Business dependency on IT systems has never been bigger, so when things go wrong the affect can be catastrophic.The method of designing and architecting a dependable, comprehensive, cost effective continuous availability and disaster recovery solution can only begin by understanding  your application uptime and data recovery requirements.

That is to say, what is your stated service level agreement (SLA) for application and data recovery time and recovery point objectives (RTO and RPO)?

RTO deals with the how quickly an application has to be back up and running after a failure, while RPO deals with the quantity of data that can be lost. RTO and RPO can also be described in terms of profit. That is, how long can you be able to be down and the amount of data can you afford to waste. When defined in monetary terms, it becomes rather clear as to where the focus needs to be.

There are a variety of solutions that provide data RPO in the seconds range. However, by comparison, there are surprisingly few solutions that can also deliver the same, for application RTO. Neverfail is one of the select few, to have developed the required technologies required to deliver a solution that offers application RTO and RPO in the near zero range, effectively eliminating application downtime.

So, how do you know which applications are the most crucial?
Which require RTO/RPO in the near zero timeframe?

The answers to such queries are in fact pretty simple. Which applications create the most help desk calls when they are unavailable? Which applications, when unavailable, cause the business to lose money, or productivity, or customer assurance?

Making these choices and being mindful of the impact of application downtime will help you to determine which applications rely on the most attention. Establishing which applications demand the most stringent RTO and RPO is the initial step in deciding what type of method and architecture will work most beneficial for your business.

Over the years, a vast array of point products has been developed to solve the particular availability problems of the time. Whilst there has always been the necessity for a solution to bring applications back online quickly after a failure, with as little loss as achievable, discovering a complete solution to the matter has remained elusive. However, more recent technology advances (in replication, clustering, e duplication etc.) mean that is now feasible to move away from the traditional Recovery Centric approach to clearing up the situation, towards a more Availability Centric approach.

Even though selections have been made regarding the criticality of applications in an environment, for business continuity, there is still an overriding fact that cannot be excluded, application downtime is intolerable for a majority of application owners, users, customers and management. Given this, it seems like ensuring the application is effectively protected and monitored, so that a pre emptive action can be taken to deal with a situation before it becomes an concern, is key.