How The Cloud Serves As A Safety Net In The Event Of A Disaster ...

On July 9, Chinese tightrope walker Aisikaier, who holds the Guiness World Record for fastest tightrope walk over 325 feet, attempted to walk across 2,200 feet of wire stretched over a 650-foot deep ravine without harnesses. He was near the end when he fell. He only suffered minor injuries, being far luckier than numerous other tightrope walkers who perished performing. VMC?s Cloud expert Chuck Hobart says that businesses can?t afford to take on the same risks ? putting safeguards in place is key to maintaining operations.

It?s notable that many technology companies have offices or are based in the Greater Seattle and San Francisco Bay areas ? two areas that lie near major fault lines. Both sites would be severely damaged in the event of an earthquake like the 9.2-magnitude Cascadia earthquake that occurred in the region in 1700. That?s why it?s very important to have geographically diverse environments when it comes to hosting data and systems. The Cloud is perfect for this due to its expansive network; it also spares a company time, money, and the headache of managing its own data recovery.

If critical systems fail, stockholders want it up and running right away, which is possible with a replication or data recovery cloud. Virtual machines would be on standby, quietly mirroring the active systems until an emergency occurs. At which point, the data recovery cloud springs to life and seamlessly takes over for the damaged system. In contrast, there is some latency if data is backed up in a data center. In a disaster, things will be chaotic. Imagine having to worry about loading tapes to get your systems up and running again as you simultaneous deal with everything else around you.

There?s a company in the United States that has a deal with hotel chains. If disaster strikes, the designated hotel will quickly set up computers in conference rooms, bring in all employees and their families, and let them stay in the hotel at a discounted rate. This data recovery cloud provider will load all of the company?s systems and applications in the conference rooms, allowing the company to continue conducting business in the hotel until things have stabilized.

In some industries, even seconds of downtime can cause great financial loss or irreparable damage. What are you doing to make sure there?s a safety net to catch you in times of hardship?

Contact Chuck Hobart at ChuckH@vmc.com or 877.393.8622.

Source: http://blog.vmc.com/2012/08/01/how-the-cloud-serves-as-a-safety-net-in-the-event-of-a-disaster/

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