What Is the Cloud?

The cloud isn’t as complicated as it may seem. The cloud is the Internet and all of the things and resources users can access with an internet connection. When someone says, “it’s in the cloud”, it simply just means it’s being stored on Internet servers instead of your local computer. 

When people think about the cloud, most of the time they only think of cloud storage, but cloud computing has numerous uses and many different benefits that are overlooked by many. Cloud computing can give you additional resources you may not physically own or have on your local computer or network. What can cloud computing do?

What Is Cloud Computing?

The cloud can do more than just store your and your company’s data in a metaphorical location far away from your central location. Cloud computing has helped many businesses by cutting costs, allowing for more flexibility, and helps optimize the utilization of resources. Cloud computing can do many things besides give you somewhere to store your data.

Besides data storage, cloud computing offers users software and services through the internet. Instead of only using the resources found on your local computer, you can access storage, software, and even services from the cloud. A couple of examples of cloud services are Google Drive, Dropbox, and Apple iCloud. Even streaming platforms like Netflix fall under the umbrella of cloud services. Cloud services allow you to access this information on multiple devices away from the physical servers.

A cloud service is a service that is available to users through the internet from cloud computing service providers. Variations of this are Software-as-a-Service,  Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and much more.

There are many As-a-Service services that businesses can use to benefit their business operations. Everything from Artificial Intelligence as a service, backend as a service, containers as a service, desktop as a service, test environment as a service, framework as a service, hardware as a service, IoT as a service, knowledge as a service, location as a service, monitoring as a service, network as a service, and plenty more. Cloud computing and its many different services will continue to be used for many benefits. One of the most beneficial services is disaster recovery as a service or cloud-based disaster recovery.

What Is Cloud-Based Disaster Recovery? 

Before we dive into what a cloud-based disaster recovery system might entail, let’s define what traditional disaster recovery is. Disaster recovery aims to reduce the impact of a disaster on your business by getting your company operations up and running as quickly as possible. Traditional recovery commonly has several key ingredients.

Traditional disaster recovery should have a separate dedicated facility to house the IT infrastructure and computing equipment. This will also comprise server managers and maintenance employees. It should also have adequate server capacity to allow for scalability. You will also need internet connectivity with enough bandwidth to allow for remote access. It should also have the normal network infrastructure that includes all needed switches, routers, and firewalls.

The difficulty of a traditional disaster recovery setup is that having a completely separate facility with all the proper personnel and everything else that goes into it. This is where cloud-based disaster can be beneficial.

Cloud-based disaster recovery fixes some of the issues that traditional disaster recovery are accustomed to. When it comes to cloud-based disaster recovery, you won’t need to build a second physical site or buy additional hardware and software. Cloud-based disaster recovery systems are also effortlessly scalable to the different phases of your business. Cloud-based disaster recovery is also more cost-efficient than building your secondary site because of its oftentimes pay-as-you-go pricing model. This type of recovery is also efficient because it can be deployed within minutes from anywhere.

Cloud-based disaster recovery can also be installed and positioned in numerous locations instead of one. This can improve the durability eliminating a single point of failure. You can have multiple backups in different locations. Data center cloud providers can also offer the best network infrastructure. You will also get ‘round the clock support and maintenance boosting the safety of your system.

Leveraging the Power of the Cloud

Earlier we discussed the many “as-a-service” services available through cloud computing. While a lot of these different services seem unrelated, using several different services together can strengthen your system. Many organizations are already taking advantage of platforms as a service or PaaS, which is a complete development and deployment environment all in the cloud. PaaS gives you the resources to deliver and deploy anything from simple applications to artificial intelligence.

Artificial intelligent technology has been applied to many different areas and trades of business including cybersecurity, healthcare, marketing, and more. While artificial intelligent technology can be advantageous for many businesses—it can also be very expensive. This is why artificial intelligence as a service (AIaaS) or artificial intelligence platform as a service (AI PaaS) can be beneficial. Combining artificial intelligence with your disaster recovery plan or for any of your business needs can be beneficial in many different ways.

Conclusion

The benefits of the cloud and cloud computing continue to evolve and grow. A lot of these services that can be offered through the cloud are helping businesses in many ways. One of these is cloud-based disaster recovery. Take advantage of all the cloud has to offer by partnering with a trusted colocation data center and reap the benefits for your business today.  

The post What Is Cloud-Based Disaster Recovery? appeared first on Colocation America.

What Is Data Center Recovery? 

Many organizations and industries as a whole rely on data for their operations. Trusted data center providers incorporate many technological innovations that ensure the protection of business vital data for many different companies. Although data centers have the best security and precautionary measures to help protect a company’s data—disasters can still occur. This is why disaster recovery is vital.

Disasters can come in many different forms, and data center managers need to prepare for all of the above. What may come to mind first when discussing the disasters themselves are natural disasters. This could be anything from earthquakes, typhoons, floods, or hurricanes. These types of disasters can wreak havoc on a data center, but there are additional forms of disasters that need to be taken into account.

Why Is a Data Center Disaster Recovery Strategy Important? 

Planning and having a strategy for disaster recovery can help reduce the severity and seriousness of the disaster itself. Not having a plan can be harmful to the recovery process and could potentially cause more harm to the business’ operations. Not having a disaster recovery strategy in place can also cause a loss in revenue for the company. Several different aspects can be included in a disaster recovery strategy.

The first thing that should be included is a comprehensive impact assessment for the business and company as a whole. This should also include the related costs if the system should go down. The next thing to consider including in the disaster recovery strategy is a set of recovery objectives assessing how much potential downtime there could be during a disaster. This could potentially help lessen the amount of data that is permanently lost. Planning and having a strategy can give a company the edge when trying to recover crucial information. Another thing to consider when putting together a disaster recovery plan is to make sure it mitigates business interference and delivers complete fault tolerance for every part of the computer task.

Traditional Disaster Recovery vs. Cloud-Based Disaster Recovery

Disaster recovery is crucial to a company’s operations, but there are different forms of disaster recovery depending on how your information is being stored. There is a tangible difference between traditional disaster recovery and cloud-based disaster recovery.

