Smart computer data center Disaster Recovery planners are now thinking about the third generation of Disaster Recovery challenges: 100% remote, automated recovery.
They know that the future isn't about first-generation problems, like lightening strikes and floods. Those are old news to data center planners. From macroscopic approaches like redundant data centers in different states, to more micro precautions such as redundant power supplies and onsite power conditioning, planners are ready for the classic "act of God" scenarios. Through rain and hail and dark of night, computer systems will keep running, and no-one will notice a thing.
Planners are also well past second-generation problems, like terrorist attacks, sudden system outages, and man-made disasters. Again, backup copies of critical data and systems are made more frequently, and there are processes rivaling those of the White House as to which administrators will take over in the event that primary administrators are incapacitated. (Most even designate an "Al Haig").
But many planners are just now beginning to come to grips with the third generation of disaster; namely, the world of sudden loss of staff and change in business. At the risk of focusing too closely on one potential cause, let's call this the Pandemic world.
In the Pandemic world, the first part of the disaster happens obviously, if slowly. Staff starts to decrease. Whether it's people actually out sick, or commute-challenged due to increased health regulations, or simply afraid, there will be significantly fewer IT staff available on site to make changes to the computing data center. This adds risk to a bad situation, making the plans, infrastructure, and processes in place to deal with a first-generation or second-generation disaster possibly untenable.
Yet the staff issue is only the first part of the problem. The second part of the problem occurs when the business needs to alter its infrastructure to address the shifting worker demographic. With so many staff out or working remotely, the load on email, remote access systems like Citrix, and security / validation systems increases dramatically.
Ideally, the company would rebuild or reconfigure its computer data center to serve this mostly outsourced workforce, vs the previously in-house 9-5 workforce. But that goal runs straight into the challenges of the staff issue, making the situation exponentially harder.
Planners see the paradox. The business will need more onsite staff to reconfigure systems to make up for the lack of onsite staff... and we have a third generation "slow" disaster, where a company unravels in days or weeks instead of hours (but just as inexorably and fatally).
The solution, of course, is to plan; to start early, building an "adaptive" or rapidly reconfigurable data center, so that machines can be rapidly repurposed to meet business needs, in a remote and semi-automated way, as desired. (This has the added benefit of increasing efficiency and ability to respond to first and second generation disasters more effectively during normal operations as well).
So don't delay. Think and investigate the relevant technologies (such as "Virtualization", "Server Repurposing" and "Data Center Automation") now, while you can - for he (or she) who hesitates is lost, dragged into the death spiral of the "slow" disaster.
-- Kevin Epstein, VP Marketing, December 2006
They know that the future isn't about first-generation problems, like lightening strikes and floods. Those are old news to data center planners. From macroscopic approaches like redundant data centers in different states, to more micro precautions such as redundant power supplies and onsite power conditioning, planners are ready for the classic "act of God" scenarios. Through rain and hail and dark of night, computer systems will keep running, and no-one will notice a thing.
Planners are also well past second-generation problems, like terrorist attacks, sudden system outages, and man-made disasters. Again, backup copies of critical data and systems are made more frequently, and there are processes rivaling those of the White House as to which administrators will take over in the event that primary administrators are incapacitated. (Most even designate an "Al Haig").
But many planners are just now beginning to come to grips with the third generation of disaster; namely, the world of sudden loss of staff and change in business. At the risk of focusing too closely on one potential cause, let's call this the Pandemic world.
In the Pandemic world, the first part of the disaster happens obviously, if slowly. Staff starts to decrease. Whether it's people actually out sick, or commute-challenged due to increased health regulations, or simply afraid, there will be significantly fewer IT staff available on site to make changes to the computing data center. This adds risk to a bad situation, making the plans, infrastructure, and processes in place to deal with a first-generation or second-generation disaster possibly untenable.
Yet the staff issue is only the first part of the problem. The second part of the problem occurs when the business needs to alter its infrastructure to address the shifting worker demographic. With so many staff out or working remotely, the load on email, remote access systems like Citrix, and security / validation systems increases dramatically.
Ideally, the company would rebuild or reconfigure its computer data center to serve this mostly outsourced workforce, vs the previously in-house 9-5 workforce. But that goal runs straight into the challenges of the staff issue, making the situation exponentially harder.
Planners see the paradox. The business will need more onsite staff to reconfigure systems to make up for the lack of onsite staff... and we have a third generation "slow" disaster, where a company unravels in days or weeks instead of hours (but just as inexorably and fatally).
The solution, of course, is to plan; to start early, building an "adaptive" or rapidly reconfigurable data center, so that machines can be rapidly repurposed to meet business needs, in a remote and semi-automated way, as desired. (This has the added benefit of increasing efficiency and ability to respond to first and second generation disasters more effectively during normal operations as well).
So don't delay. Think and investigate the relevant technologies (such as "Virtualization", "Server Repurposing" and "Data Center Automation") now, while you can - for he (or she) who hesitates is lost, dragged into the death spiral of the "slow" disaster.
-- Kevin Epstein, VP Marketing, December 2006
posted by Scalent Systems at 2:35 PM
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