Should you be using outsource data center facilities for a do-it-yourself disaster recovery center?

Should you be using outsource data center for a do-it-yourself disaster recovery center?

Ten years ago, organizations that wanted to protect their enterprise data center from disaster had few choices. Back then, the mainframe was usually the centerpiece of the disaster recovery plan. The disaster recovery plan for the server environment was managed in-house with backup tapes and software. Some companies included servers into to their mainframe disaster recovery contracts, usually at very expensive yearly rates.

But times have changed, and new technologies are helping companies build customized disaster recovery plans that blend

Today, two key technologies are enabling companies to build cost-effective do-it yourself disaster recovery centers:

Virtualization: VMware, Hyper-V, Xen, and a number of open source platforms are allowing for multiple logical servers on a physical server. With additional tools for moving and replicating these server images across multiple physical servers, virtualization enables companies to not only protect against a prolonged outage, but to allow for routine server maintenance with little or no downtime.

SAN replicaton: near real-time or real time data replication comes standard on many SANs. Bandwidth requirements are lower and reliability is excellent on most.

These two enabling technologies need the right environment in which to operate. Reliable outousrce data center facilites are available everywhere. But few offer 99.995% uptime. Carrier choices exist in most data centers. But a few offer carrier neutral data center space with no cross-connect fees. Hardened data center facilities are more difficult to find. Data center certifications and compliance can play an important role in your choice.

Building a customized solution is a little more complex than buying all of your disaster recovery services from a single vendor. But putting your own equipment in an affordable colocation facility (outsource data center) that offers multiple carrier choices and no cross connect fees can not only improve recovery times, it can significantly reduce costs. Want to learn more? Call Lifeline Data Centers at 17.423.2591.

Alex Carroll

Managing Member at Lifeline Data Centers

Alex, co-owner, is responsible for all real estate, construction and mission critical facilities: hardened buildings, power systems, cooling systems, fire suppression, and environmentals. Alex also manages relationships with the telecommunications providers and has an extensive background in IT infrastructure support, database administration and software design and development. Alex architected Lifeline’s proprietary GRCA system and is hands-on every day in the data center.