Re-architecting Disaster Recovery Solutions Leveraging WAN Optimization Technology
Corporate computing has moved beyond mainframe systems and back office processing; it is only natural that disaster recovery (DR) technologies follow the same path. This is easier said than done, however, as network-based business applications, services, and files often demand low latency connectivity, large amounts of bandwidth, and unforgiving service level agreements (SLAs).
If a DR architecture can’t deliver the goods, user productivity, employee morale, and corporate revenue are bound to suffer. Ineffective DR also creates potential for data loss, failed recovery attempts, and business outages. Organizations need to mitigate the risk created by consolidating data and services into the data center by implementing a proper DR environment.
WAN optimization can have a dramatic impact on existing disaster recovery (DR) environments. Also, it may be the key technology that enables DR where it didn’t previously exist. End-users are rapidly adopting server virtualization technologies and incorporating them into best practices for consolidating and optimizing the server environment. WAN optimization has the ability to do the same for the network. A modest investment (especially when compared to the costs of outage) in WAN optimization can dramatically reduce or at least defer ongoing network costs, typically providing an ROI in less than one year.
Organizations currently utilizing a DR solution that leverages a network should consider the improvement that WAN optimization technologies could bring to their environment. This is especially true for those organizations at an inflexion point—needing to upgrade bandwidth or improve RPOs. While solutions that were engineered seven or eight years ago have worked fine, there is currently an opportunity to dramatically reduce costs and improve performance. See Re-architecting Disaster Recovery Solutions Leveraging WAN Optimization Technology, By Bob Laliberte.
