Business continuity for small to medium-sized enterprises

First Aid

Article from ADMIN 08/2012

By Thomas Zeller

As a low-budget alternative to SAN and clustering, companies can use a combination of image backups and virtualization to quickly and easily restore a server after a hardware crash. Windows administrators will find help for this task in the form of ShadowProtect from StorageCraft.

For cost reasons, small to medium-sized enterprises often rely on a single Windows server as their server infrastructure. The server typically runs on the Windows Server 2008 R2, Small Business Server 2011, or Windows Server 2008 R2 Foundation platform. Besides Active Directory, the server typically also supports file services, email/groupware, SQL, or terminal services. Also, it typically supports a business application, such as an ERP system or an industry-specific application. Typically, data is backed up to tape or USB disks directly connected to the server. Databases are typically backed up with the use of a professional backup tool. Other consoles for management tasks (e.g., for antivirus software) are also normally hosted on the server.

Increasing Dependencies

The server and the applications thus are the blood in the veins of the company's IT infrastructure. A server failure will inevitably lead to loss of productivity. Depending on the industry, the consequences of a server failure can be even more unpleasant – for example, if a doctor does not have access to medical information in an emergency or if other urgently needed data are stored only in electronic form and thus are unavailable.

Of course, hardware manufacturers offer corresponding warranty agreements or additional service packs to safeguard against the risk of a hardware failure. But, in practical terms, you are likely to lose one or two days until a replacement system has been set up, repairs have been made, and the operating system and applications have been restored. In most cases, a system failure of this duration is inaccessible. In other words, companies need to perform careful disaster planning to restore access to applications and data quickly.