There are a couple of things involved in the method of traditional disaster recovery. When it comes to traditional disaster recovery, a second physical location is usually involved in housing the additional data center storage. Traditional disaster recovery requires manual operations at the disaster recovery site in case of interruption.

Cloud-based disaster recovery works the same as a cloud computing service and gives companies the ability to store and recover system data through a remote cloud platform. Disaster recovery through cloud computing involves storing your company’s critical data and applications in the cloud in case of disaster. Cloud-based disaster recovery can be automated which can potentially ease some stress during a moment of disaster.

What Are the Benefits of Cloud-Based Disaster Recovery?

Cloud-based recovery has several different benefits that improve on traditional disaster recovery. The first major benefit is that the company will not build an extra secondary site just to house the disaster recovery system. You also won’t need to buy the extra hardware or software to run this critical operation. Cloud-based disaster recovery uses cloud computing and cloud storage.

A cloud-based disaster recovery system is also effortlessly scalable depending on what the company needs are at the time. Also, just like other cloud services, cloud-based disaster recovery will often time be pay-as-you-go, which will be more inexpensive for many small to medium-sized businesses.

Another benefit is the speed of cloud-based recovery. If the time comes and you need to back recover information quickly, the process can be started in minutes from another remote location. All you will need is a connected device and an internet connection to access your disaster recovery.

Because of the nature of the cloud and cloud services, you can have numerous geographical locations eradicating a single point of failure. If one of the other backup data centers fail, one of the other ones will be safe.

A trusted data center provider has the most hi-tech network infrastructure that can identify and fix any problems quickly. Providers will usually have 24/7 support and maintenance ready for all of your needs. Whether it’s a disaster or even just upgrading your software, a good data center provider can offer your business the support you need.

How a Colocation Data Center Can Benefit the Cloud 

Partnering with a colocation provider can also have many benefits when connecting to the cloud. Redundant systems can provide maximum data security, real-time protection, dedicated and private networks provide maximum performance, archival storage, and off-site backups are all offered by colocation providers.

Your business will also take advantage of additional reliability by combining dedicated hardware assets with the cloud’s auto-failover. A colocation provider can also offer dedicated assets, a 100 percent effective way of assuring performance and reliability in all environments, applications, and instances. Lastly, the reason for disaster recovery is to reduce the impact of the disaster on your business. A colocation provider can offer 100% uptime so your business can continue with its everyday operations and what it does best.

Conclusion

The objective of disaster recovery is to reduce the total impact of the disaster on your business. Even a couple of extra minutes can cause significant problems for business operations and a substantial amount of money. Businesses can lose up to $5,000 every minute of downtime. Having a disaster recovery plan is crucial to keep a business going no matter what simple failures or disasters happen. Cloud-based disaster recovery can offer many benefits that traditional disaster recovery has been lacking.

The post How Does Disaster Recovery Differ between on Premise Data Center vs Cloud? appeared first on Colocation America.

Natural disasters can cause problems, as well, and you have no control over them. Power outages can remove access to the server and your data for unspecified amounts of time due to inclement weather and other disasters. In that case, you’re basically stuck until things are restored, but you need to know that your data is secure in the meantime.

Security breaches are disastrous for businesses. Not only do they impede your ability to access your database with confidence, but they weaken the confidence that your consumers have in your business. It helps clients and customers to know that there’s a plan in place to further safeguard their private information while keeping those files safe in one place.

Even human error poses a problem. Things can go wrong with technology. In all of these instances, data is at risk of being tampered with, stolen, or outright destroyed. Downtime diminishes your bottom line. It also brings interactions with your customers to a screaming halt. For that matter, if a potential customer visits your company’s website and can’t access anything, then they’re far more likely to move on to one of your competitors.

Downtime has negative effects on your employees, as well. Your bottom line suffers when it takes hours or, worse, days to retrieve your lost information. Every moment they sit waiting for the situation to correct itself represents a waste of money and time. All the while, there’s the potential to lose your clients permanently. Thus, you need to do everything possible to ensure that you can recover important data following a breach or disaster.

Backup vs. Data Disaster Recovery

Some businesses make the mistake of thinking that backing up data is the same thing as a data disaster recovery plan. While backing up your data is essential, it will not protect and maintain the same amount of data as disaster recovery. Your IT department should be aware of that. Make sure to discuss your options often and thoroughly.

Backups are a means of protection. In that way, they’re similar to disaster plans. However, backing up the data only makes additional copies of the information. It protects you from instances of a corrupted database, a software issue, or deletions.

Data disaster recovery is more of a plan. Specifically, it describes the process that you put into place to fix access to your essential applications, important data, and your IT department and its resources when there’s an issue. It can help you when a server goes down, when there are problems with your storage system, and when there are any problems with the function of your data center.

As you can see, having backup data is helpful in certain situations. That being said, your backups will not help you if there’s a data breach or a server outage. You won’t necessarily be able to reach your backup files, and even if you can, they won’t help you to get your server up and running again.

Terms to Know

The key to creating a disaster plan is to understand precisely what you need. For example, you should calculate your RTO, or recovery time objective, which is how long it will take you to recover data and resume day-to-day operations. That depends on how much time your business can lose, a number that’s different for every company. How long can you get back without access to your server and data? That will impact the details of your disaster data recovery plan.

Your RPO, or recovery point objective, is crucial, as well. The RPO is the data that you can safely lose if a disaster occurs. Some companies cannot lose any data, in which case they will need to regularly copy their information and send it to a remote center. Then again, it might not be a make-it-or-break-it scenario for your company to lose a few minutes or even a few hours of data.

Having a failover system in place may help you. In spite of its name, a failover is not a failure. Rather, it is a process that automatically and immediately offloads essential tasks to the system you have in place as a backup. For users, the process is smooth and seamless. You can effectively send data to another site that copies your existing systems. Consider it as a backup generator for IT processes.

Failback is a similar process. It involves switching the data back to your main system. This occurs once the disaster is over or successfully averted.

Putting a Plan in Place

There are numerous options for creating a data disaster recovery plan depending on the needs of your business. One option is to choose a disaster recovery service. In this instance, you retain the help of a third-party host. The service will be in charge of the infrastructure and processes to save and recover your data. It might involve tools that you or your IT department can use, or the third party might manage your data processes for you.

