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7 Secrets to Affordable Disaster-Tolerant Exchange

Businesses have grown to rely on continuous, 24/7 access to Microsoft Exchange to meet the increasing demands of mobile computing, global business, and electronic commerce. They depend on Exchange e-mail, group scheduling, and calendars for critical business communication and key business processes. E-mail also supports vital applications needed for functions such as work flow, collaboration, and knowledge management. According to Microsoft, nearly 45 percent of business-critical information is housed in e-mail and e-mail-attached documents. Companies implementing business continuity plans are designating Exchange as a mission-critical application that must be protected from downtime in the event of disaster. E-mail access is particularly important during and immediately after a disaster, when employees may be dispersed or working from home or remote offices. Although there are many expensive, complex technologies currently on the market that promise disaster recovery for Exchange, there are simple, affordable ways to get the highest levels of disaster protection. The following seven secrets to affordable, disaster-tolerant Exchange will allow you to implement an Exchange environment with zero lost data and continuous application availability with no IT intervention in the event of a disaster.

A typical end user spends nearly 26 percent of his or her day on e-mail management. Nearly 45 percent of business-critical information is housed in Exchange.
The Road to Affordable Zero Downtime for Microsoft Exchange Insecurity 2003

Dont Confuse Disaster Recovery with Disaster Tolerance

Most solutions on the market today require you to recover from a disaster rather than to tolerate one. With these disaster recovery solutions, end users lose access to Exchange during a disaster, some data is permanently lost, the IT staff has to intervene to bring Exchange back online, and more IT resources are needed to recover or back up data. In contrast, disastertolerant solutions enable Exchange (and other Windows applications) to operate through disasters, providing continuous service to end users and complete data protection.
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To choose the right technology, evaluate Exchange in business continuity terms of recovery time objective (RTO) and recovery point objective (RPO). In this context, the RTO is the amount of time your businesss e-mail system is down. The RPO is a measure of how out-of-date your data is once e-mail is back up and running. Technologies vary widely in their ability to reduce RTO and RPO. They also vary in their cost to implement and manage. Be aware that some technologies offer greater protection at a lower cost. Companies that use cost-effective disaster-tolerant solutions drive RTO and RPO to zero; the Exchange system is never down, and no data is lost. In contrast, companies that keep backup servers on-site, pre-staged with Exchange installeda so-called hot standby methodologycan reduce RTO to hours while RPO may be several days. Companies can also configure redundant servers into a cluster, with automated failover from an active server to a standby server in case of a fault or disaster. Under ideal circumstances, clusters can reduce RTO and RPO to tens of minutes. But during those minutes, application state is lostemployees are idled, customers are frustrated, money is lost. Some technologies, such as traditional data backup, are focused on reducing RPO. Although backup has a low acquisition cost, it offers no protection for the application. RPO can be as low as 24 hours if your IT staff can access the backup media, set up a new system, and reload the data in that time. More costly streaming data-replication technologies can replicate to an off-site vaulting service, reducing RPO to several hours. Synchronous data replication can reduce it further. However, these technologies interrupt service to end users, lose transactions, and do not protect the application. As a result, customers orders or other vital information may be lost and revenue may be jeopardized.

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Exchange clustering occurs at the Windows level. Exchanges sensitivity to failures results in a significant number of false failovers to the point that enterprises have chosen to remove the clustering after implementing it.
Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Gartner Report (Feb. 19, 2004)

Clustering Cannot Provide Disaster Tolerance

Clustering for Exchange cannot provide disaster tolerance because it requires a failover process. During the minutes of the failover, Exchange is not available to users, application state is lost, and data that was in transit during the disaster may be lost. If system administrators have not been meticulous about keeping the redundant systems identical in all aspects, the failover will not work at all, and the RPO and RTO could be hours to days. Furthermore, clusters require a significant investment of IT time and full system shutdown to bring the system back to its high availability state. In addition, according to a February 2004 Gartner report on Exchange 2003, Exchanges sensitivity to failures results in a significant number of false [cluster] failovers to the point that enterprises have chosen to remove the clustering after implementing it.

Protecting Your Exchange Data Need Not Cost a Fortune

Many IT managers assume that to drive RPO to zero with complete data protection during a disaster, they need expensive synchronous data mirroring.
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Estimated unplanned Exchange downtime costs an average company employing 3,000 staff over $158,000 per year.
Creative Networks

However, fault-tolerant technologies deliver synchronous data mirroring for Exchange much more cost-effectively. The fault-tolerant technology keeps two identical servers running in lockstep synchronization, where every transaction and every write-to-disk is performed on both servers at the same time. This technology provides a higher level of data protection at a lower cost.

