Data Replication

In today’s business environment, protecting important data is a given. The very survival of a business depends on whether customer files, production schedules, price lists and other critical information can be accessed following a disaster. Given the seriousness of the issue, the industry has witnessed large growth in the number and variety of solutions to ensure the continuity of business systems, applications, and data. Data replication is an important part of the strategy.  

Not only will data replication provide a re-creation of the production environment, ready for near-instant use if necessary, but it also provides offline benefits such as a non-intrusive platform to create backups, free from the limitations of a maintenance window.  Data replication should be on the list of all data-center recovery support plans.

Laurus data replication solutions can help you understand:

• The difference between data backup and data replication
• The business benefits of data replication
• How to scope a data replication project as part of an overall business strategy
• The importance of assessments as part of the planning process

The standard definition of data backup is to make copies of data so that you can restore the original after a data loss event.  The implication of backup is that secondary copies of data are made periodically, which means that some level of data loss is assumed. For example, if you back up daily, you’ll lose one day’s worth of new data.  While data backup protects your data against deletion or corruption, it does not ensure that there will be zero data loss.  In a backup strategy, that data loss will vary depending on the time delay between backup events.

In data replication, data is shared to ensure consistency between redundant resources. A complete second copy of primary data is created and maintained in real time, so that attaining zero data loss is possible. The downside is that there is more limited protection from data deletion or corruption.

As you might expect, determining a strategy for data backup, data replication or a combination of both can be a complex strategy decision. Experts from Laurus work with you to understand your business goals and objectives and help you work through the best strategies for your situation.