Another option is to choose a cloud service to backup your data. If you want a hybrid service, then look for a cloud that acts as a backup while providing you with the tools you need to access and organize your data after the disaster.

Prioritizing Tasks

It will help you to evaluate your priorities. What workloads are the most important? You may have a system that’s vital to your business. You need to prioritize that system as you put together your recovery plan. Conversely, applications that track time might not be important enough to worry about in the scheme of things.

A data disaster recovery plan is essential for your business and your customers. Not only will it save time and money in the long run, but it will also increase your customers’ loyalty to you and their confidence in you.

The post How Does Data Disaster Recovery Work? appeared first on Colocation America.

With their difference stated, it is important for managed IT services providers to understand that while they are separate plans and procedures, they are not mutually exclusive. A disaster recovery plan in place does not excuse you from regularly backing up your files. Backups keep your organization safe in the event of denial-of-service, accidental deletions, or ransomware attacks. DR plans to protect your mission-critical workloads from infrastructure failure, like virtualization host cluster failure events.

Credit: Information Age

To keep your data and your workload safe in the event, here are some of the best practices in the industry you can consider for your company.

Acquire Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS)

For smaller businesses or organizations without in-house IT expertise, outsourcing your DR is not a bad idea. DRaaS are offered by healthcare cloud companies where cloud resources are used to protect your applications and data in the event of a disaster. Since a virtual copy of your system is available online, it goes into action and keeps your mission-critical workloads afloat in the event of an IT disaster. In regular operations, your in-house infrastructure handles your processes. In the event of a failure, however, a secondary virtual copy stored in the cloud takes over and makes sure that you maintain operations without fail.

DRaaS offers a lot of advantages in keeping your important processes in the event of a failure. Since it is hosted on the cloud, you can rely on it to be available anytime and it can immediately cover in the event your physical infrastructure is left unavailable. Also, it is flexible in serving different configurations across different platforms so implementing DRaaS as a part of your plan is easy and fast.

Right now, the market for DRaaS is fairly segmented, with multiple players sharing the market almost closely with each other. You might want to do more research or make more inquiries to see which provider can best help you with your organization’s exact needs.

Utilize Secondary Data Protection Methods

The building blocks of data protection usually include backups, snapshots, and replicas. Backup has been earlier defined as a point-in-time copy of your files and settings you can reload in the event of a failure. Snapshots are reference markers for your data for every defined point in time, creating a copy of your machine’s disk file.

Replication, on the other hand, regularly makes copies of important virtual machines and applications. Usually, replication tools also leverage snapshots, except that when a segment of data changes, those changes are replicated to another system or site instead of on top of the same system.

The considerations for this practice has to be weighed properly since it will include significant investments for secondary or even tertiary storage devices and data banks.

Start Automating Your Backups with Appliances

Another rising backup technique over the past years involves the use of software-defined appliance-based methods using geo-redundant cloud copies. It allows your organization to enjoy automatic backups to keep them ready and accessible, regardless of the nature of the IT disaster you might experience. Your files are backed up onto multiple off-site data centers, keeping it safe and isolated from your own environment while keeping it online and available for your use.

Again, not all backup appliances are created equal. You might want to take a second look at what each solution provider offers in terms of both software and hardware. The database engine should employ the latest tech and allows for database expansion into large sizes to make sure it will cover your operations for a good period of time. Lastly, appliance software now has to only backup a file once. Requiring you to periodically start all over again still employs old tech without a relational database and will cost you time and money down the road.

Generate a Business Continuity Plan (BCP)

Every businessman knows that for each minute the business is on hold, it equates to large amounts of cash going right down the drain. In fact, Gartner, a research and advisory company, assesses that losses due to IT downtime averages at about 5,600 USD per minute and can go as far as 300,000USD per hour.

In their report, they detail that 98% of the organizations surveyed pegged their losses at more than 100,000USD per hour of downtime, 81% of which specifically notes that the same hour of downtime costs them more than 300,000USD. The only option to avoid this disastrous scenario is preparation. And even then, it does not perfectly eliminate the risk of downtime, only that it can save your most mission-critical processes and reduce the downtime you are looking at.

Credit: Commvault

Unfortunately, the use of business continuity plans is not as commonplace as we would like to think. The insurance carrier Nationwide published their findings that as much as 68% of small business owners do not have a documented disaster recovery plan. More than just winging it when disaster strikes, it is important to have a comprehensive plan that all levels in the organization can follow and understand.

In developing your company’s business continuity plan, understand that its main objective is to keep your business afloat and operational in the event of any untoward circumstances. Identify the scope of your plan, the key areas in your business, and the critical business functions that will take priority.

Also, you will have to conduct studies on the costs your organization will face for every minute of downtime and try to generate an acceptable period using measurables such as Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPO). In the end, a well-developed BCP will help you protect your company and prevent thousands of dollars in potential losses.

However, you go about it, covering both fronts is a win-win situation for you and your company in this age of relentless malware attacks and aging hardware. The downtime and the subsequent costs and operational interruptions should illustrate how essential these preventive measures are. With the right choices, you can definitely prepare a fail-safe plan to protect your important digital assets.

Main Photo Credit: GCN

The post Backup and Disaster Recovery Best Practices appeared first on Colocation America.

Photo Source: engadget

Data Center Operations Are Cutting Staff, Visitors, and Projects

As the world navigates through this pandemic, rules and regulations are being changed and implemented by different countries. All non-essential businesses are required to close until further notice. With this being said, the UK and the US State of California are among those who have listed data centers and telecommunications as essential infrastructure.

Because of these “safer at home” rules, more people are needing to work remotely, use more digital communication, and entertain themselves with streaming online video content—data center network and infrastructure will be more important than ever.

While data centers are considered an essential business and especially important in these times, many data center operators have needed to cut onsite staff, visitors, and even postpone projects because of the pandemic. The challenge of keeping their staff safe, and at the same time help slow down the spread of the coronavirus is a real concern for many data center operators 

Data Center Operations Best Practices in a Crises

According to the Uptime Institute, being well-prepared makes decision making during a crisis simpler and less stressful. Here are some suggestions from different experts in the industry on how to prepare for a crisis 

– Categorize essential and non-essential tasks. Scheduling them by necessity will help recognize which tasks can be postponed.

