As your organization prepares your IT systems to maintain business continuity, you should understand the type of business continuity solutions available to you and how they differ.
Many organizations hear the term "backup" and believe that refers to a comprehensive, all-inclusive answer to your business continuity needs. That is not always the case. Different systems have different features with various pros and cons associated with each. As you look for your solution, it is critical to determine your requirements based on your specific organization.
Each organization will have different business continuity needs. These needs will determine how you bolster your IT systems in the event of an emergency or service interruption.
This post will examine the difference between backup systems and high availability, failsafe solution for business continuity.
Backup Systems
A backup of your hard drive includes a storage system of files and folders on your operating system. Backing up your systems is part of the disaster recovery process. If an incident occurs that impacts your files in some way - incidents such as a malware attack, natural disaster, or other events - having a secondary off-premise site set up with a repository of your files is critical.
There are a variety of ways in which you can back up your systems. Some organizations use physical servers located off-site at secondary locations. Others use cloud storage, which relies on software and a network.
Depending on the type of system you use and the type of disaster, once a disaster impacts your system a realistic timeline for accessing your files is one to three days.
High Availability, Failsafe
High availability or business continuity is a type of protection system that creates a redundant, continuously updated image of your entire drive. As the data is changed at the source, it also changes on the other end immediately. This redundancy offers protection from hardware failure. It does not protect from file corruption and Ransomware. If a file is corrupted or encrypted at the source, this sometimes is immediately copied to the target.
The significant benefits of the high availability, a failsafe solution is its ability to give you access to your data quickly. This is a great solution for organizations who cannot afford large amounts of downtime as they respond to an incident or event. It will give you a quick path to your data. What would take one to three days using a traditional backup system takes minutes with high availability.
To summarize: high availability solutions translate to optimal speed and convenience. If you have customers who rely on accessing information quickly, this is a great option.
Comparison
Determining the right solution for your organization will vary depending on what you are looking for as you recover from a disaster.
The breakdown is simple: backup disaster recovery systems feature longer downtimes but are generally less expensive. It ensures that another version of your data exists and that you will be able to access that data eventually at some point in the future. There is no guarantee on how long it will take you to access that data.
High availability, failsafe solutions offer lower downtime but at a higher cost.
Summary
Every company needs a backup system. Due to special circumstances some companies may face in which they need to recover their data quickly, they may also require a high availability solution as a compliment to their existing backup system as well.
As you identify a solution, consider your organization's size, function, and needs. To determine whether you need high availability as an enhancement to your backup system, ask yourself two questions: 1) how much information can you afford to lose? And 2) how long can you afford your system to be down for?
At Total Computer Solutions, we have experience developing and implementing both types of solutions. We can guide you through the pros and cons of each option step by step. We can work with you to identify the right fit for your organization and help you determine a custom solution that will fit with your budget. For a free consultation, contact us today!
