Determining cost of availability

Applies To: Forefront Client Security

When you implement more sophisticated options to improve the availability of your Client Security deployment, costs can rise dramatically.

Using log shipping or even standby data centers improves availability and also lessens data loss exposure. However, in a small deployment or a deployment in which data can be re-created easily, data loss exposure may not be a critical consideration. For larger deployments, re-creating lost data can be time-consuming and costly. The risk of data loss in such a case can justify investing in technologies for high availability.

To develop a successful disaster recovery plan, you must understand when your system needs to be online and the potential impact of system downtime on your business. Answering the following questions can help you determine your availability requirements:

• What are your availability requirements? What portion of each day must your Client Security deployment be online?

• What is the financial cost of downtime to your business?

• If you experience media failure, such as a failed disk, what is the acceptable downtime?

• In case of a disaster, such as the loss of a server in a fire, what is the acceptable downtime of your Client Security deployment?

• How important is it to never lose data?

• How easy would it be to re-create lost data?

• Does your organization employ system or database administrators?

• Who will be responsible for performing backup and recovery operations, and how will they be trained?

You can determine technical and financial tradeoffs for your availability solution based on your answers to these questions.