– Maintain personnel skills and keep them up-to-date. Make sure they have all the certifications they need. Because in a time of crisis, all hands will be on deck, so train personnel to be able to do other tasks.

– Have a contingency plan in place (in case there is a supply chain disruption or staff shortages.)

– Test new technologies in advance. If your data center isn’t already currently using an automated process or remote monitoring, test these technologies to see how they can work for your data center in times of crisis.

– Plan and test how your team will interact virtually in case of quarantine and social distancing were to happen again.

Photo Source: networkworld  

Most companies’ disaster recovery plans might not take into account a pandemic like the novel Coronavirus. But these plans can be adapted into a new emergency plan instead of completely building a new plan. If your company had plans in place in case of an earthquake or tornado, these can be modified into one for the Coronavirus or whatever pandemic may be next. If your company doesn’t have this in their current recovery disaster plans, add it as soon as possible.

Establish Workplace Health Protocols and Update Response Plans

Determining specific health procedures in response to a crisis like this and regular day-to-day operations is necessary. Your company should establish your staff’s health needs for both day-to-day and in crises and making sure these are ready to go at all times. There should be a stockpile of drinking water available, soap, sanitizers, and other cleaning agents in case of emergency.

As for crisis protocols in response to this specific crisis, data center managers should distribute a sanitizing wipe when people enter the data center, and maybe even having a non-contact thermometer ready to check the temperature of everyone entering the premises. 

A cleaning checklist should be created for the staff to make sure the data center isn’t contaminated. Making sure the data center isn’t contaminated will help protect the staff and slow down the spread of this infection.

Photo Source: volico

Remote Monitoring and AI Automated Systems Change How Data Centers Deal with a Crisis

Remote server access is the ability to access your network remotely. It allows users to access the system without being there physically. This can be beneficial in moments like these when operators can’t get to their data centers. 

For remote monitoring to perform in times of crisis, data center managers need to make sure a system is in place and ready to deploy. Planning

Artificial intelligence will enable unmanned automation. Data centers have been experimenting with a “lights out” data center. This is when a data center isn’t being monitored or supervised by people. Some people believe this new unmanned automated data center will make traditional data centers obsolete. Now while we’re not sure of how true this may be, we do know that an unmanned data center can be beneficial in times of crisis.

The automated data centers of the future will be monitored by DCMI software and Artificial Intelligence. This means when the next pandemic hits, data center managers can shelter in place at home while AI systems take over for the time being.

Conclusion

The data center industry is essential. Because more people are working from home, digital communication and connectivity is more crucial than ever before. Online video streaming services are also being utilized at a higher rate by those at home waiting to go back to work. Data centers need to be ready for these kinds of crises because other industries depend on it. This means data centers need to be prepared for times like these. Proper health protocols need to be in place and operators need to make sure the current response plan includes precaution for pandemics like Covid-19. Remote monitoring and Artificial Intelligent automated systems should be looked at more carefully and implemented if at all possible. New technologies can be the difference-maker for which data centers are still standing at the end of a crisis. At the end of the day, what’s most important is the health and well-being of the staff and the rest of the world. This is how data centers should be dealing with a crisis, and this is what these practices and procedures aim to do.

The post How Data Centers Deal with a Pandemic appeared first on Colocation America.

Asia has experienced the most natural disasters compared to all other parts of the world, according to a report by ReliefWeb, a leading humanitarian information source on global crises and disasters. There are as many as 20 earthquakes every year, having a Richter Scale of greater than 7.0. The effects of these disasters have more impact in developing countries compared with developed countries. The report also mentions that the probability of such events to happen in the future is on the rise due to rapidly changing climatic conditions.

On the other hand, Big data and Artificial Intelligence have taken the world like a storm and are transforming the world. Big data are a substantial volume of data, and it does not matter how much data you have. What matters is how you make use of this data available. Each disaster provides an enormous amount of data. A report by CityLab, After the Storm, a Flood of Data supports this statement. These data can be analyzed to save lives and reduce the impact of catastrophe next time it happens.

India and South Korea recently signed agreements that includes cooperation in the development of big data technologies for their applications, such as in disaster management. Meteorologist, Computer Scientists, Geologists, Scientists, environmental scientists all over the world are now putting their maximum effort to make use of the data available to reduce the damage caused by these disasters. These Data are called as the big data due to sheer volume and the velocity with which data is generated.

How Can Big Data Be Helpful?

With the advancement in the field of IoT and machine learning, Big data can be analyzed to improve the effectiveness of disaster management strategies. 

• Big data allows agencies who are involved in the evacuation process to plan accordingly during the time of a disaster. It can help them track the population of a particular region where the disaster is likely to leave more damage. Based on this data, rescuers can create strategies such as evacuation routes, resource staging, and identifying the shelter location for the rescued people. Some industry experts believe that 90% of global data available right now was made in the last two years, and by 2020 we would be having data of 44 zettabytes.
• By using surveillance and satellite imagery, it is possible to survey and assess the critical areas. For example, evaluating a flooded area can give data regarding the flood-prone zone, maximum water level rise, the reason for the increase in water level, and so on. These data can be used to create a strategy on how to prevent such events or how to tackle the issue next time when a similar situation arises.

