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In the life of every business - at some point and when you least expect it - disaster strikes. Be it a fire, water damage, a roof collapsing, an environmental spill, a negligent or malicious employee or some other natural or man-made disaster, chances are high that your business will lose some or all of its information technology systems and company data. According to the Business Recovery Managers Association, over thirty-seven per cent (37%) of businesses that lose a major portion of their IT systems and data fail within one year of the disaster.
Businesses are beginning to realize their absolute dependence on information technology in conducting business and the negative impact of not having access to these systems (for even a few days) can have on their customers, suppliers and business partners. Legislation such as Sarbanes, Oxley (SOXS) and other regulatory compliance authorities recognize this and require companies to have alternate IT systems and data readily available should their main production systems fail.
Using Herakles Data’s colocation facility is an efficient and cost-effective means to have a system and data standing by in the event of a disaster taking down your company’s main IT systems. About forty percent (40%) of our customers operate a disaster recovery site at Herakles Data. Generally, there are three main types of disaster recovery sites:
Cold Site –
Businesses that can tolerate being without access to their IT systems and data for three to five days often choose to establish a cold site. The IT equipment is in the colocation space, but the systems are not powered up. The software and backup data can be brought to the colocation site and loaded onto the powered-up systems. Systems administrators then test and load balance the systems before going operational. This is a very cost-effective means for many companies.
Warm Site –
Companies that can handle not having access to their IT systems and data for one or two days can build a warm site. The hardware and software is set-up and the power is on. At a warm site the backup data is updated on a daily or weekly basis or is brought in from a storage site and loaded onto the system after a failure. Once the up-to-date data is loaded, the system administrators can set-up the databases; test and load balance the systems. Depending on how the data is backed-up, the warm site might be able to be managed remotely by company personnel.
Hot Site –
Companies that need or want uninterrupted access to their systems and company data build and maintain a hot site. A hot site is a mirrored system. It is exactly the same as your main production system and the company’s data is continuously updated to the hot site system at the same time it is stored on the main system. The hot site is always ready to take over immediately in the event of the main system failure and the network can be set-up to switchover automatically to the disaster recovery site. The hot sites can be managed remotely by company personnel. Herakles Data operations staff can perform any of the work that needs to be done on-site.
Business Continuity
What is Business Continuity?
Business Continuity can mean many different things to different people. Used here it means, “How will you operate your business now that a catastrophic event has negatively impacted your company’s ability to operate in its usual and customary way.” What critical business functions and which key personnel are mission critical to the continuation of the company in the aftermath of your disaster? Where will you house these key people? How will they communicate with customers and business partners? How will they have access to company financial records, customer orders, inventory and accounts payable and receivable?
Business Continuity Planning
Business Continuity Planning is an important necessity to insuring the continuity of your business in the event of a catastrophic disaster. Being unprepared can cost your company dearly in lost sales and profits.
Key employees may seek employment elsewhere. The cost to your business of being unprepared could be devastating. As John Wooden, the Dean of UCLA Basketball said, “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail”.
Herakles Data strongly recommends that all companies have a Business Continuity Plan. It is equally important that everyone in the company knows their role and exactly what they have to do when business comes to a screeching halt.
Herakles Data Solutions
Herakles Data’s colocation services can help. Many of our clients run their production IT systems directly from Herakles Data. These client’s IT staff manage their systems remotely with hands-on support from Herakles Data’s operations staff. With our 99.999% availability (never experienced a data center-wide service interruption), and our large internet presence, having your systems and data running at Herakles Data is one less thing to worry about should disaster strike. Key employees with high speed access can work from home or a temporary office using Virtual Private Network (VPN) internet connections to Herakles Data.
Turn to Herakles Data for All your Business Continuity
And Disaster Recovery IT Needs
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