If I were to create a list of the most popular buzzwords in the business community today, specifically those that revolve around technology, I would bet that disaster recovery, or “DR,” would be high on that list. Take away the technology focus and I’m guessing it’s still high up the list. Why? Today’s business information largely resides in the form of bits and bytes rather than in a paper file. Information is the lifeblood of most organizations and if it were lost, most organizations would be severely impacted while others might go under.

We’ve reached the point that backups alone are not enough. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a strong believer in backups and encourage all companies to have a backup plan that is tested regularly. I am, however, also a strong believer of knowing both the strengths and weaknesses of your backup plan.

Scenario: You own a small business and run a server in your office that powers an accounting application that stores all your financial information. This system also acts as a general-purpose file server providing a central repository for everyone to store and share business documents. Even though you’ve had no issues during the past 18 months of operation, something happens one morning and you’re suddenly running without access to this system.

How long can you operate without access to your data? Was your backup plan designed to help you recover within an acceptable timeframe for your organization? Has it been tested to prove that the design works?

Restoring a system from backups made to tape or disk may involve waiting for hours or days. Many times new hardware needs to be purchased and shipped, the operating system and applications need to be installed and configured, and lastly, you need to import your data.

For those who have a more stringent Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) than a basic backup-to-tape or backup-to-disk service offers, VISI provides Server Replication product. Server Replication provides continuous, real-time replication of your server’s operating system, applications and data to VISI’s secure St. Paul Data Center. In the event of a failure or disaster, VISI will assist in getting your server up and running in a VMware-hosted environment in 5 hours or less.

If you have any questions or are interested in our server replication product, feel free to give me a call at 612-395-8924.