It is as simple as TWIX chocolate! All you need is two.
Most Information Technology and Communications (ICT) implementations are systems solutions that are either located in either one data centre or have single points of failure. The benefits of using a secondary active data centre especially one in a different geographic location is exponentially beneficial. It might even be as simple as using two data centres in the same city but separated by a suitable distance so that natural and economical challenges are mitigated. Some challenges might be making certain there is differentiation on power grids.
The following article by Noction, The top 4 causes of network downtime, paints a scenario whereby downtime is improved from nearly a week per year to less than half a minute.
Any component will eventually fail. In most systems a single component failure will result in a related system outage. If your system depends on the operation of 20 components with an uptime of 99.9%, that still means one of them will be down 2% of the time, which translates to just over a week of downtime per year. If components that were ten times more reliable are used then this comes down to 0.2%, but that’s still half a day per year. Alternatively it is possible to install redundant secondary components which are a mirror of the system. The systems will continue to operate should any of the primary components fail. With 40 components that are 99.9% reliable, the chance of one being down is 4%, but the chance of a primary and secondary component fulfilling the same function being down at the same time is now only 0.01%. This translates to only half a minute of downtime per year!
Duplicating components improves continuity more than engineering a single component to be more reliable. Thus the mechanisms to improve continuity are:
Have redundant/resilient power sources and supplies. A server with two power supplies connected alternatively to an A and B power feed in a data centre protects not only against the actual power supply itself failing by against one of the electrical power feeds failing as well.
Use RAID storage
Use a secondary diverse data centre
Use application and database clusters provisioned across primary and secondary data centres
Connect to a fibre ring that has path protection and automated failure between your data centre locations
It is important to analyse the components in a data centre and determine what the likelihood is of the component failing and if it should fail does it result in an outage? If these components are single points of failure then an investigation needs to be conducted to mitigate the risk of these outages causing service related issues. To achieve this the component needs to be mapped to a service that is being provided to a business or customer. Determine how many customers are affected by the outage and what would be the resultant cost associated with the outage for those customers. Once those numbers have been crunched it can be determined what the course of action would be including accepting the risk or implement component redundancy or resilience. Failure of components can be mitigated by either hot or warm solutions. A hot solution is the immediate failover of a component to an alternative which provides resilience. Alternatively, a warm solution is the recovery of an alternative component with in certain restart time which provides redundancy. An example of a hot solution is a UPS while an example of a warm solution is a standby generator.
The benefits are more than thousands of times better and not just a case of doubling it up. It is a no brainer to find or build yourself a new data centre and duplicate all your ICT components.
To make informed decisions about redundancy, analyze your data centre components, assess the likelihood of failure, and understand the impact on your services and customers. Nepean Network's SD-WAN solution comes into play by dramatically reducing statistical downtime when integrated with resilient links.
Redundancy and resilience aren't just about doubling up—it's about multiplying your peace of mind and exponentially enhancing your business continuity. With Nepean Network's SD-WAN, you're not just minimizing downtime; you're embracing a world of uninterrupted connectivity and unmatched performance. 🚀🔗
Ronald Bartels ensures that Internet inhabiting things are connected reliably online at Nepean Networks - the leading specialized SD-WAN provider in South Africa. Learn more: 👉 Contact Nepean🚀
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