CAIRO, Egypt, 9th November, 2015: In the age of the
‘Always-On’ business, companies in Egypt are facing new demands from end
users including 24/7 access to data and applications and whom have no patience
for downtime or data loss, all this while grappling with an exponential data
growth of 30-50% per year. To cope with
these demands, many companies in the country today are building modern
datacentres and investing in server virtualization, modern storage applications
and cloud-based services, in pursuit of higher speeds, more efficient use of
existing resources and possible cost savings.
Gregg Petersen,
Regional Director, Middle East and SAARC, Veeam Software says that while this is definitely a step in
the right direction, the irony is that many areas of the data centre still rely
on legacy infrastructure and technologies which inhibit the network from
functioning at optimal levels and leads to data loss, longer recovery times,
unreliable data protection, a lack of transparency and the inability to analyze
IT traffic. According to the Veeam
Data Center Availability Report 2014, companies risk losing between $
4.4 million and $ 7.9 million in lost data and applications failures each year;
downtime can cost between $ 1.4 million and $ 2.3 billion a year in lost
revenue, reduced productivity and lost opportunities; the total annual cost of
downtime and data loss can reach more than $10 million a year. In addition to
these financial losses, there is the risk of damage to an organization’s
reputation; something that is very difficult to measure in pure financial terms
but can cripple an organization, setting it back years and putting it at a
decided disadvantage vis-a-vis the competition.
There
is clearly an availability gap between the requirements of an Always-On
infrastructure, and IT’s ability to effectively deliver availability. In fact,
82% of CIOs say there is a gap between the level of availability they provide
and what end users demand. One
of the keys to bridging this Availability Gap is modernizing the data centre,
paying special attention to Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery planning (BC/DR)
-- how to carry on operating even after a disaster. Unfortunately this is an
area that is often overlooked in large part because there is the misconception
that it can be very expensive – according to the 2014 report on ‘The State of Global Disaster Recovery
Preparedness’
published by the Disaster Recover Preparedness Council, three out of four
organizations are at risk of failing to recover from a disaster.
Evaluate Data Protection Needs
The first step
in implementing a successful BC/DR plan is evaluation – organizations need to
conduct a thorough risk assessment of the entire IT infrastructure and all services
that support business critical applications. The next step is to define the
Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs) for the
various business critical applications. For businesses to be considered
‘Always-On’, it is recommended that they target recovery time and point
objectives (RTPOs™) of less than 15 minutes for all applications and data.
A good business
continuity plan should include a ‘runbook’ or script that sets out exactly what
needs to be done, by whom and in what order. For example, an Exchange server
won’t connect unless Active Directory is running, so the organization knows
that it will need Active Directory before it can get email back. Once the
runbook is set up, much of the process can be automated so that key staff don’t
have to make important decisions in the heat and pressure of the moment.
Organizations will always want to ensure that the actual decision to fail over
to the disaster recovery plan is made by an actual human, preferably a C-level
executive, because once the decision is made to fail over it’s difficult to
rewind. That being said, once the big red button is pushed, automation, except
at a few key points, is extremely helpful.
Embrace DRaaS – The next Generation in Disaster Recovery
Solutions
For
comprehensive data protection and recovery, particularly in case of disasters,
organizations should follow the 3-2-1 rule; they should have three
copies of the data, stored on two different kinds of media, with one
of them stored offsite.
This
means that in addition to the primary date, organizations should have at least
two more backups as having more copies of the data reduces risk of losing the
data during a disaster. In terms of storing the data, organizations should keep
the copies of the data on at least two different storage types (such as
internal hard disk drives and removable storage media like tapes, external hard
drives, CDs, etc.) or on two internal hard disk drives in different locations.
Finally, while storing the data on different media is important and a good
start, it really isn’t a good idea to keep the external storage device in the
same room as the production storage in case of a catastrophe like a fire. It is
prudent to physically separate the copies and keep at least one offsite.
Specifically applied to Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS), the offsite
workload should be ready to go in a usable form. One way to meet that require
is with replicated workloads.
There are a
number of options available to organizations when it comes to deployment of DR
systems – organizations can either choose to deploy a secondary physical site (either
owned and manage by the organization or hosted by a service provider) or adopt
a DRaaS model. An overwhelming majority of organizations still prefer to use
secondary sites in large part driven by some of the prevailing misconceptions
that surround the cloud – lack of control, security and compatibility with
existing infrastructure. However as we continue to debunk the myths around the
cloud and organizations begin to understand the value of DRaaS, the adoption
levels will only rise.
There are four
key arguments in favour of DRaaS:
1. Increased flexibility
If an
organization chooses to have a physical secondary site for their DR services,
then it is essential that this site be a carbon copy of the primary production
site. This can be an extremely daunting task in of itself but even if done
properly, there is the burden of having to continuously monitor the systems to
ensure that they are synchronized. The advantage of DRaaS is that this
synchronization can be abstracted. Another advantage of DRaaS is that depending
on the disaster mode, the organization can select from a variety of options for
how to handle the different business systems.
Since most of
the processes are automated, opting for a DRaaS solution also frees up IT
resources and gives them the flexibility to focus on business critical
applications, that can yield tangible business benefits, rather than on support
functions.
2. Reduced Costs
Organizations
that choose to deploy physical secondary sites to support DR services have to
make a significant CapEX outlay associated with the physical infrastructure,
hardware and software licenses and regular maintenance. DRaaS on the other hand
works on a subscription/’pay-as-you-go’ model. Organizations only have to pay for
the services they uses which works out to be extremely cost effective,
particularly for smaller organizations that are cash strapped or for
organizations whose DR requirements might frequently scale up or down.
3. More Robust Testing
Regularly testing
the DR system is a key part of any BC/DR strategy. Unfortunately given the
synchronization issues with traditional DR systems, testing is both extremely
expensive and time consuming which is why most organizations opt to test their
DR systems annually if at all. DRaaS on the other hand gives organizations the
luxury of conducting more frequent (be it quarterly or half-yearly) testing
which increases the likelihood of efficient and successful recovery in case of
a disaster.
4. Rapid Recovery
As stated
earlier, in the era of the ‘Always-On’ business, any downtime, even if it is a
result of a natural disaster, can be catastrophic for an organization. If all
the servers are still physical, or if organizations are using data protection
tools designed for physical environments, the recovery process is still going
to be long and complex (often taking days). With DRaaS on the other hand, organizations
can recover data in a matter of hours if not minutes.
As businesses
begin to make the transition to ‘Always-On’, it is paramount that they
modernize the data centre and have a robust disaster recovery plan and
infrastructure in place. While this is a daunting task for many, the good news
is that organizations now have access to comprehensive cloud-based DR solutions
designed to empower the Always-On Business and keep critical apps
up-and-running, all while ensuring that complete visibility and control remains
at IT’s fingertips.