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Building a disaster recovery architecture with cloud and colocation
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Article
Disaster recovery in cloud offers opportunity, but not without risk
Disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) provides IT with a cheaper alternative to traditional DR, but cloud-based backup also poses new challenges, such as the potential for unavailability after a major disaster and the need for increased network bandwidth. Read Now
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Article
For IT business continuity, is colocation or cloud the right choice?
To make the right decision regarding IT business continuity, weigh the arguments for both colocation and cloud. For example, colocation might be more expensive in the long run, but in the cloud, you run the risk of a provider cutting corners. Read Now
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Article
Cloud, virtualization bring IT service continuity to wider base
Traditional methods for DR and IT continuity, such as using a mirrored data center, can quickly drive up costs. Evaluate tools to manage workload transfers, and incorporate cloud or virtualization, to make a more affordable IT service continuity plan for your business. Read Now
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Article
Public cloud and managed colocation offer different DR perks
Server management and quick access to data are two benefits for businesses when shifting disaster recovery to cloud or managed colocation -- but there are distinct differences between the two. Examine both options to make the right call. Read Now
Editor's note
Viewed as a long-term IT insurance plan, disaster recovery has for years been a focal point for businesses. And, as more enterprise workloads move off-site, organizations are building a disaster recovery architecture with cloud and colocation to meet their specific needs.
But before getting started, evaluate the pros and cons of using cloud vs. colocation for disaster recovery, including geographic distance, business continuity options and overall costs.
Also, given the risks of outages and increased downtime that keeps IT out of the loop, it's important to plan and test your disaster recovery architecture -- whether using cloud, colocation or another model -- before a problem occurs. Learn from the mistakes of others and continuously improve your plan to meet the growing needs of the business.
1Manage disaster recovery policies and costs
Whether you use cloud or colocation for your disaster recovery architecture -- or even a secondary data center -- it's crucial to carefully review and manage DR policies, and to keep DR costs in check. Can costs be reduced with other measures, such as streamlined testing? What are your organization's recovery time objectives and recovery point objectives? Investigate where your DR strategy is working, and which areas can be boosted to create a safer plan in the event of a disaster.
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Article
Cost remains primary IT concern around DR
DR is largely viewed as an insurance policy by business executives, but cost is still a primary concern when rolling out a DR strategy. DR expert Michael Herrera explains why this disconnect continues to exist. Read Now
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Article
Data center emergency reinforces importance of DR policies
A serious data center emergency, such as a fire, proves how crucial disaster recovery policies are to an organization. To prepare for any nightmare scenario, examine the DR policies your company has in place, including the plan to transfer operations to a backup DR site. Read Now
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Article
Disaster recovery report highlights six faulty areas
Following a data center disaster, a DR report outlining key failure points can help avoid major problems in the future. Here are six issues discovered, ranging from poor facility design to faulty cooling systems, in one real-world example. Read Now
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Article
Automate a node failover system for faster app restarts
To restart applications as quickly as possible after a node fails in the data center, consider automating a failover system. Eliminate manual intervention and implement automation scripts to accelerate the restart process. Read Now
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Article
Explore options to increase business continuity on mainframes
Building a DR and business continuity plan for mainframe applications can pose unique challenges. Consider partnering with a mainframe outsourcing partner or redesigning workloads for x86 servers, where possible. Read Now
2Big-name companies suffer big time after DR policies fail
Outages at companies including Delta Air Lines and Verizon shined a bright light on what happens to a business when its disaster recovery architecture fails. Learn how missteps ranging from a lack of redundancy to hardware failures can spark an outage -- and why a disaster recovery plan needs to be ironed out beforehand to prevent downtime.
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Article
Time-sensitive data center outages offer silver lining for DR future
Software and hardware failures can cause data center outages that impact the bottom line at major companies -- but they're also an opportunity to learn. Explore the causes of an outage at Bloomberg, and what they taught IT pros about duplication and consistency. Read Now
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Article
JetBlue, Verizon downtime emphasizes importance of DR
After a Verizon data center power failure knocked out JetBlue for multiple hours, other companies should look into their backup policies and uninterruptable power supply, and learn from this mistake. Read Now
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Article
Major downtime at Delta sparks bigger disaster recovery questions
Outdated systems and a lack of redundancy grounded Delta Air Lines' IT systems in August 2016. Conduct DR planning and testing, and be cautious with legacy applications, to stay away from problems like this. Read Now
3Disaster recovery terms to know
Know the vocabulary associated with disaster recovery to have a deeper understanding of everything that surrounds the topic.
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Definition
disaster recovery (DR)
Disaster recovery strategies are critical, as many businesses fail following an unforeseen event. DR may require an internal or external site when a main data center is down. Read Now
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Definition
disaster recovery plan (DRP)
A company's disaster recovery policy is enhanced with a documented DR plan that formulates strategies, and outlines preparation work and testing. Read Now
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Definition
business continuity (BC)
Business continuity is the ability of an organization to maintain essential functions during, as well as after, a disaster has occurred. Read Now
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Definition
business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR)
Business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) are closely related practices that describe an organization's preparation for unforeseen risks to continued operations. Read Now
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Definition
backup
Backup refers to the copying of physical or virtual files or databases to a secondary location for preservation in case of equipment failure or catastrophe. Read Now
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Definition
public cloud
A public cloud is one based on the standard cloud computing model, in which a service provider makes resources, such as virtual machines (VMs), applications or storage, available to the general public over the internet. Read Now
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Definition
Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS)
Disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) is the replication and hosting of physical or virtual servers by a third party to provide failover in the event of a man-made or natural catastrophe. Read Now
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Definition
recovery time objective (RTO)
The recovery time objective (RTO) is the maximum tolerable length of time that a computer, system, network, or application can be down after a failure or disaster occurs. Read Now
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Definition
recovery point objective (RPO)
The recovery point objective (RPO) is the age of files that must be recovered from backup storage for normal operations to resume if a computer, system, or network goes down as a result of a hardware, program, or communications failure. Read Now
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Definition
colocation (colo)
A colocation (colo) is a data center facility in which a business can rent space for servers and other computing hardware. Typically, a colo provides the building, cooling, power, bandwidth and physical security while the customer provides servers and storage. Read Now