September 22, 2017
4 Ways to Prevent Data Center Disruption
According to the Ponemon Institute, the average cost of data center disruption rose 38 percent from 2010 to 2016, from $505,502 to $740,357. Maintaining competitiveness in data powered industries is dependent upon avoiding interruptions in availability reliability and security. As CIOs push to de-risk their IT strategies and strengthen their business continuity plans, five key considerations are pivotal to preventing data center disruption.
Advanced Power and Capacity Strategies
Outages commonly occur during peak usage times or when there is a sudden increase in workload, requiring a surge in energy that can cripple power sources. According to Data Center Knowledge, crippling failures, however, are not linked primarily to power outages themselves, but the failure of backup systems that are engaged after a power outage. Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) systems provide battery backup in the event of an outage and are vital to ensure your data center stays operational. These systems should also be integrated with your DCIM systems to ensure they are engaged rapidly in the event of an outage.
Another key step to improving your power capacity is increasing energy-efficiency. By ensuring that your data center environments are engaging energy-saving strategies, your infrastructure will require less power overall and can respond with agility to quickly pivoting usage demands. The most widely used industry standard is the LEED certification, which is driving the use of innovative technology in building outlay leading to drastic reductions in heat production and energy demands.
Dedicated Engineers and Support Personnel
When managing, monitoring and securing your data, the type of routine maintenance and site-specific protocol necessary to prevent data center interruption can be difficult to deploy in-house. It is vital that the team of engineers and IT professionals responsible for maintaining your infrastructure and optimizing performance remains consistent. Continuity in expertise is key to eliminating many costly human errors, gaps in visibility and delay in incident response. Furthermore, data center issues don’t occur solely during business hours. To proactively address problems and resolve them before they result in downtime, it is key to catch them early. Your data center management strategy should include 24x7 monitoring from an experienced support team, qualified to address your unique needs.
Business Continuity Planning
As extreme weather and natural disasters continue to make headlines across the United States, business continuity and disaster recovery planning should be a top priority for businesses of all sizes. When considering a Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) solution, near-continuous data replication that uses strategic backup intervals is key to minimizing any potential loss. Another consideration is geographic diversity in data replication, not only relevant to preventing downtime in the event of disaster, but also in terms of protecting your business from cybercrime. CSOonline.com recently discussed the importance of geographic diversity from a cybersecurity perspective, “Diversity of infrastructure both in type and geography can also help mitigate against DDoS [attacks].”
Furthermore, when crafting and implementing a comprehensive Information Technology Disaster Recovery Plan that includes cloud based replication, you need to have an in-depth understanding about your facilities ability to withstand natural and man-made disasters.
Eliminate Rogue Environments
When faced with a need to expand quickly, many enterprises spin up virtual and physical environments that lie outside of their master plan. These rogue environments present enormous challenges to the risk management procedures that prevent interruptions in data access and service. By limiting visibility and control, rogue environments can lead to gaps in monitoring and security protocols. A future-proofed hybrid IT strategy brings all of your environments, both physical and virtual, under a fully-integrated strategy, centralizing monitoring, management and security. This approach to centralized management also creates efficient intra-organization access to important data without interrupting project management processes. With more efficiency and integration, you will de-risk your day-to-day operations and free up more time for strategic planning and innovation.
Minimizing data center disruption is rooted in having a partner with the expertise, infrastructure and solutions required to meet constantly evolving IT needs. Our expert team can help you build a scalable IT strategy comprised of managed solutions with unprecedented visibility and control from the QTS Service Delivery Platform. Contact us today to learn more about avoiding costly disruption and future-proofing your environments with QTS.
Advanced Power and Capacity Strategies
Outages commonly occur during peak usage times or when there is a sudden increase in workload, requiring a surge in energy that can cripple power sources. According to Data Center Knowledge, crippling failures, however, are not linked primarily to power outages themselves, but the failure of backup systems that are engaged after a power outage. Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) systems provide battery backup in the event of an outage and are vital to ensure your data center stays operational. These systems should also be integrated with your DCIM systems to ensure they are engaged rapidly in the event of an outage.
Another key step to improving your power capacity is increasing energy-efficiency. By ensuring that your data center environments are engaging energy-saving strategies, your infrastructure will require less power overall and can respond with agility to quickly pivoting usage demands. The most widely used industry standard is the LEED certification, which is driving the use of innovative technology in building outlay leading to drastic reductions in heat production and energy demands.
Dedicated Engineers and Support Personnel
When managing, monitoring and securing your data, the type of routine maintenance and site-specific protocol necessary to prevent data center interruption can be difficult to deploy in-house. It is vital that the team of engineers and IT professionals responsible for maintaining your infrastructure and optimizing performance remains consistent. Continuity in expertise is key to eliminating many costly human errors, gaps in visibility and delay in incident response. Furthermore, data center issues don’t occur solely during business hours. To proactively address problems and resolve them before they result in downtime, it is key to catch them early. Your data center management strategy should include 24x7 monitoring from an experienced support team, qualified to address your unique needs.
Business Continuity Planning
As extreme weather and natural disasters continue to make headlines across the United States, business continuity and disaster recovery planning should be a top priority for businesses of all sizes. When considering a Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) solution, near-continuous data replication that uses strategic backup intervals is key to minimizing any potential loss. Another consideration is geographic diversity in data replication, not only relevant to preventing downtime in the event of disaster, but also in terms of protecting your business from cybercrime. CSOonline.com recently discussed the importance of geographic diversity from a cybersecurity perspective, “Diversity of infrastructure both in type and geography can also help mitigate against DDoS [attacks].”
Furthermore, when crafting and implementing a comprehensive Information Technology Disaster Recovery Plan that includes cloud based replication, you need to have an in-depth understanding about your facilities ability to withstand natural and man-made disasters.
Eliminate Rogue Environments
When faced with a need to expand quickly, many enterprises spin up virtual and physical environments that lie outside of their master plan. These rogue environments present enormous challenges to the risk management procedures that prevent interruptions in data access and service. By limiting visibility and control, rogue environments can lead to gaps in monitoring and security protocols. A future-proofed hybrid IT strategy brings all of your environments, both physical and virtual, under a fully-integrated strategy, centralizing monitoring, management and security. This approach to centralized management also creates efficient intra-organization access to important data without interrupting project management processes. With more efficiency and integration, you will de-risk your day-to-day operations and free up more time for strategic planning and innovation.
Minimizing data center disruption is rooted in having a partner with the expertise, infrastructure and solutions required to meet constantly evolving IT needs. Our expert team can help you build a scalable IT strategy comprised of managed solutions with unprecedented visibility and control from the QTS Service Delivery Platform. Contact us today to learn more about avoiding costly disruption and future-proofing your environments with QTS.
