As data centers continue to grow in complexity and frequency of use, organizations have to begin to prepare more robust disaster recovery plans. Many administrators are turning to a cloud and virtualization solution to create a more agile environment. Having a well-laid out disaster recovery plan can save time, management overhead and all-important costs associated with extended periods of outages. The following list of disaster recovery solutions was created by Bill Kleyman, cloud and virtualization architect at MTM Technologies:
Cloud for replication: Site-to-site replication has become easier with cloud technologies. Whether its virtual machines, entire databases, or specific data points; organizations are now more capable of replicating their environments. Cloud computing has also made disaster recovery more financially feasible because the organization can dictate exactly how much downtime you can tolerate and where the costs break even.
Virtualization as a mechanism for backup and recovery: It is much easier to recover a virtual machine than a physical one. By implementing virtualization-ready backup strategies organizations are able to keep their data centers more agile.
Using software defined technologies: Software defined platforms can range from networking equipment to security appliances. The idea is to create an agile environment where various virtual networking instances can be deployed. For the end user, the transition is almost transparent. For the IT administrator, this means less downtime and faster recovery.
IaaS or “Data Center On-Demand”: In a disaster scenario, the need to recover data is essential. Cloud computing and virtualization can allow administrators to create active/active or active/passive IaaS solutions which can be very cost effective. The point behind an on-demand platform is the flexibility that it provides.
To read more about disaster recovery plans with cloud and virtualization, read Bill Kleyman’s article in its entirety by visiting the link below:
Tags: cloud computing, desktop virtualization, Disaster recovery, security
From NASA’s CIO Linda Cureton:
There’s a lot of talk in the media lately about Cloud Computing as a driver of employment in the US. [See this pieces by fox business below.] A word of warning about this analysis. While the writer here claims “11 cloud computing companies added 80,000 jobs in the U.S. in 2010, and the employment growth rate at these organizations was almost five times that of the high-tech sector overall,” the writer does not appear to allow for analysis of what jobs may be lost in the process. A major driver of cloud is the unburdening of infrastructure duties from local teams working behind the firewall. Those are jobs that may not be preserved as we go through this huge transition to shared public infrastructure for more and more important applications. They call it creative destruction of a reason. So watch where you step.