Credit: Datafloq

• Big data can be used to predict offshore accidents. Marine sensors and data analysis can be used to understand the change in ocean currents, waves, water quality so that the impact of any disaster can be predicted. Based on this prediction, necessary measures can be adopted to reduce the damage that will be caused by such disasters. According to a report by PAT Research, these methods are used to predict the offshore accidents, Tsunami, and other natural disasters along Canada’s West Coast.
• Unmanned aircraft systems(UAS) are useful at times of a disaster for rescue operations and tracking. UAS can be used to give the visuals of areas that would be difficult to access. Data provided by UAS can be analyzed to help rescuers to create rescue strategies. Governments have now started funding for developing the same after realizing how effective those systems can be during the time of a calamity. 
• Data collected from survivors of a disaster helps understand the safety measures to adopt in the future. In the past few years, people have started making use of social media platforms such as Facebook to request help by tagging their location. It has helped in alerting the officials to initiate the rescue measures as well as it has also helped them understand the present situation of that particular region. Even Google and Facebook have developed systems that can help people during these disasters. Google Person Finder is one such example. Facebook’s ‘safety check service’ is another example.
• Seismic sensors are those devices which respond to ground motions caused by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and explosions. The sensors detect primary waves, which are the first seismic sound waves an earthquake generates. A graphical image plotted by analyzing the data given by these sensors is useful in tackling the event. A proper warning can be given to the public in such cases, which helps to save the lives of people.
• Big data being able to predict calamities have made it possible for the officials to communicate with the public at the earliest. Disaster preparedness, a vital aspect of disaster management, is executed swiftly with the timely prediction of a calamity. When a disaster strikes, people would feel helpless and scared. By giving early speculation about the catastrophe, people can be prepared to face the failure. In short, we can prepare people for an emergency with the help of Big data analysis.
•  Big data will provide a deeper understanding of the economy and how it is interconnected. Big data analysis can also provide details to the Government, such as how the disaster would indirectly affect other sectors. It can show the devastation of agricultural lands due to a catastrophe and predict what will be its effect on different sectors such as transportation, trading, and so on. Timely intervention from the Government will help reduce its impact on the economy as a whole.
• Government having data about the earthquake-prone areas of a country can advise officials to ensure that buildings are constructed in a way that can withstand earthquakes of small magnitudes without causing any damage to life and property.

Big data have an essential role to play in all phases of disaster management and will continue to be an integral part of disaster management in the years to come. Many natural hazard forecasting systems depend on Big data. Early warning systems for Tsunami, Storm, forest fire, flood, and so on, which is made possible by Big data, has helped reduce the amount of damage. Prediction, detection, development of appropriate strategies using Big data is the way to tackle the disasters without much impact on life and property. 

Big data analysis is not an easy task and has lots of limitations. Even with all those limitations, it is believed that jobs on big data would be in high demand in the future. Big data is here to stay and will be here for years to come.

The post How Large Is the Importance of Big Data in Natural Disaster Response appeared first on Colocation America.

From wildfires in California to hurricanes on the Gulf Coast, natural disasters have had an indelible impact on countless American communities over the course of the last year. What’s more, once the wall-to-wall news coverage subsides and their plight fades from public consciousness, victims of tragedies like these must contend with a long, challenging journey to rebuild their communities.

As is the case for individuals and families, getting up and running in the wake of a disaster can be incredibly daunting for many businesses. With the Federal Emergency Management Agency reporting that 40 percent of small businesses never fully recover from natural disasters, planning for the worst is, in fact, best practice. While no amount of foresight can prevent hurricanes, wildfires, or earthquakes from impacting your company, drafting a disaster recovery plan—and knowing how to enact it—can be the difference between shuttering your doors for good and reopening them in a matter of weeks.

Despite this reality, only 25 percent of small businesses have a business continuity plan in place. Granted, business continuity and disaster recovery aren’t one and the same, but the fact of the matter is that preparing (and refining) a disaster recovery plan is a must—especially when it comes to protecting critical IT infrastructure.

As businesses grow increasingly reliant on high-performing networks and sprawling datasets to deliver value to clients, IT protection has become an outsized component in many disaster recovery plans. If you and your team are preparing to draft a plan of your own, make sure you carefully consider the following eight steps. https://www.youtube.com/embed/JcSpjHKxJYY

1. Determine the Scope of Your Project

First, you need to understand what your end goal is. If you’re a company that’s completely dependent on quick and easy access to your data to stay in business, your IT disaster recovery plan should focus on ensuring your proprietary information is kept safe and secure—even if your onsite hardware experiences critical failures. For most small and mid-sized businesses, this means exploring offsite data storage options like public cloud storage and/or data center colocation.

2. Consider Your IT Vulnerabilities

After articulating your end goal, you need to develop a comprehensive understanding of your most glaring vulnerabilities, paying particular attention to the historical disaster risks in your geographic region. While the best disaster recovery plans aim to protect as many assets as possible, you’ll likely have to make difficult prioritizing decisions in order to ensure that the most important facets of your business aren’t at risk.

If, for example, your number one concern is your onsite hardware and the most common natural disaster in your area is flooding, protecting your hardware from water damage—and having contingency plans in place in the event these protections fail—is of paramount importance.

3. Conduct Risk Analysis

At this juncture, you should already know what your vulnerabilities are and have put safeguards in place to counteract them, but you might not know exactly how these safeguards will respond in a crisis. This is when risk analysis comes into play.

Conducting a thorough risk analysis is tantamount to performing a “stress test” designed to help you understand precisely how vulnerable you are given your current counter-disaster infrastructure. By gaining this perspective, you’ll be better positioned to protect your most valuable assets.

4. Identify Recovery Strategies

After stress testing your safeguards, the next move is to identify the most efficient and cost-effective recovery strategies. Ideally, this calculus will take account of both your most pressing IT vulnerabilities and the performance of your safeguards during your risk analysis.

If, for instance, you’ve determined that your onsite data storage is your greatest vulnerability, you should map out the most efficient way to migrate data stored in a public cloud or colocation center back into your system after disaster strikes.

5. Draw up a Plan

At this point, you’re ready to begin assembling your IT disaster recovery plan in earnest. This will involve collecting the insights you’ve gathered and codifying them in an easy-to-understand, sequential guide.

For example, if you’ve opted to entrust a public cloud provider with the storage and management of your data, your disaster recovery plan should clearly lay out the steps that need to be taken to contact the provider and get your IT environment back online after a critical systems failure.

6. Test Your Disaster Recovery Plan

Drawing up an IT disaster recovery plan is a step in the right direction—and, as illustrated above, probably puts you ahead of many of your competitors—but once you think you have everything in place, it’s important to test your plan to ensure that each step unfolds as intended. After all, the best time to figure out that your recovery plan needs work is before disaster strikes—not after.

7. Train Team Members

Once you’re confident in your plan, it’s time to introduce it to your team. Ideally, you’ve been consulting with key personnel throughout the previous six steps, but regardless of the degree of collaboration in your planning process, it’s incumbent on you to ensure that everyone in your organization knows what will happen in the event of a flood, hurricane, wildfire, or any other catastrophe.

