Networks Europe Mar-Apr 2016 | Page 10

10 NEWS Confidence to test and the wisdom to know Whatever your preference for off premise resources, disaster recovery and backup services are of paramount importance. But the Cloud Industry Forum has carried out some research that reveals a distinct lack of confidence. Many respondents said this represented the biggest risk to their business in the event of failure and Peter Groucutt of Databarracks thinks this is due to a lack of rigorous DR testing, rendering some plans unfit for purpose. The past returns to the future Nexsan, formerly Imation and now including Connected Data is bringing back what it describes as its highly efficient storage workhorse, the Beast. Responding they say to the data growth explosion and market demands, the Beast enables 60 drives - 480TB of efficient storage in a 4U Rack - and is ideal for high volume applications such as Big Data repositories. Bob Fernander Nexsan CEO says, “As data growth explodes, markets demand more cost effective ways to efficiently store data with reliability. With superior availability and scalability, Nexsan BEAST is ideal for high volume applications including digital video surveillance, big data repositories, data archives and disk-to-disk backup…” Commenting further Groucutt said that, “When it comes to disaster recovery too many organisations treat it as a documentation exercise. From our own research a significant proportion of organisations, notably SMEs, do not carry out regular testing on their DR plans. The impact of which has a huge knock-on effect. Only 28 per cent of non-testers were “very confident” in their plans compared to almost 60 per cent for those who test regularly.” Not satisfied with words alone, Databarracks has launched a ‘tabletop testing simulator tool’. Groucutt concludes, “… SMEs don’t have the same budget and time resources for DR planning and testing that's available to large enterprises… they need the same access to planning tools to build a robust BC/DR plan regardless of budget. Our simulator allows IT teams to test DR plans against a number of different disaster scenarios…” ����������������������� ����������������� ������������������ Total Comms Training have been helping networking and communications professionals develop their skills for over 15 years. We offer a broad range of training solutions to suit every sector. Our specialist training team come assured, qualified, highly skilled and focussed on developing your own staff’s expertise. n Datacomms cable training n Fibre optic cabling n Network installation training n Network design and planning Don’t lose valuable time due to network downtime - get trained, get totally trained! Call 0800 170 7007 or visit www.totalcommstraining.com to book your place securely online. Total Comms Training Ltd Centurion House, Barrows Road, Harlow, Essex CM19 5FN t 0800 170 7007 e [email protected] w www.totalcommstraining.com www.networkseuropemagazine.com TOTALCOMMS TRAINING