Availability, Capacity and Configuration are areas that all IT organizations are responsible for. Each of these areas relates directly to a Disaster Recovery Plan and it is important to consider each in the implementation and maintenance of this plan.
Availability and Disaster Recovery go hand in hand. Availability is a synergistic area to DR because characteristically, an organization defines availability objectives for applications, and this information must be available when planning recovery alternatives for a DR site. Disaster Recovery can be a way of maintaining availability under certain types of threats and incidents.
Capacity needs to be managed and watched closely. Capacity can be an area of challenge in terms of Disaster Recovery because as time moves forward, the way in which capacity is used changes. Typically it increases, and over time, more data and processing resources are required to run applications. This is mostly because:
- Applications continually demand more processing power
- An increasing amount of data tends to be stored online.
To adjust for this, there is the need to constantly upgrade production systems, while at the same time ensuring that the DR capabilities are also keeping pace. For instance, it would not be beneficial to have a recovery site that is inappropriately matched to current production. It is always good to monitor capacity changes as well as review available capacity on the DR site to make sure that it is possible to accommodate what is evolving with production.
How often does an organization re-evaluate its plan for capacity changes?
This depends on how volatile the consumption of resources is. As a general rule, monitor on a monthly basis to make sure that capacity requirements are not exceeding what is capable of being recovered. The use of storage, as an example, requires monitoring. It is always a routine task in production environments to manage and maintain capacity to avoid acute situations where storage levels are dangerously insufficient. Storage shortage is a threat to good performance, and an organization typically plays catch up with its capacity needs. In addition, an organization has to manage and monitor capacity for DR and production systems simultaneously. Consumption of resources should be reviewed monthly, and when an annual test of DR facilities takes place, it should be a validation of what has already been monitored and managed. This ensures that the ability to handle the capacity needs of the Disaster Recovery site is met.
Who typically monitors capacity?
If users are reporting consistently degraded performance it means that IT has not been managing and monitoring capacity—whether it be network bandwidth, storage, memory, or processing capacity. Within IT, this is typically a job given to System Administrators, and usually a role given to an individual who may be a part of Technical Support or Operations. The person performing this role must be given the tools to monitor the capacity situation in a data center so that as red flags are raised during regular reporting, that information can be passed to those who are responsible for the enhancement, upgrade, and well-being of those servers, appliances and systems.
Cloud Computing—Are more people switching over and does this effect capacity?
When a company finds that it is difficult to fulfil or fund its capacity obligations and responsibilities on its own, or its needs are highly volatile, then it may be beneficial make the switch to cloud computing. Cloud computing allows for the benefit of a pay-as-you-go contract where only the capacity that is used is paid for. On the downside, it costs a premium rate for a third party to supply or manage capacity, and this needs monitoring and proper managements well to ensure that these costs are not exceeding the benefit. It is important to be thrifty in how capacity is used, but it may be advantageous to share accountability and responsibility of supplying and managing resources to a cloud computing provider so that they are actively adjusting capacity as required.
Configuration Management is directly related to a DR plan. If an organization is making changes to hardware, firmware, appliances, or software, or settings in systems, it may be critical for maintaining the effectivity ofits network and recovery site. These changes must be duplicated or accommodated in the disaster recovery site to make certain that at the time of disaster, the recovery site is consistently and predictably -equipped to handle the type of processing that may be required.
