Buyers Guide to Comparing IBM iSeries Recovery Options: A Comparison of Hot Site, High Availability and Virtual Recovery Strategies
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by: SafeData
Today, advances in technology make it possible to protect your IBM iSeries with solutions that are affordable, easy to deploy and that satisfy comprehensive backup and disaster recovery plans. Since these solutions offer varying levels of protection and recovery, buyers need to compare the options carefully. Here, we will compare Hot Sites, High Availability and Virtualized Recovery in an effort to help you make the most informed decision in which solution best meets your business needs.
Hot Sites: Low Cost, Slow Recovery
Backup and disaster recovery for the IBM iSeries using hot sites is an inexpensive recovery solution in which a duplicate data site is established remotely. In the event of a disaster, the business is manually restored with backup tapes that are stored remotely, perhaps at multiple locations and sometimes unsecured.
•Advantage: Low cost
•Disadvantages: Risk of lost or damaged tapes, IT staff required to travel to hot site for restore, potential for human error when restoring, long recovery times that result in business downtime
High Availability: Larger Investment, More Complexity
High availability offers the fastest recovery of the IBM iSeries with minimal to no downtime, for the highest guarantee of business continuity. By creating a duplicate site that replicates data in real time to a remote facility over a dedicated connection, high availability can get a business back online within minutes in the event of disaster. Unless a business has a compliance or operational need for near-100 percent uptime, the high cost of high availability may not be necessary.
•Advantages: Fastest recovery, protection of data and applications, disk-based storage that preserves data integrity, remote backup and recovery that eliminates need for IT staff travel to backup facility
•Disadvantages: Larger investment, required investment in hardware and software, requires ongoing IT management
Virtualized Recovery: Low Price, Rapid Recovery
Virtualized recovery for the IBM iSeries is a growing trend among businesses that require RTO of 10 hours or less but can’t afford the cost or complexity of high availability. In the event of disaster, business applications and data are recovered to the IBM iSeries platform on the virtualized server. With virtualized recovery, businesses can be up and running in hours. For businesses that require RTO of 10 hours or less but don’t need the near-100 percent uptime of high availability, virtualized recovery offers an excellent solution that’s reliable and affordable.
•Advantages: Recovery within 10 hours or less, low cost and minimal investment in additional hardware or software, disk-based storage that preserves data integrity, recovery services that eliminate the need for IT staff travel to backup facilities
•Disadvantage: Insufficient RTO for businesses that need uninterrupted business continuity
The smart buyer is the one who chooses his solution wisely—and is careful not to invest in the wrong backup and recovery technology. Today, it has become more important than ever to embrace new technology and outsourcing as a means to achieve cost-effective and efficient backup protection for platforms like the IBM iSeries.
About SafeData
SafeData, LLC is a technology company focused on helping businesses protect their data, minimize downtime and recover and restore data quickly. SafeData delivers affordable subscription-based backup and data recovery services to businesses of all sizes and types, including high availability, electronic vaulting, virtualized recovery and telecom recovery services. SafeData's approach to backup and disaster recovery supports businesses with unique Recovery Time Objectives (RTO), using best-in-class technologies that are cost effective and reliable. For more information on, visit www.safedata.net.
About the Author
Larry Putterman is the author of this article on I Series Recovery. Find more information about AS400 Data Recovery here.
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