| The always-on network: strategies for achieving high availability of IT systems Introduction That balance is shifting toward higher levels of availability as network services becomes essential to business continuity and the cost of downtime escalates. A February 2004 study by Infonetics Research revealed that interruptions in enterprise availability cost large companies an average of 3.6 percent of annual revenues. As a result, IT managers face growing pressure to drive network availability to unprecedented levels. At the same time, Voice over Internet Protocol, radio frequency identification, just-in-time inventory, lean manufacturing and point-of-sale integration are placing new demands on networks – and the systems that support them. This pressure is not limited to the data centre. For an increasing number of organisations, the network itself is mission critical. It may not always be possible for remote systems to achieve the same levels of availability as those in the data centre, but the gap can be closed by applying the strategies and technologies used in the data centre to systems outside it. According to the Uptime Institute, 25 percent of all information downtime results from the interaction of computer hardware with its physical environment. Continuous availability of mission critical systems rests not only upon flawless operation of the systems themselves, but on the infrastructure that supports those systems. Achieving ‘five nines’ network availability requires installation and management of an infrastructure that supports continuous availability. This requires four key components: • Mission critical power • Mission critical cooling • Monitoring and management • Proactive maintenance The rest of the article explores these four areas… Download the full article as a PDF
•Date: 23rd June 2005 •Region: N.America/World •Type:
Article •Topic: IT continuity |