Reduce the Need for Human Intervention in the Event of a Disaster

Use automation to reduce complexity and errors associated with failover/failback.

Gartner Datacenter Conference

Choose a solution that does not require human intervention to keep Exchange up and running. By automating disaster protection, you reduce human error during a crisis and eliminate your dependence on a small number of key employees. Systems that provide continuous, automatic disaster protection also require less maintenance and testing to ensure performance during a disaster. Although some technologies, such as clusters, may have automatic failover capabilities, they require IT staff to perform extensive disaster scenario testing to keep them operational. Disaster-tolerant technologies continue to operate through disasters, eliminating the need for human intervention and allowing repair and replacement of damaged components while continuously online.

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A typical corporate user sends and receives 84 e-mail messages (using 10MB of storage) a day.
Windows IT Pro (Nov. 2004)

Minimize Time and Resources Needed to Return to a Disaster-Tolerant State

Disaster recovery is not just recovering data and restoring system operation after downtime, it also involves bringing systems back to their fully redundant, highly available state once the disaster is over. This step may involve replacing hardware damaged in a disaster, restoring lost data, replacing redundant network connections, and reloading applications or operating systems. The goal is to return to a disaster-tolerant state again as soon as possible after an event while minimizing the need for both application downtime and IT resources. Most disaster recovery solutions require significant IT work to return them to a high availability state. For example, after a disaster, clusters require significant scheduled downtime and complex testing to bring them back to full fault tolerance. Choose a solution that recovers on its own once power and connectivity are restored at the primary or new site.

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Only 34 percent of companies test annually. Top three barriers are peoples time, budget, and disruption to employees.
Dynamic Markets Report (Sept. 2004)

Test, Test, Test without Exchange Downtime

Disaster recovery/business continuity experts, including Gartner analysts, stress the importance of routine testing of the IT infrastructure in preparation for a disaster. Frequent testing is the only way an enterprise can be confident about its disaster recovery plan. Testing is also important for refining business continuity procedures and processes. However, many companies do not perform routine testing because it drains IT resources and requires Exchange downtime. Choose a solution that can be tested without IT intervention or interruption in end-user service.
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7 Secrets to Affordable Disaster-Tolerant Exchange

Get Simple, Affordable, Continuous Uptime for Exchange

Drive RTO and RPO to zero with Marathons FTvirtual ServerTM software the only solution that provides simple, affordable, continuous uptime for unmodified Exchange servers through faults, failures, and disasters. Marathon software unites two industry-standard servers/blades (including low-cost uniprocessor systems with Hyper-Threading Technology) into a single fault- and disaster-tolerant server. All processing is performed on both servers simultaneously. If one is damaged by fault or disaster, the other continues to operate with no interruption to end users, no data loss, and no loss of application state. Exchange servers protected by Marathon software also let you perform a variety of upgrades (e.g., HD, BIOS, Memory, OS fixes) without downtime. Maximum Protection Marathon FTvirtual Server softwares unique architecture protects applications and the OS from I/O, the leading source of failures. In addition, the two servers that comprise a Marathon configuration can be separated by up to 100 miles for optimal disaster protection. Even at this distance, the Marathon software keeps the two servers operating in lockstep synchronization, processing all transactions on both servers simultaneously. Marathon Exchange servers continue to operate without interruption or delay no failover, no data or transaction loss, no shared disk, no single point of failure. Affordable Marathon software protects industry-standard, unmodified Windows servers, including leading brands from Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Dell, Fujitsu, Bull, etc. The result: Marathon Exchange Servers free up your staff to spend time implementing technology that keeps your business ahead of the competition. No-touch recovery automatically returns the system to a fully fault- and disaster-tolerant status without IT intervention.

Marathon Technologies Corporation 295 Foster Street Littleton, MA 01460 (978) 489-1112 www.marathontechnologies.com The Marathon logo, SplitSite and Marathon FTvirtual Server are trademarks or registered trademarks of Marathon Technologies Corporation. Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Copyright 2005 Marathon Technologies Corporation. All rights reserved. Marathon Technologies Corporation reserves the right to make improvements to this document at any time and without further notice. Marathon Technologies Corporation assumes no responsibility for any errors that may appear in this document.
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