Comments on: Planning for Data Center Disasters Doesn’t Have to Cost a Lot of $$ http://blog.softlayer.com/2008/planning-for-data-center-disasters-doesn%e2%80%99t-have-to-cost-a-lot-of/ A Behind the Scenes Look at the Best Hosting Provider in the World Wed, 22 May 2013 17:40:38 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.1 By: jeffatrackaid http://blog.softlayer.com/2008/planning-for-data-center-disasters-doesn%e2%80%99t-have-to-cost-a-lot-of/comment-page-1/#comment-525 jeffatrackaid Mon, 30 Jun 2008 19:31:35 +0000 http://theinnerlayer.softlayer.com/?p=150#comment-525 "... very customer must determine which tools to use and build a plan that suits the needs of the business ..." This is one of the hardest but most necessary decisions that any business with online operations can make. I've always advised starting this process from the business function side and ignore costs and technology. Ask yourself simple questions, what would happen if we lost all of our data? What would happen if we were offline for an hour, a day or a week? Consider the impact of an outage to you and your customers. In general, you will find that the faster the recovery from a critical incident the more expensive the solution will be. If you need sub 1 hour recovery periods, you may need to be using Global Server Load Balancing, advanced data replication methods and other technologies that are considerably more expensive to deploy and maintain than a DVD with a copy of your files. Also, never forget to re-evaluate your disaster recovery needs, especially if you are a rapidly growing online business. I have seen clients have their revenues grow by 10-fold and never re-evaluate their IT operations. When I visit some hosting forums, I always see people starting with a budget. When it comes to disaster recovery, I recommend leaving the budget last. Start with your business needs, price a solution and then see if it is affordable. If not, then you may need to re-evaluate either what your promise to your customers or the fees you charge them. “… very customer must determine which tools to use and build a plan that suits the needs of the business …”

This is one of the hardest but most necessary decisions that any business with online operations can make.

I’ve always advised starting this process from the business function side and ignore costs and technology. Ask yourself simple questions, what would happen if we lost all of our data? What would happen if we were offline for an hour, a day or a week? Consider the impact of an outage to you and your customers.

In general, you will find that the faster the recovery from a critical incident the more expensive the solution will be. If you need sub 1 hour recovery periods, you may need to be using Global Server Load Balancing, advanced data replication methods and other technologies that are considerably more expensive to deploy and maintain than a DVD with a copy of your files.

Also, never forget to re-evaluate your disaster recovery needs, especially if you are a rapidly growing online business. I have seen clients have their revenues grow by 10-fold and never re-evaluate their IT operations.

When I visit some hosting forums, I always see people starting with a budget. When it comes to disaster recovery, I recommend leaving the budget last. Start with your business needs, price a solution and then see if it is affordable. If not, then you may need to re-evaluate either what your promise to your customers or the fees you charge them.

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