Symantec and Microsoft Bring Wizard-like Disaster Recovery in the Cloud One Step Closer to Reality
It is what almost every Windows IT admin envisions someday implementing in his or her environment: "The ability to recover any or all of their applications in the cloud by having the flexibility to quickly move them to the cloud and bring them up as needed." The trick is how to realize that dream without breaking the budget. This week that dream moved closer to becoming a reality with Symantec and Microsoft stepping up to the plate and announcing a strategic relationship to extend Symantec's Veritas Storage Foundation High Availability for Windows to the Microsoft Windows Azure cloud platform.
The two primary ways most companies initially take advantage of cloud services in any form is by (1) archiving their data to the cloud, and/or (2) backing up their data to the cloud. However as companies use cloud services in these ways and become comfortable doing so, the next big step that many look to take is to actually recover their applications in the cloud to address their lingering high availability (HA) and disaster recovery (DR) concerns.
While solutions have emerged over the last few years, obstacles still exist that precludes many organizations from moving forward with using the cloud for their HA and DR initiatives. For example, many providers of cloud archival and backup services do not even have the option to recover applications and host them at their site. In instances where they are available, the providers may NOT have:
These are examples of the concerns that Symantec and Microsoft intend to address with their newly forged strategic relationship between Symantec's Storage Foundation High Availability for Windows and the Microsoft Windows Azure cloud platform. Rather than leaving it up to cloud providers and organizations to validate that HA and DR solutions work as promised, Microsoft and Symantec are partnering to deliver a comprehensive solution that does.
Notable about this solution is that, from a customer perspective, there is not really a lot of "new" software required to get HA and DR in the cloud to work. Symantec's Storage Foundation High Availability for Windows has been available for years and is already used in countless production environments to deliver HA and DR for business and mission critical applications.
What is new is two-fold. First, Microsoft is transforming Azure into an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) offering which is in and of itself an interesting development. Second, Microsoft and Symantec will work together to implement the Storage Foundation High Availability for Windows on the Microsoft Windows Azure cloud platform.
While this two platforms technically already work together, the twist here is that the configurations and settings will be tested, verified and standardized so that organizations can begin to expect and see from Microsoft and Symantec an almost wizard like approach to application HA and DR.
Please note, these are my observations and thoughts. Neither Symantec nor Microsoft has suggested or intimated to me that such a "wizard-like" offering is in the works. However in light of how both of these companies have eventually delivered wizards when developing other Windows-based solutions, it is only logical to expect such a wizard like interface to eventually be made available for implementing HA and DR in their environment.
Contributing to me reaching this conclusion, by Symantec supporting the Azure platform on the customer side and Microsoft formally supporting Symantec's software on the Azure side, standardized HA and DR configurations may now be built, delivered and supported. Further, organizations can feel reasonably confident that when they look to recover applications in the Azure cloud, Microsoft will be there for them (i.e. it is stable,) the configurations are proven and the organization can implement HA and DR quickly and easily with minimal or no third party service engagement required to implement it.
Organizations see the cloud as the answer to many of their long-standing challenges such as archiving and backup, which explains why many have already gone down that path. But before they take the next step and move the recovery of their applications to the cloud, they have a different set of concerns that they expect vendors to satisfy before they make that leap. By Microsoft and Symantec announcing this strategic alliance, it indicates they have heard these user concerns and are in the process of developing a solution that specifically addresses them.
The two primary ways most companies initially take advantage of cloud services in any form is by (1) archiving their data to the cloud, and/or (2) backing up their data to the cloud. However as companies use cloud services in these ways and become comfortable doing so, the next big step that many look to take is to actually recover their applications in the cloud to address their lingering high availability (HA) and disaster recovery (DR) concerns.
While solutions have emerged over the last few years, obstacles still exist that precludes many organizations from moving forward with using the cloud for their HA and DR initiatives. For example, many providers of cloud archival and backup services do not even have the option to recover applications and host them at their site. In instances where they are available, the providers may NOT have:
- A well-known brand or reputation
- The appropriate data center facilities to host the application recovery
- Tested and verified their HA and DR solution works as the customer expects
These are examples of the concerns that Symantec and Microsoft intend to address with their newly forged strategic relationship between Symantec's Storage Foundation High Availability for Windows and the Microsoft Windows Azure cloud platform. Rather than leaving it up to cloud providers and organizations to validate that HA and DR solutions work as promised, Microsoft and Symantec are partnering to deliver a comprehensive solution that does.
Notable about this solution is that, from a customer perspective, there is not really a lot of "new" software required to get HA and DR in the cloud to work. Symantec's Storage Foundation High Availability for Windows has been available for years and is already used in countless production environments to deliver HA and DR for business and mission critical applications.
What is new is two-fold. First, Microsoft is transforming Azure into an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) offering which is in and of itself an interesting development. Second, Microsoft and Symantec will work together to implement the Storage Foundation High Availability for Windows on the Microsoft Windows Azure cloud platform.
While this two platforms technically already work together, the twist here is that the configurations and settings will be tested, verified and standardized so that organizations can begin to expect and see from Microsoft and Symantec an almost wizard like approach to application HA and DR.
Please note, these are my observations and thoughts. Neither Symantec nor Microsoft has suggested or intimated to me that such a "wizard-like" offering is in the works. However in light of how both of these companies have eventually delivered wizards when developing other Windows-based solutions, it is only logical to expect such a wizard like interface to eventually be made available for implementing HA and DR in their environment.
Contributing to me reaching this conclusion, by Symantec supporting the Azure platform on the customer side and Microsoft formally supporting Symantec's software on the Azure side, standardized HA and DR configurations may now be built, delivered and supported. Further, organizations can feel reasonably confident that when they look to recover applications in the Azure cloud, Microsoft will be there for them (i.e. it is stable,) the configurations are proven and the organization can implement HA and DR quickly and easily with minimal or no third party service engagement required to implement it.
Organizations see the cloud as the answer to many of their long-standing challenges such as archiving and backup, which explains why many have already gone down that path. But before they take the next step and move the recovery of their applications to the cloud, they have a different set of concerns that they expect vendors to satisfy before they make that leap. By Microsoft and Symantec announcing this strategic alliance, it indicates they have heard these user concerns and are in the process of developing a solution that specifically addresses them.
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