Veroxity Wavelengths

The Consultative Approach to Disaster Recovery Planning: Part One

Posted by Christian Williams

From a service provider standpoint, the term disaster recovery is very broad. It has varying levels of importance that are dependent upon organizational goals. It can encompass your network, your databases, your applications, your internet access; again, it’s all about the business need. The scope of a disaster recovery plan changes from one business and industry to another. As a carrier, our goal is to ensure that we have the most survivable network possible so that we can deliver on our Service Level Agreements (SLAs). This is exactly why we have invested in a SONET based infrastructure, developed multiple entrances for lit buildings, and have dual pops in every location so that any one ‘disaster’ can’t bring down customer connectivity.

There are basically three flavors of disaster recovery planning for which clients engage with carriers. They can be provided in conjunction with each other or separately. These plans mean different things to each individual company utilizing them as defined by their business. Each has varying levels of importance based upon business need:

1. Internet Access: A company needs internet access in order to conduct day to day business. However, companies that gain business via the web are looking for diverse routes and more than one carrier. Due to the nature of their business that centers on Internet transactions, they cannot afford to put all of their eggs in one basket.

2. Basic Connectivity: When a business has multiple facilities, connectivity between these locations must be available at all times. From a disaster recovery planning standpoint, a network that will maintain that connectivity to each geographically dispersed location at all times is ideal.

3. Data Center Back Up: It used to be that a company’s primary data center was located at a company headquarters while their secondary backup centers would be remote. We are seeing more and more customers will have a primary, off-site data center in addition to secondary backup locations that are also remote. Connectivity is needed between all of these sites. It is the organization’s business model and goals that determine the need for this connection and at what level. For example, pharmaceutical companies require huge amounts of data storage, so they will keep all information in two or three places. If one of those data centers goes down, this information can be found in the alternative locations. Some companies have applications that are running at all times, i.e. their customers are constantly tracking their online orders or making purchases, etc. If anything happens to either the server connectivity or the servers themselves these companies have an absolute need for another that is standing by, ready to go online.

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Check in next week for Part Two of The Consultative Approach to Disaster Recovery Planning.