In fact, bringing your employees into the loop is a great way to get your plan vetted by people with diverse perspectives, who may be able to spot something you’ve overlooked.

8. Update and Revise Your Plan

f course, while we all hope we never have to put our IT disaster recovery plan into action, it’s worthwhile to regularly revisit and, if necessary, revise your plan. Does it still make sense in light of changes to your operations?

Have vendors introduced any new products or services that you want to incorporate into your recovery plan? By asking these kinds of questions, you can update your plan as needed—and be sure you’re prepared if and when the next natural disaster strikes.

The post The 8-Step IT Disaster Recovery Plan appeared first on Colocation America.

Importance of a Data Management Plan

Creating and preparing your data management plan has a lot of benefits. It is an integral part of creating an organized report and will affect the totality of your research – from top to bottom.

Research Accuracy
Let us face it, when you are making a research or a report, there are a lot of references and sources that you can choose from. However, the integrity and accuracy of the data you gathered will always be in question – how reliable the sources are or how will these sources impact your research? The accuracy of your research will depend on how reliable and accurate your data are.
Goal Oriented
What is the goal of your research? What do you want to achieve? Getting the right data for your research will help you communicate your bottom line.
Results Driven
The positive results of your research will always be connected with what your goal is, and this will be achieved through the careful accumulation of the data that you needed.
Ease of Data Loss
As you complete your research, it is important to have a central and backup data storage. The last thing that you would want to happen is to lose all the sources that you have used in your research. Having a data management plan will help you accomplish the before and after parts of your research. It will give you the best possible solutions to mitigate some of these challenges.
Cost Efficiency
The data management plan helps you reduce possible costs. Why? The answer is simple, you do not want to have any duplication, or the need to change your research because of lacking data, or inappropriate data. It saves you a lot of time, resources and even the cost associated with the research.
Now that we are done discussing the importance of having a data management plan, it is also vital to cover the simple rules in creating a good management plan. Here are the Ten Simple Rules that you can follow in creating a good Data Management Plan.

A Good Data Management Plan in 10 Simple Rules

Rule Number One – Identify Roles and Tasks
Before you start creating an outline of your research, or before you start building your research project, it is important to understand and make an outline of the designation roles and tasks of the people who will be working with you on the project. This will help you maximize the skills and competencies of your team. Who are your stakeholders, your technical team, your research team, and your editors? You need to know each one’s designation to so there will be no overlapping of tasks.
Rule Number Two – Stakeholder Requirements
Now that you were able to address the roles and tasks, it is also crucial to know what your research sponsors or stakeholders need from the research project. It is just like embarking on a journey before you book an airline ticket, you need first to know where you are going, right? It is the same thing as doing your research project, you should know that your research is about, and what your research sponsors need.
Rule Number Three – Data Collection Outline

Another important piece of the data management plan puzzle is knowing what data are to be used and collected. Create a list of data that you would be needing. Consider the following: the type of data needed, where you will get the data, how many sources or references do you need, and the type of file format. It will aid you in making your research process more efficient. Researching and saving resources that might not be useful is counter-productive.
Rule Number Four – Date Use and Documentation
You should also be able to identify how your data will be used in your research. You might need to remove some resources that are not useful, and you might need to add other resources. Once you delete and add, there should be a proper checklist on which ones were removed and added. It will be easier for you to track the changes made.
Rule Number Five – Data Protection
As you add, delete and save your resources in a certain location, data loss will be inevitable. That in mind, what will be your security measures to ensure that your sources will not be deleted or lost? Will you restrict the access and just ask a data handler? There should be a quality control in place as you search, save, and release data.
Rule Number Six – Create a Resource and Data Summary
One of the most difficult parts of conducting research is keeping all information relevant and readily available. What we suggest is for you to create a summary of the sources and data that were researched, this way it will be easier for everyone to check all the information, without the fear of data loss, and data duplication.
Rule Number Seven – Create a Data Policy and Standard Procedure

Keep in mind that there will be key players in your research team that might get sick, and might not be able to work for certain days. Or, you might need to bring in another resource for your team. Having a standard policy procedure will help new members go through the project easily.
Rule Number Eight – Create a Reasonable Budget
Did you know that there are costs associated with your project, and even in your data management plan? Not all hardware or software that you will be using for your data management is free. Allocating a certain amount of your data management plan is important. Even the people who will be part of your team should also be properly compensated. Lastly, some of your resources might not be free too, so the budget will help you maximize all your research needs.
Rule Number Nine – Multiple Data Storage
Some of the problems that most research projects face are the loss of data and file or data corruption. You should not just rely on one data storage, it will be best to get at least three areas where you can store your data. This way, if one storage gets corrupted, you still have two more to check on.
Rule Number Ten – Contingency Plan
What will be your contingency plan should you encounter any research problems? How will you communicate any changes to your stakeholders and even team members? Also, what will be your plans in cases where your sources are not enough, or if you find a new source and find the content relevant to your research, how will you implement the changes and updates? These should be indicated by your contingency plan.
These are the fundamental rules for creating your data management plan. The data management plan helps you create a good foundation for your research project. It will also show your stakeholders, and research sponsors that you have a comprehensive plan in place to properly, and efficiently complete the required project.
References:
https://www.smartdatacollective.com/10-rules-creating-good-data-management-plan/
https://channels.theinnovationenterprise.com/articles/ten-simple-rules-for-creating-a-good-data-management-plan
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4619636/
http://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004525

The post Ten Simple Rules for Creating a Good Data Management Plan appeared first on Colocation America.

How Are EMPs So Destructive?

The basic definition of EMPs is “an umbrella term identifying two forms of damaging high power electromagnetic signals.”
So, what exactly is “high power,” in regards to these pulses? Let’s get math-y!
Volts per meter (V/m) is the standard unit of electric field strength used to determine electromagnetic immunity in equipment, most of which can survive pulses of around 10 V/m.
A standard EMP causes a pulse of much more than 10,000 V/m. So, you kind of see the problem.
There’s also HEMPs (High-altitude Electromagnetic pulses), which measure more than 50,000 V/m and IEMI (Intentional Electromagnetic Interference) which is an deliberate EMP used to cause destruction and can be anywhere inbetween.

