Disaster Recovery is Dead - Long Live ‘Always On’!

We live in fast times, where a recent Google study showed that over half of users will abandon a website if it takes longer than 3 seconds (!) to load. Any business serving its customers online knows that if your website is down, users will no longer wait an hour and try again, they will go to the competition and get their product/service immediately.

It’s this fast pace of business that is driving the current revolution in IT architecture, where semi-automated Disaster Recovery (DR) processes that take many hours to recover from a site-level disaster are unacceptable

In some ways, this is the dark side of digital transformation - we’ve become as reliant on IT running the business as teenagers are on their mobile phone battery charge. Similar to the smart teenager taking a power-bank to avoid a “mobile phone outage,” infrastructure architects are now designing for site-level failure, building Always On data infrastructure to support the business need for non-stop operations.

This transition from DR to Always On data infrastructure is not without pain for many organisations.

Major business challenges range from technological and operational complexities, high costs, performance issues to having a reliable 24/7 Always on solution.

Currently, many organisations are struggling with traditional solutions that employ dedicated ‘Always On’ solutions (a.k.a. High Availability Gateways) that complicate administration and increase TCO. A key element is a solution that encourages organisations to protect more by not charging for protecting more applications and leveraging cost-effective IP infrastructure that can serve multiple use cases.

Customer user experience is paramount too in today’s aggressive business environment – when implementing an Always On solution one needs to consider how data management can be simplified and configured appropriately to reduce latency.

The pressures on business leaders are unprecedented to meet technological change, rapidly evolving customer expectations and increased competition from digital disruptors. Steering a business through these choppy waters can be challenging and costly. Retaining customers while also growing the customer base is essential.

TCO has to be built into any Always On strategy from the start, otherwise businesses face the prospect of being trapped in a costly, unsustainable plan. Non-stop data helps to grow a business reputation but it is that business’s ability to move quickly, to adopt new products and services that meet the needs of a changing customer base that will truly deliver company growth. This will demand a rethink in how businesses approach Always On capabilities. The days of DR are numbered. Modern, agile, Always On businesses require a more intelligent approach to keeping customers happy.

To find out more about how read our Always On solution brief.