Editor’s Note: As of January 2022, iland is now 11:11 Systems, a managed infrastructure solutions provider at the forefront of cloud, connectivity, and security. As a legacy iland.com blog post, this article likely contains information that is no longer relevant. For the most up-to-date product information and resources, or if you have further questions, please refer to the 11:11 Systems Success Center or contact us directly.
In our recent survey on IT Disaster Recovery in the UK, we were keen to include questions on DR testing. This is one of the most important considerations when implementing a cloud-based disaster recovery solution and, indeed, can make or break the success of any DR strategy. The mantra that our Solutions Architects like to use is: “a DR solution is only as good as the quality of your testing.”
If you haven’t seen the results of our UK Disaster Recovery Survey yet, you can download them here.
We surveyed respondents both on the frequency of their DR testing and the quality of testing (asking if it was conducted by a trained team). Here are the results:
The 37% that are not conducting DR testing at the right levels is a significant number and highlights the need for more awareness of the importance of DR testing and the requirement for DRaaS solutions to provide a means for easy, non-intrusive testing to be performed on a regular basis.
It was interesting for us to compare these results to some other findings from the survey, which focused on the success of DR failovers. When asked if they experienced any issues when executing a failover and how this compared to their confidence levels, these were the results:
It’s this misplaced confidence (40%) that was surprising to us – more frequent and reliable DR testing that is easy to conduct may well be what is needed to bridge that gap between confidence in a DR solution and being able to execute successful failovers that fully protect IT systems in reality.
One of the reasons that 11:11 Systems has partnered with Zerto for DRaaS solutions is because of how conducive the Zerto software is to effective DR testing. The ability to do non-intrusive testing goes a long way to encouraging more frequent testing. Previously, DR testing likely involved shutting down production systems to bring up the DR environment, which could have an extreme impact on the business. The 11:11 DRaaS for Zerto solution enables testing to be conducted while leaving production systems online, which means no impact on business or customers. And, testing can be conducted during business hours when staff is available – making testing easier to arrange and more cost-effective.
11:11 DR customers can do detailed DR testing that not only tests that the failover worked but brings machines online in the DR environment to test performance, end-user access, and data integrity for full peace of mind. Additionally, partial or full environment testing can be done so that you don’t have to test everything all at once but can schedule testing on different machines when it makes sense for the business.
Automated reports can also be generated that define the RTO and all the steps that took place during the failover test. These reports not only serve as an essential document for auditors but can also provide insights into any potential failover issues to ensure they are remediated before a real disaster strikes.
Avoid your own misplaced confidence when it comes to failing over IT systems in a disaster. Ensure you have the capability to do frequent, non-intrusive, and detailed DR testing. We’d love to show you how.
