How New York Data Centers Address Business Continuity

Whether it’s a New York data center or a colocation center located anywhere in the country, the steps taken to ensure disaster recovery and business continuity are the same. There will be slight variants depending on the risk levels, but for the most part, colocation facilities follow OpEx data center strategies to support and maintain vital infrastructure. 

As a result, data centers have now evolved into a strategic problem, and enterprises need to adapt to maintain continuity with the potential risk of terror attacks, cyber-attacks, and natural disasters. At the present time, 49 colocation centers support the New York City financial hub.

Any business continuity plan must address basic but crucial components like data, communication, people, and technology. This means, in times of disaster, a data center enterprise needs to ensure that all the data (both physical and digital) are backed up. This data also needs to be easily accessible by staff during downtime, and communication protocols must be established to ensure every employee can be contacted.

OpEx Strategies for New York Data Centers

So why does a typical New York data center use OpEx strategies? The answer to that question is quite simple. The popularity of OpEx data center strategies is driven by the following:

• Number of managed devices (equipment and space increase expenses)
• Number of managed ports (cabling increases expenses)
• Administrative touch points (reduce human error)
• Number of integration points (equipment that’s not fully integrated provides little value)

To keep going during times of emergency, a data center in New York will most often have a plan in place to react to the situation. Colocation providers in the area will have a plan that essentially covers the following:

• Prioritize response (what needs to be done first to get back online?)
• Plan for the highest effect (not plan for every specific disaster, but, in general, to cover everything)
• Plan resources (ensure second and third backup options are ready to respond)
• Multi-source all connections (data should be dependent on multiple paths and providers)
• Service-specific backup (critical applications might need a geographically load-balanced backup)

Further, when coming up with these contingency plans, it’s a good idea to start thinking globally. It is much easier to keep going if the process can be easily replicated around the world. Repeating a standard process with a colocation center with international services and resource standards is much easier.

Other Elements to Consider

A New York data center needs to be cost-effective, so it’s always important to develop a plan that will focus on revenue-impacting processes. You can basically do this by conducting a business impact analysis. By performing this analysis, colocation providers can either cut down or increase investment based on the results.

Although it goes without saying, training data center staff and testing them against possible real-life situations is imperative. Developing simple training plans will lead to prepared staff that will be calm and perform the necessary functions effectively during the downtime.

At the end of the day, there is only so much anyone can do to be prepared for a disaster. However, having a business continuity plan can help and might also ensure that your business remains successful after a disaster.

What challenges have you experienced developing a business continuity plan? Let us know your thoughts in the Comments box below.