protect their data at all costs; failure to plan for this can be disastrous. But to overlook the daily disasters that routinely hit companies can have more immediate, and equally severe, consequences.
Companies have the opportunity; they also have the responsibility to implement a Rapid Recovery system that addresses the full range of disaster recovery requirements, both onsite and offsite. Those that do so will be able to operate in a more secure manner. Those that do not, for whatever reason, may live in constant concern: What happens if? What happens next?
About the Author:
Mark Phillippi is Vice President of Technology & Product Management for Unitrends.
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