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Home > Data Center Tips > > Disaster recovery strategies: Should you outsource, manage in-house or partner? |
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Disaster recovery strategies: Should you outsource, manage in-house or partner?
Richard Jones, VP and Service Director for Data Center Strategies, Burton Group
11.20.2008
Rating: -3.67- (out of 5)
Your disaster recovery (DR) plan is coming together. You haven't, however, chosen a recovery site. As with most corporations, your DR plan calls for recovery time objectives that rule out the use of a cold site. So you are faced with a few choices for a DR site: do it yourself, outsource to a DR provider, or collaborate with a partner. I've seen all three options work well for organizations, but the best option for yours depends on your needs and the requirements of each choice.
Let's take a look at each option in turn and its requirements. Whether you do it yourself, collaborate, or go the DR-solution-for-hire path, the physical location of your DR site should be far enough away from your production site that both are not compromised in a large scale event such as a hurricane.
Do-it-yourself disaster recovery
Most large enterprises have multiple data centers spread around the world. Most often using existing data center properties for DR proves the most economical path. Existing infrastructure between the sites and IT staff familiarity is a bonus. Most larger enterprises are in the process of or have finished leveraging virtualization to consolidate their many data centers into fewer data centers. This leaves facilities available to be utilized as DR centers. In the tech tip How many data centers are sufficient for disaster recovery? Two, three, or more?
I discussed the optimal number of data centers that global enterprises should consider for DR purposes.
If you have existing data center facilities, make sure to explore these considerations:
If your answers to these questions indicate that existing facilities will meet your needs, then do-it-yourself is your answer. One last point to consider is the size/cost of the existing facility after a virtualization consolidation project. I have talked to several IT organizations that saw a dramatic decrease in space, power, and cooling requirements after they virtualized and consolida
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ted their data centers to the tune of a 10-fold decrease. Their DR facilities were so large that it was less expensive for them to sell their oversized facility and build a newer, smaller facility; collaborate with a partner; or purchase space at a colocation facility.
Outsource your disaster recovery plan
DR outsourcing firms such as SunGard and IBM abound in the market. Many local hosting or colocation firms offer DR as an entrée item on their menu. Most DR providers offer value-added services to help you in building your DR solution and performing ongoing testing.
Many small to medium businesses (SMBs) utilize hosting and/or colocation facilities for their production IT operations. If your organization falls into this category, you will be best off utilizing your provider for DR as well, assuming your provider offers this service through use of another physically-distant facility.
If you have decided to outsource your DR solution, here are some provider requirements you must consider:
In selecting a DR provider, you must absolutely check the providers' references. I've been surprised at the number of IT organizations that have told me they were dissatisfied with well-known DR outsourcing providers, and much happier after switching to another provider.
Collaborate with a partner on a disaster recovery planning
I have seen a growing trend in two or more companies partnering with each other for DR. In one case, a larger organization owned a 19% stake in one of their key distributors. The two collaborated and used extra space in each other's data centers as DR facilities. This example was between two partners in private industry.
More common has been DR collaboration between higher educational institutions, government agencies and healthcare providers. Both data center sharing and joint funding of DR facilities offer cost savings to the partnership.
Before embarking on such a partnership, here are some requirements for success:
Lastly, if you have a DR facility in place already, you should review its applicability to your business continuity requirements on an annual basis. You may find that making a change can improve your service levels, reduce your costs or both. In today's economic environment, attaining cost savings through a different DR solution from the one you currently use is in order.
Do you agree with this tip? Contact Site Editor Matt Stansberry with your data center concerns and feedback.
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