In the first part of this two-part blog series on the 10 criteria to selecting the right enterprise business continuity software, I took a look at the first four criteria. This second part covers the last six criteria and specifically examines where InMage Systems DR-Scout is at in delivering on these requirements.
Replicating data without any knowledge of what application is using the data or how it is using the data presents a substantial problem when it comes time to recover the application. Recovering applications such as Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint or SQL Server that keep multiple files open at the same time can result in inconsistent and unrecoverable copies of data at the DR site. Business continuity software must integrate with these applications such that it provides consistently recoverable images. DR-Scout currently
integrates with the aforementioned applications to provide consistent, recoverable images doe these applications. Development work is currently occurring at InMage to expand the number of applications with which DR-Scout integrates.
Provides multiple recovery points. A problem with a number of existing business continuity solutions is that it only provides one recovery point - the one right before the disaster occurred. However disasters are rarely ever that neat and tidy and sometimes companies are not even aware a disaster has occurred until hours after the disaster (think database corruption or wrong file loaded). Business continuity software needs to provide multiple recovery points so companies can rollback to a point in time right before the disaster occurred as well as give them multiple options to recover the data. Because DR-Scout is based on continuous data protection (
CDP) technology, when companies implement DR-Scout, they immediately receive this benefit.
Introduces little or no overhead on the host server. Putting agents on host servers provides a number of intangible benefits - application awareness, capture of all write I/Os, and even at what level the replication (block or file) that the replication will occur. However if using agent on the server consumes so many resources on the server that the application can not run, it negates the point of using the business continuity software. DR-Scout uses a
thin agent on hosts that copies the writes to its CX server appliances which then handles the workload associated with managing recoveries and replication.
Replicates data at different points in the network (host, network or storage system). Getting agents on every corporate server is usually never an option. Whether it is because of corporate service level agreements (SLAs), ignorance about the presence of new virtual machines or just good old fashioned corporate politics, agents are great but not an option in every case. In this case, the business continuity software should also provide options to capture data at either the network or storage system level. In this respect, DR-Scout differentiates itself from almost every other product on the market. Its host-based replication features are well-known but it also has
alliances with storage vendors (
iStor Networks and
Xiotech specifically) that use DR-Scout's underlying replication functionality. Also, because
Kumar Malavalli co-founded and is the former CTO of Brocade, it is logical to expect some similar technology to emerge in FC switches as some point in the future
Centrally managed. Enterprise business continuity software needs to monitor and manage where it is installed in the enterprise, what applications it is protecting, how much data it is replicating and the flow of replication from the production to DR sites. It also should provide a console from which administrators can manage recoveries anywhere in the enterprise. Companies can use the DR-Scout CX server appliance to schedule and manage replication for all servers that use that appliance as a replication target without logging onto each server.
Scales to manage replication for tens, hundreds or even thousands of servers. Enterprise companies sometimes fail to realize just how many application servers they actually have in their organization. Tens of servers is a given in even most small organizations with hundreds or even thousands of servers more common than not in any large company. The business continuity software should include an architecture that scales to account for this number of servers without breaking the replication processes or the bank. Part of the concept behind DR-Scout's design was to scale to meet these types of enterprise scalability requirements.
The requirements for providing higher, faster and easier means of enterprise business continuity have escalated dramatically in the last decade while the criteria for selecting the software remains rooted in yesterday's premises and assumptions. Today's corporations not only need to re-evaluate what software they are using to perform these tasks but even what criteria on which they should base these decisions. The 10 criteria covered in these last two blog entries should provide companies with the base line as to what features they need to look for when picking backup continuity software and how well InMage Systems DR-Scout can deliver on these new requirements for enterprise business continuity in today's distributed environments.
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