Storage Area Networks For Dummies®

Chapter 6. SANs and Disaster Recovery

People don't like to think about really bad things such as disasters, but disasters do occur, and businesses need to be prepared for them. Being prepared for disasters is one of the main reasons why companies are investing in storage area networks, because consolidating data into an intelligent SAN makes replicating data much simpler than using noncentralized approaches.

Let's face it: Having a disaster-recovery plan for your business is an absolute necessity in today's world. Lots of things can go wrong and lead to data loss: fires, floods, building power loss, sprinkler systems going off, malicious employee actions, data corruption, equipment failure, natural disasters, acts of terrorism, viruses, political unrest, police action, and criminal mischief. If any of these events occurred, what would happen to your business? How would you restore your critical data, and how long would it take? How would you keep your business going in the meantime? Is everybody safe? Where would they go and what procedures should they follow if communications are down? Implementing a good disaster-recovery plan can pay for itself in hours if you have a real disaster.

Someone in your company needs to be on top of two related areas: a disaster-recovery (DR) plan and a business continuity plan (BCP). Whereas the DR plan focuses on getting things back to normal after a major disruption, the BCP keeps your business operations running in the meantime. The disaster-recovery ...