FEATURE: DISASTER RECOVERY //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
with the legal requirements of the territories
where they operate. This is especially the
case for local businesses who need to remain
cognisant of the Protection of Personal
Information Act as well as the General Data
Protection Regulation of the European Union
if they do business with member states. cloud, having access to offsite capability
that can be quickly scaled up may also be
important. However, having critical data
physically separated in this way suddenly
places greater priority on strong network
access, so extra or more reliable bandwidth
might be needed.
Storage location We also return to the issue of whether
the offsite provider can be trusted, as we
need to remember they too have their own
challenges to maintain service and foster
their own business agility.
Location is as important a part of the process
as the planning stage. Choosing on-premises
or an offsite location for data storage
can make a real difference to any given
company’s ability to react, with each having
their own strengths and weaknesses. A 3–2–1
strategy is one of the most popular choices
we see businesses make, which involves
keeping three copies of data on two different
types of media, with one being offsite.
Offsite data centres can be often more
convenient and reliable, as optimal
conditions for your servers and equipment
are always maintained, and tech support
and security are always on hand. If plans
include significant expansion using the
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INTELLIGENTCIO
Recently, South Africa saw the launch of
two Microsoft Azure multi-national data
centres providing businesses of all sizes with
a cost-effective, reliable and fast alternative
to international options. Again, the same
principles must apply. Ensure adequate
backups are in place, SLAs are adhered to,
and business continuity remain the focus.
Uncertain times
Planning for the worst by taking all these
elements into consideration can make
a massive difference when it comes to
mitigating the threat of outages and
downtime. However, a disaster recovery plan
on its own is still not enough. Businesses
need to be regularly testing the viability and
quality of their backups to be certain they
are completely recoverable and dependable.
The worst time to learn that the backup
procedure has not been working properly is
when they are the only option.
Economic and political climates remain
uncertain, but what is crystal clear is that
industry competition has become fiercer
than ever. Agility has therefore never
been more important, reflecting how
it can become a powerful competitive
differentiator. But this ability to act quickly
can disappear equally as fast, resulting in
catastrophic consequences.
Businesses face huge pressure to ensure
their services never falter and remain highly
responsive. They cannot afford to grind to
a halt. Planning for the worst is imperative,
recovery is key. This is how businesses
achieve and maintain their need for speed. n
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