Dedicated Standby Server(s)

With this option we provide a managed disaster recovery where we host dedicated Standby Server(s) at our Sydney Data Centre which are "clones" of your key Primary Server(s) (e.g. e-mail, file, database).

Scheduled backups of your server operating system and data are automatically performed and stored on the "on-site" RHD's or Vault. These backups are automatically verified. If an error occurs, or a backup is not performed for some reason, then we will be automatically notified.

The latest on-site backup is then automatically synchronised off-site to the corresponding Standby Server(s). If this synchronisation does not occur, we will be notified.

Once the backup has been transferred to the Standby Server(s). That backup is then restored on the Standby Server(s) to verify the integrity of the off-site copy of the backup image (i.e. we perform a test restore of each Standby Server at least once every 24 hours). Again, if a restore fails, both you and we will be notified.

In the event of a 'disaster' at your premises, within 4 hours the Standby Server(s) at our Sydney Data Centre will be available via remote access.

Each Standby Server is a "clone" of the corresponding Primary Server. Each Standby Server has the latest copy of data (e-mail, documents, spreadsheets, accounts, quotes - everything) and applications (Active Directory, Exchange, SQL etc).

Once you have organised alternative premises, we can deliver the Standby Server(s) to your office while you organise replacement hardware and re-build your Primary Server(s).


High Availability

'High Availability' is an option for key Primary Servers where you cannot afford "down time" even when a server failure occurs.

Presently we provide a solution based on Replication technology, later in 2009 we expect to offer a Virtualisation-based solution as well. The two approaches offer different advantages - so which option you choose will depend upon your individual circumstances.

Replication

Replication technology can safely copy data from a Primary Server (e.g. Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SQL Server) to a replica server and then provide for semi-automatic or fully automatic failover in the event of a failure of the Primary Server.

A properly configured replication system provides High Availability by providing a continually updated copy of your data without the backup window imposed by conventional solutions. Replication can failover from the Primary Server to the Standby Server in 10 - 15 minutes for any server failure (hardware or software) and like clustering, replication provides for a "controlled" failover in the case of a disaster.

Replication solutions are typically application-specific and provide "application-aware" monitoring to detect application failure and provide protection against data corruption through Continuous Data Protection (CDP) technology. CDP provides the ability to "rewind" or "back out" updates on the Standby Server to any point in the past before corruption occurred on the Primary Server.

Virtualisation

Available later in 2009, a Virtualisation solution will provide a "mirrored server" solution by running a virtual machine on two physical computers in lock-step. That is, Virtualisation will present the two boxes running an operating system and Windows applications as if it were a single machine - if one box fails - the other continues running uninterrupted.

What this means is that in contrast to Replication, Virtualisation will be able to provide Zero Down-time for hardware failures rather than a 10 - 15 minute outage.

For software failures however (say a Blue Screen of Death - BSOD) a restart of Windows will still occur and thus there will be an outage. If the BSOD resulted in data corruption, say Windows would not restart, then you would need to restore either from a virtual machine snapshot or in an extreme case your last backup. In either case, the outage would be greater than 15 minutes.

The key differences between Virtualisation and Replication are:

1. The "down-time" due to a server failure. With Replication, the down-time will always be 10 - 15 minutes for any server failure. In contrast Virtualisation will provide zero down-time for hardware failures but can potentially have longer outages in the case of a software failure.

2. Replication solutions are application-specific and need to run in a separate instance. Say you had a SQL Server and an Exchange Server that you wanted to deploy High Availability. You would need separate Replication licenses for each server, and each Standby Server would need to run separately. Virtualisation on the other hand is not application specific, provided the underlying boxes had the necessary resources you could "mirror" both virtual machines without incurring any additional costs.