Disaster Recovery Journal

there is a considerable disconnect between technology adoption and the evolution of contingency planning that should be accompanying it.

IT managers have catching up to do when it comes to preparing their virtualized and cloud-based infrastructures for disasters, but it isn’t just a matter of educating themselves; it’s equally challenging to find the right back-up solutions to suit such complex, hybrid environments. In fact, an overwhelming 76 percent of those surveyed by the Disaster Recovery Index agreed that an integrated (physical, virtual, cloud) solution would be the best way to improve their backup and disaster recovery operations. The lives of IT managers are difficult enough with network technologies evolving at light-speed, so it makes sense that having a seamless management platform would be a priority to help put on the brakes and take control of their data. New realities of IT, including Big Data, virtualization, and cloud, mean that comprehensive, integrated backup and disaster recovery solutions are in order if companies hope to stay up and running when worst comes to worst.

Why Back Up? Big Data and
Beyond

Not only is data growing more plentiful, it is growing in importance. It’s difficult to think of any type of organization that doesn’t rely on data for some aspect of its daily operations. Now that virtualization and cloud are becoming the new norms, backing up data to magnetic tape for storage at off-site locations isn’t adequate anymore. Big Data necessitates far-reaching, but also lean and efficient, backup and disaster recovery solutions.

Ultimately, organizations have to start thinking seriously about how the trends of Big Data, virtualization, and cloud environments impact their disaster recovery processes and how new technologies can actually help them evolve their contingency plans. Even though virtualization and cloud are complicating infrastructures, they are also providing great new back-up and recovery solutions due to their flexible, scalable nature, and ability to transfer and image data at extremely high speeds. Hybrid backup and disaster recovery solutions are not only the best answer to hybrid IT environments, they also provide an

overall layer of data security unattainable with simple physical backups. Because virtual and cloud backups don’t have to be manually managed off-site and can be easily automated, IT managers can rest more easily knowing that they truly have a “back-up plan” that doesn’t require extra hands on deck.

So why back up? The question seems almost ridiculous in today’s age of natural disasters, cyber attacks, and human error, all of which contribute to IT downtime and pose a lethal threat to business continuity, especially as companies are more reliant than ever on access to their large stores of data. Embracing a contingency plan that includes not only traditional tape backups but also regularly maintained virtual and even cloud-based backups is paramount to protecting any organization’s business continuity and profitability. Despite this, businesses are still slipping with backup and disaster recovery, and finding an adequate backup solution is proving increasingly difficult in today’s age, when data and technological complexity are both growing at exponential rates.

Still, there are bright spots on the horizon. Businesses are reacting to the very real dangers to their data, and 65 percent of companies are testing their backups more regularly than last year, according to the Disaster Recovery Index. So while backup and disaster recovery are becoming more of a strategic business concern recently, IT managers need to make sure they are confident in their ability to protect data across hybrid infrastructure – and that means giving physical, virtual, and cloud-based environments equal attention. Volumes of data, and the new hybrid infrastructures in which they are being stored and processed, are the biggest factors shaping backup and disaster recovery trends today. So when the earth rumbles, instead of running for cover, be prepared with backups that cover all your bases.

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Seth Goodling is the virtualization practice manager at Acronis, where he is responsible for driving business development, sales and marketing initiatives to aggressively grow the reach of Acronis’ solutions for virtualized environments. Goodling has more than 14 years of experience in the I T industry, and is an active evangelist, undertaking numerous speaking roles, press engagements and live presentations to educate small businesses about virtualization, disaster recovery and business continuity best practices.

DATA CENTER DESIGN
Five Data
Center Tips
for Business
Continuity
Planning

By SUNIL CHERIAN

Business continuity planning (BCP) should cover an organi- zation’s ability to avoid major business disruption from a disaster while addressing the principal concerns of business risk mitigation and protecting and preventing lost data. Business transactions delivered from the data center pose major challenges to business continuity.

Data center infrastructure and the networks that support it play a prominent role in automating business processes and communication across the organization, customers, partners, suppliers, and regulators to ensure the organization continues to run during a disaster. Connectivity in data center infrastructure and the networks can be adversely affected by bottlenecks or complete failure due to network outages, hardware failures, human error, and natural disasters.

Application delivery controllers (ADCs) protect these vital corporate assets and keep the network up and running. Below are five capabilities to look for to create a reliable application delivery infrastructure for business continuity planning: