Recoverability -- from the application up

From backup systems to disaster recovery plans, the underlying intent of all spending in the recoverability area is to ensure that, in the event of data loss, the business can be recovered and resumed in some agreed timeframe. Yet it's more common that the testing performed to validate the integrity of these systems is focused on the success of the backup system, rather than truly testing the recoverability of the critical business element, that is, the application. With applications becoming larger and more tightly integrated, it's now common for applications to be spread across multiple servers with underlying databases spread across multiple storage systems. It's also not unusual that the data is protected by multiple differing recoverability techniques. In the event of a failure, a series of disciplines needs to combine with a synchronization in timing to ensure that the application can be recovered fully to a known state at a known time in an acceptable timeframe. It's no longer as simple as grabbing a few backup tapes and away we go.

Richard Scannell, Vice President of Corporate Development and Strategy, GlassHouse Technologies, Inc., examines this issue of application recoverability. Drawing from some practical case studies he demonstrates or outlines:

• The complexities that organizations are unwittingly creating which, while sometimes necessary, must be managed to ensure application recoverability
• How all the data can successfully be recovered in a failure resulting in an application with an inconsistent state
• Techniques to map these issues out and proactively deal with them.

Check out our resources on Disaster Recovery Planning.

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