New Research Paper Focuses on Avoiding Downtime and Breakers for Data Centers

In a recently released paper, with data collected by Forrester, focused on how businesses can avoid downtime and focus on disaster recovery as an important part of data center management.

Minimizing Downtime and Improving Disaster Recovery

According to Forrester’s research, the best disaster recovery plans are often well conceived, but poorly cared for, often due to a lack of resources more than a lack of interest. Only a small percentage of organizations adhere to the proper standard of annual testing and continual updates for their disaster recovery strategy.

Forrester found the biggest issue is indifference. Disaster recovery is all about planning for what “might” happen when operations fail and what is needed to get back online. Many organizations don’t want to address what will happen when the funds and manpower are required to meet the need. When organizations ignore this need, it could prove to be costly when an outage does occur and the disaster recovery plan hasn’t been kept up to date with the ongoing changes that take place in a data center.

At its core, there are three specific areas that require attention and funding:

  • A regular review and update of the disaster recovery process
  • Adequate staff for testing and disaster recovery
  • Maintaining the expertise and knowledge in-house to handle and oversee the disaster recovery process

Unfortunately, many organizations do not have the financial means or staff to manage this type of process. This is why many are turning to outsourcing. This option minimizes potential loss from a disaster as well as potentially including assistance in handling day-to-day IT and data center operations.

Breakers for Data Centers

A big part of disaster recovery for any size data center is proper management of power services and power-related hardware. One key part of power services within a server room is the specification and proper maintenance of breakers for data centers.

breakers for data centersare incredibly important in helping to protect power supplies within a data center. A breaker in its most basic form is an electrical device used within a panel that monitors and controls the amount of amps sent through electrical wiring. circuit breaker sizes will vary based on the need. An individual experienced in power needs for data centers and server rooms will be able to provide guidance on the proper type of breakers for data centers so the center has adequate power protection.

If a power surge occurs within the wiring, the breaker will “trip,” meaning the breaker that was in the “on” position will flip to “off” and shut down the power leading from that breaker. Breakers for data centers are a key part of the safe use of power within a data center. It could prevent a fire from starting in the overloaded circuit, or damage to data center equipment.

This all leads back to why having an appropriate disaster recovery plan is so important, regardless of the size of the business or data center.