Our world is becoming increasingly reliant on data and failure to protect it can be catastrophic. That may sound like hyperbole, but the loss of data can literally mean the loss of your business. Whether it’s the threat of hackers, system failure, or human error, data protection should be at the forefront of every business’ mind. Unfortunately, not every business is prepared for all risks against data loss, including natural disasters.
As for data protection preparedness, a large, Italian data center and telecommunication services company learned the hard way. One day, due to an AC failure, they fell victim to a fire that ravaged their data center. Many of their storage devices were completely fried; along with the tapes they held for disaster recovery (which they kept on-site).
The tapes were melted entirely, leading to a potentially devastating scenario of data loss. In addition, their EMC Data Domain CPU, which they used for protection storage for operational recovery, was destroyed. In fact, everything was damaged except for the metal disks inside the system.
This is only one example where a company’s data protection strategies were not able to stand up against a potential disaster and this type of disaster can happen to anyone. However, there are certain steps you can take to ensure your data is protected.
- Eliminate the use of tape for long term retention or disaster recovery
- Ensure your disaster recovery system is off-site, making it less likely to be affected by a potential natural disaster
- Utilize a single data protection vendor
Even in the wake of this disastrous fire, the company’s data center was salvageable. Due to the Data Domain Data Invulnerability Architecture, the entire index database was rebuilt in a mere 7 hours, after a simple head swap. Every single file (74 TB) was recovered and the system was back online in less than 24 hours.
By leveraging EMC Data Protection Software with their Data Domain, the customer is able to get even more value through the benefits of a complete data protection solution. Companies that work with a single data protection vendor have a much smaller chance of data loss, compared to a 33% chance with 2 vendors and 38% with 3+ vendors.
All in all, protecting your data requires the right technology as well as a well-designed plan to protect against the unexpected. So let me ask you – are you protected?