Technology Solution Provider Suggests IT Pros Examine DR in
the Cloud, Offers Guidance on Disaster Recovery Planning and
Execution
Farmington Hills, MI, December 4,
2012 – In the wake of Superstorm Sandy, which has been
held accountable for power outages in over 8 million homes and
businesses, flooded data centers, and billions of dollars in lost
revenue along the East Coast, CIOs are taking a hard look at the
way their organizations handle disaster recovery (DR) – asking
important questions and examining the very real costs associated
with protecting their data from loss. That’s why Logicalis,
an international IT solutions and managed services provider
(http://www.us.logicalis.com/),
suggests CIOs who are re-examining their post-Sandy DR plans
consider a cloud-based disaster recovery solution as a
cost-effective, flexible and secure way to minimize their
companies’ recovery windows.
DR in the cloud can mean the elimination of
worry when it comes to disasters like Superstorm Sandy.
IO, a Logicalis
Data Center 2.0 partner with U.S. data centers in both the East
and West regions, remained 100 percent operational during Sandy and
its aftermath. Through the IO.Anywhere™ Modular platform and
its IO.OS® data center operating system, IO and clients
like Logicalis were able to monitor in real time all the elements
of Hurricane Sandy and its potential impact on the IO critical IT
infrastructure as the superstorm approached IO’s New Jersey data
center. IO managed its hurricane operations from its
Technical Assistance Command Center in Phoenix, Ariz. Through the
IO.OS single pane of glass dashboard and smart phone app, the IO
team was able to observe the storm’s location, rainfall, and wind
speeds as the hurricane approached the data center. The ability to
have a dedicated team of people safeguarding customers’
mission-critical data in two distinct and geographically disparate,
always-on locations gave Logicalis’ cloud clients at IO data
centers peace of mind, despite the upheaval caused by the storm’s
physical and economic turbulence. IO’s ability to remain
fully operational is a perfect example of why employing cloud-based
services like disaster recovery as a service makes both financial
and technical sense.
DR-as-a-Service (DRaaS), which replaces huge
capital expenditure (cap-ex) and personnel costs with more
manageable operational expenditure (op-ex) figures, is quickly
gaining traction among savvy IT pros. Today’s DR in the cloud
offerings can give CIOs a value-priced tool with which to meet
their recovery point and recovery time objectives that is flexible,
secure and well managed. For CIOs that want to learn more,
Logicalis has put together a list of the top four ways DRaaS can
keep companies running even when the unthinkable happens.
The Top Four Ways DRaaS Can Virtually
Eliminate the Risk of Sandy-like Events
1. People Power: Who will
implement the company’s DR plan when disaster strikes? Does an
internal IT team have to be present for the disaster recovery
solution to work? When every second counts and business
systems are down, it’s critical to have people who are able to
implement the company’s DR plan so others, who are in the midst of
the emergency, are free to focus on other issues that may have
nothing to do with work. Knowing that there’s a team in place
already taking care of it is an immense relief.
2. Location, Location,
Location: Is the organization’s DR plan regional or
national? What about redundancy? Sandy wiped out power and
communications across the entire Eastern seaboard. If a company’s
disaster recovery plan is in house or even regionally based,
disasters of a Sandy-like scale can cause the best of DR plans to
be rendered ineffective. To overcome regional disasters, a company
would have to build redundant infrastructures in various regions
nationwide. With DR as a Service, however, the client doesn’t have
to do that. As long as the DRaaS provider chosen has
facilities in more than one region of the country and offers
failover access between facilities, its clients’ businesses can be
up and running again in no time even if one of the provider’s DRaaS
facilities is affected.
3. Price Protection:
Is the company’s DR plan affordable? To be effective, disaster
recovery plans have to have an element of redundancy, which by
definition makes them expensive. DRaaS, however, makes disaster
recovery both accessible to, and affordable for, most any
organization as redundancies become the responsibility of the
provider and merely an operational expense for its clients. Be sure
to look for a DRaaS provider with geographically dispersed data
centers that can be tied together for failover purposes. This way,
when a Sandy-like event comes knocking, it won’t matter if one of
the provider’s sites goes down. Find out if the DRaaS
provider being considered offers a back up plan for its clients’
back up plans, then compare the costs of accessing the provider’s
multi-regional failover service to building similarly effective
redundancies in house. Chances are, the service provider’s
offering – an operational versus capital expense for its clients –
will win hands down.
4. Pop Quiz:Has the
recovery plan been tested? There’s really no way to know if a
company’s disaster recovery plan works unless it is thoroughly and
regularly tested. But face it, testing DR plans for an
emergency that hasn’t happened yet often takes a back seat to
dealing with the very real and everyday issues that occur in a data
center. With DRaaS, regular testing becomes much easier, and
it is this kind of testing that ensures business-critical data will
be available when and where it’s needed to keep the organization
running smoothly when and if disaster strikes.
Want to Know
More?
- Learn how
DR as a Service can help lower costs, even when expectations
are rising.
- Watch a short two-minute video that
explores disaster
recovery as a serviceas an alternative to traditional DR
strategies.
- DRaaS can offer rapidly deployable
solutions that combine the flexibility and scalability of a shared
resource model, with 24x7 managed services to deliver peace of
mind. Learn more about
DRaaS from Logicalis here.
About Logicalis
Logicalis is an international IT solutions and
managed services provider with a breadth of knowledge and expertise
in communications and collaboration; data center and cloud
services; and managed services.
Logicalis employs almost 3,000 people
worldwide, including highly trained service specialists who design,
specify, deploy and manage complex ICT infrastructures to meet the
needs of over 6,000 corporate and public sector customers. To
achieve this, Logicalis maintains strong partnerships with
technology leaders such as Cisco, HP, IBM, CA Technologies, NetApp,
VMware and ServiceNow.
The Logicalis Group has annualized revenues of
over $1.2 billion, from operations in the UK, US, Germany, South
America and Asia Pacific, and is fast establishing itself as one of
the leading IT and Communications solution integrators,
specializing in the areas of advanced technologies and
services.
The Logicalis Group is a division of Datatec
Limited, listed on the Johannesburg and London AIM Stock Exchanges,
with revenues of over $5 billion.
For more information, visit http://www.us.logicalis.com/.
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