Don’t Put All of Your Eggs in One Basket? How About All Servers in One Data Center?
http://www.computerslive.net/articles/5350/1/Dont-Put-All-of-Your-Eggs-in-One-Basket-How-About-All-Servers-in-One-Data-Center/Page1.html
Saleh Tousi
Saleh Tousi is the CEO of SmarttNet, a Vancouver IT company offering comprehensive business Internet services including Vancouver colocation since 1995. By Saleh Tousi
Published on 05/23/2009
Everyone's heard the old adage, don't put all your eggs in one basket Whether you think it's good or bad advice, it has its merits and it certainly applies to your servers
Everyone's heard the old adage, don't put all your eggs in one basket. Whether you think it's good or bad advice, it has its merits and it certainly applies to your servers. When it comes to your servers and protecting your data, there's nothing more important than redundancy. In fact, having multiple redundancies is the single best way to ensure the safety of your data, servers and business.
Natural Disasters
While no one expects a natural disaster to destroy the data center they host their servers in, it does sometimes happen. Despite the fact that facilities take every possible precaution to ensure the safety of the servers they host, if an unexpected and extremely large disaster does occur, it could mean losing everything in the data center. If this is the only place where you host your servers, you're out of luck.
Hosting your servers in multiple locations immediately eliminates this problem. If, for example, your business is located in San Francisco, most likely that's also where you'll host your servers. But what happens when there's an earthquake so immense that it knocks out your data center? You'll lose business immediately and in the future due to not having your data and servers. Having the foresight to host your severs in an additional location, say in Northern Minnesota, where the chances of an earthquake are slim to none, will give you an additional copy so that you can get back to business faster.
FBI Confiscation
Even if your servers are not hosted in an area that's prone to natural disasters, it doesn't mean you've eliminated the risk of losing your servers. Have you ever thought about what you would do if the FBI or other government organization was investigating a crime and confiscated your server as part of the investigation? Even though you probably had nothing to do with the case in question, they still have the authority and power to take your servers. Should this happen, you'd better have a backup copy of your data. Hosting your servers in multiple locations will allow you to continue to carry on business even during the interruption.
Local Caching
Running a large website requires fast loading times in order to ensure a good user experience. Hosting your severs in the local area in which you're doing business is the best way to achieve fast response times. For example, if you have a website for users in the US, your servers should be hosted in the US. Likewise, you should host your severs for your Canadian users in Canada and for your French users in France. In this way, hosting your servers in multiple locations will ensure that your users have a quality experience.
Business Innovation
No matter what's going on with the technical side of things, you can't ignore the business aspects of hosting your servers. When you host your servers in multiple locations you're no longer tied down to one provider, thereby giving them less control over you. If one facility’s services start to diminish, you will have a basis of comparison because you're also hosting at another facility. Competition breeds innovation and by hosting with the competition you will help all the facilities provide better services to you and other customers.
Natural Disasters
While no one expects a natural disaster to destroy the data center they host their servers in, it does sometimes happen. Despite the fact that facilities take every possible precaution to ensure the safety of the servers they host, if an unexpected and extremely large disaster does occur, it could mean losing everything in the data center. If this is the only place where you host your servers, you're out of luck.
Hosting your servers in multiple locations immediately eliminates this problem. If, for example, your business is located in San Francisco, most likely that's also where you'll host your servers. But what happens when there's an earthquake so immense that it knocks out your data center? You'll lose business immediately and in the future due to not having your data and servers. Having the foresight to host your severs in an additional location, say in Northern Minnesota, where the chances of an earthquake are slim to none, will give you an additional copy so that you can get back to business faster.
FBI Confiscation
Even if your servers are not hosted in an area that's prone to natural disasters, it doesn't mean you've eliminated the risk of losing your servers. Have you ever thought about what you would do if the FBI or other government organization was investigating a crime and confiscated your server as part of the investigation? Even though you probably had nothing to do with the case in question, they still have the authority and power to take your servers. Should this happen, you'd better have a backup copy of your data. Hosting your servers in multiple locations will allow you to continue to carry on business even during the interruption.
Local Caching
Running a large website requires fast loading times in order to ensure a good user experience. Hosting your severs in the local area in which you're doing business is the best way to achieve fast response times. For example, if you have a website for users in the US, your servers should be hosted in the US. Likewise, you should host your severs for your Canadian users in Canada and for your French users in France. In this way, hosting your servers in multiple locations will ensure that your users have a quality experience.
Business Innovation
No matter what's going on with the technical side of things, you can't ignore the business aspects of hosting your servers. When you host your servers in multiple locations you're no longer tied down to one provider, thereby giving them less control over you. If one facility’s services start to diminish, you will have a basis of comparison because you're also hosting at another facility. Competition breeds innovation and by hosting with the competition you will help all the facilities provide better services to you and other customers.