The Concern
Public data centers which today house humanity’s entire society (government functions, personal and corporate information, etc.), are crucial to the everyday lives of the people of Earth. A data center struck by an EMP would have devastating effects since most data centers nowadays do very little to protect themselves from these pulses.
In fact, a 2008 United States government report states that recovering from an EMP striking a data center (and more likely, the power grid supplying it), would take anywhere from four to 10 years and could cost more than $2 trillion.

What Causes EMPs?

We’ve mentioned space already, but it really isn’t “space” that’s sending these pulses. The most likely culprit from space is the thing we can’t live without: the Sun. That’s right, the thing that nourishes all life on this planet, is the very thing that could destroy those family photos you put up in iCloud.
Solar storms, if you remember all the way back to 2014, have already caused electrical interference on Earth. And that was just one passing by. A direct hit would have more devastating effects than just data centers, but one that hit just a little bit more is enough to send us back to pen and parchment.

Space isn’t the only place EMPs come from, however. Topically, those massive HEMPs get emitted from nuclear blasts.
A nuclear detonation 60 miles up in the air would send 1.5 million square miles of HEMPs around the globe.
So how do we protect our precious data from EMPs? Luckily, the world is beginning to take notice.

How Data Centers Can Protect Themselves from EMPs

EMP shielding for data centers is something that’s been on the table since the Critical Infrastructure Protection Act (HR 3410) of 2013. The act required the government to educate owners and operators of critical government infrastructures (i.e. data centers) of EMP threats.
This has gotten the attention of data centers all over the globe and they have started implementing EMP protection as part of their marketing.
In fact, remember this article about crazy data centers around the globe? Most of the ones underground have been selling their EMP protection for a while now (NOTE: that’s not because being underground makes you safe from EMPs—these particular data centers are just crazy about disaster recovery and protection from natural disasters).
To be absolutely sure your data center can stand up to any type of EMP, they have to undergo rigorous, meticulous, and costly structural planning, testing, and certification procedures.

Emp Protection Guidelines for Data Centers

According to Data Center World, EMP mitigation and protection inside a data center is broken down into two levels.

Level 1: EMP Protected Environment
Level 1 means that your equipment is shielded enough that you it will survive a pulse. This does not mean that all the other bells and whistles of a data center (the power, cooling, etc) will. It just means that after those utilities are restored, so will your data.

Level 2: Independent Power and Utilities
Level 2 means that your data will be operational and accessible before, during, and after an EMP due to independent utilities which are also EMP protected. To be considered “Level 2” a data center must have HVAC, Generators, and Telecommunications be protected.

Examples of Data Centers That Are EMP Protected

In Boyers, PA, EMP Grid Services opened up a 2,000 sqft EMP-protected data center. They claim the center will protect customer data from EMPs resulting from solar storms, nuclear blasts, or IEMIs.

Kris Domich, a founding member of EMP Grid Services, is on the record saying that it does not cost much to protect a data center from EMPs.

Domich said the idea for the EMP-resistant data center came from a customer, an insurer, that wanted to protect its data from electromagnetic pulses.

Lifeline Data Centers Fort Wayne facility is set to open and also be shielded from EMPs, even though it initially wasn’t planned to. It added a year to the construction timeline, but members say it was worth it since the facility is being billed as their flagship location.

There’s some final words on EMPs that haven’t yet been addressed: the probability.

If they are such a threat, why haven’t they gotten much attention? Why hasn’t there been an attack before?
Well, the truth is that a data center being felled by an EMP is, in all probability, not likely. That does not mean, however, that it can’t happen at all.

There are detractors that say if an EMP takes out a data center, that there are likely larger concerns that need to be taken care of due to the fact that a solar storm or nuclear blast would have much more devastating effects than a few servers losing their data. But, when push comes to shove, would you want your data to be protected anyways?

The post The EMP Threat: Is Your Data Center Protected? appeared first on Colocation America.

System Failures

System failures are the most common and tend to be the easiest and cheapest to prepare for. These should be your first concern with your Disaster Recovery plan. Such failures cover the components of a server including disk failure, power supply failure, RAM failure, etc.
To protect your system against component failure, it can be as simple as having a backup hardware component that your system reverts to, or complex as multiple disk images spread across multiple servers with backup cooling and power, ensuring redundancy across the entire system.

Infrastructure Failures

It doesn’t take that large of a business to need a system more secure than one operated out of an office closet in the company building. A severe power outage can last many days or weeks, and it is rare that an office building’s backup systems are prepared to operate for this long.
This is where colocation and dedicated data centers come in. A dedicated data center will have expert staff on board to handle all the different aspects of a fully redundant system. A Tier-3 comparable colocation facility, such as those operated by Colocation America, will have redundant (N+1 / 2N) UPS systems and redundant cooling (N+1 CRAC Units) systems that are connected to diesel generators that are banked using Automatic Transfer Switches (ATSs). The ATSs provide redundancy against generator malfunction or failure.

Automatic transfer switches

Furthermore, good colocation facilities will also ensure that they have adequate fuel to last for at least seven days, and have preferred fuel supply contracts to ensure adequate fuel supplies past seven days.
Clearly, it is not possible for every business to maintain this level of redundancy at an affordable cost. Colocation facilities can amortize the cost of maintaining such systems due to the scale of the operation and the fractional cost of the systems spread over many customers.
It’s also often cheaper than many businesses realize, especially considering the level of protection a data center can provide over an in-house setup. A data center’s job is to make sure your servers are running 24/7.
Another consideration besides power is Internet connectivity or bandwidth. The best colocation facilities make use of Internet backbone connections to ensure that connectivity problems have limited impact—if they ever arise.
If handled correctly, colocation is one of the most powerful steps your business can take to compete with rivals whose in-house network capabilities might exceed your own.

Natural Disasters

For larger companies or companies where a higher level of redundancy than mentioned above is required, distributing your systems across data centers in different geographies can be a necessary option. As an example, during Superstorm Sandy, a data center in New York experienced issues so serious that it required a bucket brigade formed by customers and their staff to bring fuel up the 17 flights to their back up generator—full story here.

