In this tutorial on colocation data centers, learn whether or not a collocation data center is the right choice for your company, what to look for in a colocation service, and other data center disaster recovery planning tips.

Continue reading Data center disaster recovery planning tutorial on colocation data centers

Tags: Colocation, data center disaster recovery

A big part of disaster recovery, then, is copying the bits and storing them somewhere else other than the main data center. But where should one squirrel that second data center where it will be both safe and readily accessible? In other words, how far away is far enough? It is, by all accounts, a tricky question.

Continue reading Disaster Recovery Planning – How Far is Far Enough?

Tags: data center disaster recovery, data center location

Getting money for a data center disaster recovery plan is difficult enough; when the economy goes soft, it gets harder.

Continue reading Data center disaster recovery gets tougher in tough times

Tags: budget, data center, data center disaster recovery, expense, I.T. DIsaster Recovery, justification

Generally, when someone hears the term “disaster recovery,” the vision in their minds is one of a smoking hole in the ground where the data center used to be. While certainly a valid concern and image, these types of disasters do not occur very often. Thus, their importance in the mind of the data center manager should be tempered by thoughts of the more likely disaster scenarios that can occur.

Continue reading Top Data Center Disaster Recovery Issues

Tags: data center disaster recovery, I.T. DIsaster Recovery

Symantec Corporation recently released the findings of its 2008 State of the Data Center report.   The second annual study found that data center managers are caught between two conflicting goals – more demanding user expectations and higher levels of performance, yet reducing costs remain the primary objective for the data center.

Continue reading Report: Symantec’s State of the Data Center

Tags: data center disaster recovery, Disaster Recovery

Kenneth G. Brill, founder and CTO of Upsite Technologies, a developer of energy-efficient, high-availability solutions designed to optimize a data center’s critical physical infrastructure, received the Outstanding Contribution to Industry tribute at the Datacentre Leaders’ Awards held by Datacenter Dynamics in London, England last December.

Continue reading Award: Ken Brill Honored with Datacentre Leaders’ Contribution to Industry

Tags: Continuous Availability, data center disaster recovery, Data Center Reliability, Disaster Recovery, Upsite Technologies

The US Department of Energy (DOE) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have been working together on the subject of data center energy efficiency. The two agencies held a workshop in July 2008 to address the issue.

In October, 2008, the DOE and EPA released a report entitled “Energy Efficiency in Data Centers: Recommendations for Government-Industry Coordination” that details the discussions and recommendations covered during the workshop.

The workshop convened representatives from industry, utilities, associations, and non-government organizations (NGOs) to identify the next steps for public and private collaboration toward advancing improved energy efficiency in data centers.

The report provides recommendations for key areas of collaboration between government and industry, along with detailed descriptions of interactive sessions in which participants identified gaps and opportunities related to defining, advancing, and rewarding energy efficient data centers. It includes point papers presented by workshop speakers that detail current trends in data center energy efficiency.

To obtain a free download of the report, please click here.

Tags: data center disaster recovery, Disaster Recovery, energy efficiency, energy management

Enterprise Systems Backup and Recovery: A Corporate Insurance Policy
by Preston de Guise

The success of information backup systems does not rest on IT administrators alone. Rather, a well-designed backup system comes about only when several key factors coalesce—business involvement, IT acceptance, best practice designs, enterprise software, and reliable hardware. Published in October, 2008 Enterprise Systems Backup and Recovery: A Corporate Insurance Policy provides organizations with a comprehensive understanding of the principles and features involved in effective enterprise backups.

336 pages. Order #DR831, $70.00.

Continue reading NEW BOOK: Enterprise Systems Backup and Recovery: A Corporate Insurance Policy

Tags: backup systems, data backup, data center disaster recovery, Data Deduplication, enterprise system backup

As is true in most areas of IT some things are new and some things remain the same. This is certainly true of disaster recovery/business continuity. We simply cannot move ahead with new recovery strategies if any lingering problems remain. What this post suggests is that there is a logical progression when dealing with data center backup and recovery. The key is to make sure that the proper steps are followed.

Continue reading A New Look At The Data Center “Three Rs” Of Business Continuity

Tags: data center disaster recovery, disaster recovery planning, I.T. DIsaster Recovery

Could this happen to your organization?

Recently, the Department of Information Resources (DIR) for the State of Texas fined IBM $900,000 for failure to complete timely backups as required by its $800 million dollar contract with the State. The fine was prompted by what has been called a server malfunction in the Texas Attorney General’s office that destroyed nearly half of eight months’ worth of documents.

Reports have now surfaced noting that in the months prior to the incident ten other agencies complained about network breakdowns and server backup problems with IBM. As a result, Texas Governor Rick Perry has suspended IBM’s contract to assess the cause and receive a full review and explanation from IBM.

Never assume that your data backup program is going to work when you need it – test, test, TEST!

Tags: data backups, data center disaster recovery, data storage

So, who says disaster recovery can’t be fun?

Blowing up a data center may be a bit extreme, but it sure is a dramatic way to test data center fail-over and resilience.

Continue reading Blowing up a Data Center?

Tags: data center disaster recovery, data center failover, disaster recovery testing, disaster resilience, I.T. DIsaster Recovery