Often times when we are discussing cloud solutions with clients they are accompanied by an internal IT support staff person and are asked, how does server redundancy work in the cloud and is it any easier to make sure our IT system has no down time?
This is really a 2 part answer, as there are benefits to both the IT person and benefits to the overall business and owner.
First, lets start with what is redundancy? According to PC magazine redundancy is having a secondary peripheral, computer system or network device that takes over when the primary unit fails. When comparing redundancy with traditional servers v. the Cloud, here are benefits and drawbacks of both.
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Redundant Cluster - Benefits |
Redundant Cluster - Drawback |
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1. Data Privacy |
1. Expensive |
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2. Full Control on software/hardware |
2. Major hardware crash on multiple servers would result in a lot of downtime |
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3. True redundancy and virtually zero downtime |
3. Complex and long to deploy |
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4. Better performance with premium hardware |
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Cloud Redundancy - Benefits |
Cloud Redundancy - Drawback |
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1. Relatively cheap |
1. Performance capped, generally slower than a premium cluster |
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2. Little to zero downtime with a proper failover installed |
2. Data privacy |
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3. Scalable |
3. No zero downtime possible |
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4. Instant or fast deployment |
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It is great to compare the 2 solutions, however we find that most small and medium sized businesses (prior to the cloud) had no true redundancy solution deployed because of the expense and complex nature of such a solution. With the onset of Cloud Solution technology, redundancy is in a sense built in to the technology itself and as long as the failover is properly set, if one system goes down it automatically rolls to a new one.
This benefits the IT person in that IF something were to happen to the server it does not take days or weeks to bring the IT systems back online.
For the business owner (and IT), they are able to utilize technology to keep their business up and running 100% of the time, which equals no loss in revenue or employee productivity. This was luxury they would have not been able to afford in past
Sun Digital has been helping businesses keep their business up and running with our cloud solutions and we can help you too.
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