Although data center disaster recovery is a topic which should come up more often for companies and consumers looking to invest in colocation or various data center solutions, it rarely does. Like anything bad, no one wants to think it will happen to them. Cancer? That happens to the other guy? Me, get fired? Nope. That happens to the other guy. Lose all my data because my data center didn’t replicate my data across the country? Nope. The other guy.
The truth is, data centers can and do fail. This failure means your solution, the solution you sell to the public, will have failed right along with the data center. So, how do you invest in a data center solutions knowing full well your data center of choice could fail and screw you? Well, we are going to tell you.
1) Invest in a Different Data Center Disaster Recovery Site
You’re located in the Dallas metro area. You’re data center is located in Dallas metro area. Tornados happen in the Dallas metro area. What happens If a tornado rips through the Dallas metro area causing your data center to go offline for an extended period of time? If you have invested in a data center which uses an auxiliary data center in a different geographical location, your solutions will be just fine. If not, well, good luck. When investing in a data center make sure they have a fall back data center located in a different geographical region to ensure uptime.
2) Invest in Data Replication
Now that you have invested in a data center disaster recovery site in a different geographic location, the next thing to look for is instant data replication across the country. By investing in a data center which automatically replicates your data to another data center located the world away, regardless if your home data center goes down, your data will always be safe and sound. To go along with this, make sure your data center backs up your data on a daily basis and replicates those backups to their fall back data center of choice. The truth is you can never be too careful.
3) Invest in Data Center Backup Power Supplies
Remember that time a storm came ripping through your neighborhood and your power shut off for a week? Remember how your Uncle Ralph had a backup generator and was completely fine? Data Centers are kind of the same way. When a storm comes through or rolling blackouts occur due to over usage of power in the summer, your data center must has a backup power generation solutions on hand to ensure a lack of downtime.
4) Invest in a Data Center Disaster Recovery Plan
Your best bet though is to invest your money into a data center disaster recovery plan. Invest your money with a data center that utilizes all the aforementioned disaster recovery tools. Data replication. Data backups. Data replication across the country. Auxiliary power supplies. Data centers with backup data centers located in a different geographic location. Simply put, invest your money in a data center provider that fully understands what it takes to keep your data up and running even when a hurricane is blowing outside.
And for those of you who think this entire article and the entire idea of data center disaster recovery is insane, when Hurricane Sandy came ripping through the New York City metro area, over 75% of the data centers located in lower Manhattan all went down due to flooding. The companies who hosted with them, were, out of luck. All told, the data center failure cost companies upwards of $7 billion in business.
$7 billion. Invest in data center DR recovery solutions. Don’t be stupid.