| Your Work place is no longer available, disaster has | | | | program of testing and maintenance should be |
| struck, and time is money! How many times have | | | | attempted to ensure that the plan will work at any |
| you heard these statements? | | | | time. |
| It is a nightmare for CIOs and IT directors to have | | | | Many solutions are available and every company has |
| to explain downtime to their CEO and CFO. | | | | a different set of needs. The main issue in choosing |
| For many CEOs and CFOs, what was important | | | | DR solutions is the speed of replication and recovery. |
| yesterday is no longer valid today. Too much | | | | In the past, 48 hours was acceptable to get backup |
| concentration and spending has been invested into | | | | tapes loaded, and be up-and-running again. Today, |
| the infrastructure of networking which opposes the | | | | every uptime moment qualifies as mission critical. As |
| reality of today, that is more concentrated upon | | | | more enterprises rely on the Internet and require |
| business availability and continuity. | | | | immediate access to their data to function, they are |
| What would happen if your company had a small | | | | less tolerant of lost uptime. Each day more |
| disaster that equals to big trouble? If something | | | | companies realize the only way to minimize downtime |
| happens to the workplace, then how much will it cost | | | | associated with disaster is to implement an |
| to recover lost data? What contingency plan does | | | | alternative data processing site that can be |
| your company have? And finally, how much will all of | | | | operational in a very short time. One of the major |
| the above costs? This is not an example of psychic | | | | technical challenges in maintaining a backup data |
| divination, it is a mere fact and we all experimented | | | | center is in keeping the data at the backup data |
| that after September 11th 2001. | | | | center synchronized with the data in the primary |
| There are different variations to business continuity, | | | | data center. |
| which will all depend on to which extent is acceptable | | | | Thanks to today's available technology, software |
| for a company to have a downtime. Is it two days, | | | | supporting any-to-any connectivity, not only delivers |
| one hour or perhaps not even a mere 5 minutes? | | | | lightning-fast data mirroring and replication technology |
| Does the company need business continuity to the | | | | that enables the creation of cutting edge backup |
| extent of an off-site disaster recovery? | | | | data, but centers with no single point of failure. Also, |
| Business continuity can be differentiated in two levels. | | | | it makes the resulting fast remote data |
| | | | synchronization available across vendor lines and |
| 1. Business continuity where we secure and manage | | | | avoids the problems of host-based replication. This |
| all risks which may be brought about by technology | | | | software does not require any specialized hardware |
| failure. This includes human error, equipment failure, | | | | to replicate storage data. It can replicate data over |
| database corruption, hacking and various other | | | | any existing LAN, MAN, or WAN network |
| external disasters. | | | | infrastructure. The replication is configured and |
| 2. Business continuity where we require an offsite | | | | managed independently of application servers. |
| backup (Disaster Recovery Site) to resume the same | | | | Fault-tolerant hardware is available, with zero |
| level of productivity in case of workplace disruption. | | | | interruption in processing, zero loss of performance |
| The disaster recovery (DR) planning deals with | | | | and zero loss of data integrity, even if a component |
| massive site failure whether it is complete or partial. | | | | fails. This means that unlike a high availability cluster, |
| Site failure is typically the permanent consequence of | | | | these computers do not impose recovery time. Their |
| broadly disruptive forces. | | | | designs include modular redundancy fault-tolerant |
| Threats to businesses are more obvious today, | | | | server to protect your users and applications from |
| however, they have always existed and they always | | | | component outages for an average less than five |
| will prevail. The event, which occurred on September | | | | minutes of downtime annually. |
| 11, changed the definition of crisis management plans | | | | Risks can be minimized but never entirely eliminated. |
| since many companies had disaster recovery plans in | | | | All studies show that businesses, which have a |
| place. However, very few had an off-site plan. | | | | disaster recovery plan for their vital systems, have a |
| A DR plan begins with evaluating the vulnerabilities of | | | | substantially higher likelihood of surviving when loss |
| an organization's information technology assets. Your | | | | occurs. |
| business may have done some work towards | | | | No one knows when a disaster will strike. It may |
| planning for a possible disaster but will it survive such | | | | never happen, or it may happen today. It is only for |
| circumstances? The next important step is to find | | | | that of which 'might happen'. The mystery of the |
| out the effect of a disaster on your business. How | | | | unknown! Being ready and prepared ahead of time |
| much money could you lose if the IT systems are no | | | | can mark the fine line between staying in business or |
| longer available? How much money would it cost to | | | | going out of business. |
| recover your IT systems? | | | | About Protection Infoglobale Inc: |
| The third step is to develop a disaster recovery | | | | Founded in 1999, Protection Infoglobale Inc. is a |
| strategy that fits your requirements in terms of cost | | | | system integrator that specializes in off site disaster |
| and time. After the strategy has been defined the | | | | recovery, business continuity, and 7x24x365 solutions |
| detailed work of 'disaster recovery' begins by | | | | from the hardware and software side, Storage Area |
| implementing the plan that will allow your business to | | | | Networking (SAN), high Performance Fiber Raid |
| survive any situation. Studies have shown that even | | | | Solution, Server-Less Enterprise Backups. Our URL is |
| the best plan will not succeed if it has not been | | | | For more information on our partners in the Middle |
| practiced and maintained. On a final note, a long-term | | | | East, please contact Joseph Ghabi. |