Jump back to the start of this 3 parts series here.
More and more options are available to move Production or Fail-over systems to the cloud. This may be as simple as a customer-owned system moved to a co-location site. Or as comprehensive as fully outsourced systems, managed services and high availability. The variations can be limit-less, and also can start small and evolve as you progress. For instance, you might start with a Production system on premise, with a fail-over system at a co-location site. Or… you might determine that a co-location site offers more redundancy for infrastructure and predictable WAN access, and move Production to the co-location site, and have the fail-over system on premise.
What about something less than active replication?
If you can tolerate longer recovery times, options can be defined that don’t require the replication software, nor the additional Infor licensing. For instance, a “cold spare”, which can be tested on an annual basis, but is not in an active replication environment, can offer immediate access to hardware in the event of a disaster. Recovery Point would be based on your last backup. And Recovery Time would be based on how quickly you can restore your system and data to the recovery system.
Which option is best for me?
This is an important question. While a thorough discussion is needed, key points of that discussion include RPO and RTO goals, existing infrastructure and systems in place, backup strategies, etc.
Who “owns” the HA/DR strategy in your company?
It should also be noted that while the implementation of HA/DR technology becomes an IT task, the definition of the strategy should occur between the IT leadership and company leadership. Discussions should start based on an understanding of risks based on RPO and RTO, the possibilities and the impact of a true disaster. Also considering the potential costs to the company if no HA/DR strategy is in place, and the actual costs of an HR/DR approach as described above.
ISE has real-world expertise in navigating through the decisions above, and can provide guidance specific to IBM i and Infor XA. We welcome an opportunity to discuss your needs.
Contact a trusted advisor at ISE today!