This is not something any serious business would want to deal with, so spreading your mission critical data and compute systems across a variety of geographic profiles becomes the required option to ensure that they keep running.
Some examples of issues that one may encounter with a single data center approach:

• Due to a severe thunderstorm, snowstorm, or even a tornado, power goes out at a data center and backup power systems may or may not work
• With extended outages, back up power systems run out of fuel and fuel supply lines for emergency fuel delivery are also disrupted
• If there is torrential downpour and the data center is in a flood zone and it gets flooded
• A severe heat wave hits and cooling systems break down
• An earthquake hits and cabinets are knocked over and seriously damaged.

Or an entire utility fails as was the case in March 2011 when a tsunami seriously damaged the Fukushima Nuclear plant in Japan. The point being, these disasters are not uncommon and it is prudent to be prepared for such events.
A solid DR strategy that incorporates multiple geographies that are quite far apart (for example having a DR strategy that incorporates a data center in San Francisco and another on in Oakland is not viable) can help mitigate downtimes that happen because of natural disasters. A good managed service provider with a solid DR service can help you set one up.

Ultimate plan “Just short of the Moon”

The ultimate Disaster Recovery plan would incorporate a worldwide distributed system with data, compute and power redundant across multiple geographic profiles in different countries across the planet. Basically a data center everywhere except the Moon.

This would probably include data centers such as this underground “fit for a James Bond villian” model. This may seem like a laughable proposition, but underground data centers are actually more common than you might suspect.

Risk/Cost Analysis of Disaster Recovery

Having reviewed how redundancy can protect your system against systems failures, infrastructure failures and natural disasters, a Business Impact or risk/cost analysis can be performed—as discussed in our first blog post in the series.
One of the simplest thing that you can do is relocate your systems to a Tier-3 comparable data center and protect yourself from infrastructure failures. Following that, if a colocation provider can also provide other managed or cloud services, you can then have a conversation with them about disaster recovery, tape backup or other managed hosting options that can give you additional resiliency and improve your uptime.

The world’s most meticulous planning for disasters striking your IT systems won’t mean much if you can’t reliably recover your systems once disaster strikes. If you’ve been following along with our series on Disaster Recovery, you’ve already done your Business Impact Analysis (BIA). If not, hop over to part one of the series as the BIA is going to be a critical part of your recovery plan.

Business Impact Analysis (BIA)

Your BIA will act as a guide to which systems are considered high priority when implementing your Disaster Recovery plan. The most vital systems, naturally, should be addressed first. They will also be the first to be tested when you begin to develop your disaster recovery plan, and down the road as you implement a testing schedule to ensure your plan always works in case of a disaster.

Testing Your Disaster Recovery Plan

Testing is another integral part of your DR planning—without it, how will you know if the systems you’ve put in place for recovery actually work? How will you know whether or not you’ve accounted for all of the issues you might encounter? Will you be sure you included the most efficient processes for recovery?

Considering how many possible problems you could encounter that would prevent your system from operating as planned, it’s best to view your initial plan as the starting point, and regularly add improvements to the overall strategy.
With all of this in mind, it’s hard to believe that some businesses don’t test their Disaster Recovery plans. Yet, according to SearchDataCenter, most businesses actually don’t test out their systems, whether it’s the whole plan or just parts of it.
Besides making sure that your DR plan actually works, testing will also help you find ways to make the execution of your DR plan more efficient. For example, as you test out the system, you may find a way to recover your company’s email faster than your original method.
Additionally, it’ll allow you to discover areas your initial plan didn’t cover, reinforcing the need to continually maintain and update your DR plan as new needs arise.
For your IT team, testing will allow them to demonstrate your organization’s ability to recover from a disaster, something that will be very important from management’s perspective, and may even be a requirement if you work in a regulated industry.
Furthermore, the initial test of your system is only the first step—your DR plan should incorporate a schedule to continually test the recovery of your systems. A regular testing schedule allows you to continue to identify inefficiencies and pieces missing from your original plan. Adding a new application to your workflow may introduce a new variable that you may need to consider when performing recovery. This may be configured as you review your DR runbook with your DR partner.
The most important reason, though, for setting up a testing schedule is because things will always change. Your IT systems will never stand still as your business grows and technology improves. What worked for recovery one quarter may not work the next as your critical systems are improved and scaled to handle increased demand.
A testing schedule will provide training for your entire team—it’s easy to forget or become inefficient at a process you only perform once a year. Also, as new team members join and former members leave, it becomes vital that new ones are properly trained in DR procedures so that your company’s DR expertise doesn’t leave with the employee.
While there are various types of tests you can run, the following are the most common:

• Run-Book (Checklist) Tests: A set of run-book items the Managed DR team and the corporation’s internal IT team are supposed to follow in the event of a disaster. A periodic review of the run-book may uncover some inconsistencies or modifications that may be required if an internal process, application, or software has changed. An actual DR drill is not required in this case. This test can be conducted every quarter with the Managed DR Services partner.
• Simulation Tests: Used to simulate possible scenarios that would require DR. It can be a scenario where a particular set of applications go down, or a scenario where the whole IT staff has taken ill (for example if the IT staff all go out to a restaurant the previous night and have succumbed to food poisoning or a hepatitis outbreak), and the Managed DR partner is tasked with supplementing the basic IT functions. The idea of a Simulation Test is to simulate the actual disaster and exercise the portion of the checklist that has been chosen for that scenario. This test can be conducted every 6 months with the Managed DR Services partner.
• Full Interruption Tests: Full scale Business Continuity exercises if all systems were to go down at the primary site. This is the most comprehensive DR test for all systems and provide assurance that the business can continue to function, possibly in a degraded manner.

We hope we’ve provided a thorough, high-level overview of the importance of Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Planning. We’ve discussed possible disasters that can affect your business, looked at performing a Business Impact Analysis to identifying mission critical systems, and discussed common failure modes, as well as how to mitigate them and the importance of recovery and recovery drills. If you have any additional questions, download our “Comprehensive Disaster Recovery Guide” or feel free to contact a member of our team.

The post Disaster Recovery Part 2: Common Failures & Predictable Recovery appeared first on Colocation America.