| How valuable is your data? Does it mean the | | | | Data centers have all your data stored and can |
| world to you? If yes, your worst nightmare is | | | | have it ready for use soon after a problem is |
| probably loss of all or part of the data. And if just | | | | detected. These are critical especially for small and |
| the thought of that makes you cringe, it's time | | | | medium-sized IT set-ups. Roughly, they can be |
| you educated yourself about the existence of | | | | divided into: |
| disaster recovery options and how collocating | | | | - Cold sites: These are essentially empty areas |
| your data can save you a lot of headache and | | | | that allow you to set-up your equipment and start |
| financial loss. | | | | operations again. These sites offer no recovery |
| There are many reasons you could be faced with | | | | options, just storage. |
| a disastrous situation. Especially if you are in the | | | | - Warm sites: The main difference between these |
| IT sector and/or if most of your data resides in | | | | and cold sites is that they offer basic |
| electronic format. If you depend on computers | | | | communication equipment for plug-in connectivity. |
| for storing, accessing and using your data, you | | | | Some back-up equipment like servers and storage |
| are potentially at risk. Some of the main reasons | | | | are also available to begin work on restoration. |
| you could face a disaster of data loss are: | | | | - Hot sites: These are the duplicate data centers |
| - Deformity in the firmware | | | | with all the necessary equipment and connectivity |
| - Tampered tape | | | | you would need to switch over and go 'live' |
| - Undesirable formatting of hard disk drive | | | | almost instantaneously after a disaster has |
| - Logical failure | | | | occurred. In most cases, this option will serve you |
| - Dropping of a storage device | | | | the best, although the costs of using this are just |
| - Disturbed semiconductor | | | | as high. |
| While these examples are mostly hardware | | | | Some of the main benefits of using outsourced |
| related issues, there are also similar problems that | | | | colocation facilities are: |
| could develop due to software problems. So how | | | | - No need for capital investment in realty |
| do you safeguard your data and the business that | | | | - No need to invest huge sums in a data center |
| runs off of it? | | | | facility, you pay only for the resources you use |
| There are many companies out there who | | | | - You can remote manage the back-up servers |
| specialize in safeguarding your data at remote | | | | as well |
| locations and in a variety of ways. There are two | | | | - Huge bandwidth cost savings |
| main ways of safeguarding your data: | | | | - Dedicated technical support to take care of your |
| - Data Loss Prevention is perhaps the surest | | | | data |
| disaster recovery service. This method | | | | In a lot of cases, you can procure your own |
| emphasizes the creation of a back-up system to | | | | server and send it for set-up at the facility saving |
| prevent future data loss. That means your | | | | costs on procurement of minimal hardware. |
| business has minimal downtime and continuous | | | | The most important part of your company's |
| operation of critical business systems. | | | | disaster recovery solution is going to be your |
| - Creating a warm or hot site away from your | | | | disaster recovery plan. Having the process |
| existing physical setup and colocating your | | | | documented and tested is the only way to ensure |
| equipment in a data center can ensure that even | | | | that in the event of a disaster you will be sure to |
| in the case of a physical disaster, your time taken | | | | be back up and running with minimal downtime. |
| to get back up and running is minimal. | | | | |