Service Level Agreements and the Four Nines are Not Enough for High Availability in the Cloud

July 15, 2023 by Jason Aw Leave a Comment

Service Level Agreements and the Four Nines are Not Enough for High Availability in the Cloud

When most people think of high availability, they set four nines (99.99%) or less than five minutes of downtime every month as the baseline. But according to Dave Bermingham, Senior Technical Evangelist at SIOS Technology, in this TFiR video interview, high availability is more than that.

Dave argues that counting on nines is really a measurement that you might be judged against, but really trying to guarantee a level of nines is almost impossible. Because there’s so many points in that availability chain that can be a single point of failure. Four nines is certainly a great number to be judged against and to strive for, but overall it doesn’t mean a lot to have just four nines for my database server.

Effective High Availability Covers a Complex Availability Chain

Even with Cloud SLAs (Service Level Agreements), one can’t be fully rest assured as most cloud providers offer four nines on compute, which is only one part of the availability chain (along with network, storage, and the hops between). Bermingham warns, “There’s a million points of failure. So, trying to think that my cloud provider offers four nines so I’m covered, you’re kind of fooling yourself there. You have to look at the big picture and do what you can to identify those points of failures, to minimize the potential points of failure and to have a recovery plan, should something happen.”

When considering High Availability/Disaster Recovery (HA/DR), Bermingham believes the thing that causes the most visible downtime is human error. Bermingham also suggests that authorization and access to the system should also be restricted to reduce the point of failure. “You should only give access to those who absolutely need access to it and you should also ensure that they are highly trained and that you have all the things in place to help minimize potential oops.”

SIOS offers a single solution to meet both high availability and disaster recovery needs across a wide variety of operating systems (Windows, Linux), platforms, and applications, including SAP, SAP HANA, MaxDB, SQL Server, Oracle, and other environments running in SAN-based, shared storage configurations or SANless, local data storage configurations.

Reproduced with permission from SIOS

High Availability for Manufacturing

July 10, 2023 by Jason Aw Leave a Comment

High Availability for Manufacturing

SIOS understand how deeply manufacturers rely on sophisticated applications, ERPs and databases to maintain production schedules, manage supply chains, control warehouse inventory, coordinate shipping, and perform a variety of other essential business operations. Downtime for these systems can cost thousands of dollars per hour and result in shipping delays, customer service issues, safety concerns, product loss, and productivity loss and supply chain disruption. SIOS clustering software provides reliable, cost-efficient high availability and disaster protection to deliver 99.99% uptime for critical applications, ERPs and databases running in Windows and Linux environments in on premises, cloud, hybrid cloud or multicloud environments.

20 Years of Experience in HA for Industry Manufacturing

For more than 20 years, SIOS has helped manufacturers deploy high availability for business critical applications. Our award-winning customer service team has in-depth experience with the application environments and requirements specific to the manufacturing industry.

Eliminate Service Disruptions

Unlike other solutions that only monitor VM or server operation, SIOS clustering software monitors the entire application environment – network, storage, operating system, server, and application to ensure business critical systems are operational and available. If an issue is detected, SIOS Protection Suite software automatically restarts the application, speeding recovery time and eliminating the need for more than 70% of failovers. If necessary, SIOS software automatically orchestrates failover in full compliance with application-specific best practices.

Cloud, Hybrid Cloud and Multicloud Environments

Migrate critical systems to Microsoft Azure, Amazon EC2 or Google Cloud Platform without sacrificing high availability or disaster recovery protection. Add SIOS DataKeeper software to your Windows Server Failover Clustering (WSFC) to create a SANless clustering environment without the cost and complexity of shared storage. Use SIOS Protection Suite for Linux for complete SAN or SANLess clustering protection in a Linux environment.

Application Awareness for Reliable, Error-Free Clustering

SIOS application recovery kits (ARKs) enable LifeKeeper to monitor the entire application stack – network, storage, OS, application, and server. They also orchestrate the failover in accordance with application-specific best practices for fast, reliable operation on the secondary node(s).

SAP S/4HANA Certified

Our products are SAP certified and feature our unique application recovery kits (ARK) for both SAP and HANA to ensure reliable failover in full compliance with SAP best practices. Powerful automation and entry validation speed enables error-free cluster configuration five times faster than Pacemaker-based solutions.

SIOS has clustering solutions for both Windows and Linux environments – enabling industry-leading HA configuration flexibility. Use SIOS products to protect SAP ERS, ASCS and other services on Windows and SAP and HANA on Linux in the same configuration.

Protect Critical Databases – SQL Server, Oracle, MaxDB

SIOS clustering software provides the HA protection you need to run business-critical databases wherever and however you run them – SQL Server, Oracle, MaxDB, MySQL in the cloud or hybrid cloud environments.

Reproduced with permission from SIOS

High Availability for Healthcare

July 7, 2023 by Jason Aw Leave a Comment

High Availability for Healthcare

Protecting Critical Applications for Healthcare and Life Sciences

Healthcare Information Systems, ERS and EHS

SIOS high availability clustering and replication software ensures critical applications, databases, and EHS systems, automatically recover from infrastructure, network, and application failures – keeping critical patient records and other data protected, applications online, regulatory requirements met, and users productive.

On Premises, Cloud, Hybrid Cloud

SIOS gives you the flexibility to build SAN and SANless clusters for Windows or Linux environments on physical servers, virtualized servers and in the cloud. Run your business-critical EHR applications on-premises or in flexible, scalable cloud environments, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform without sacrificing performance or HA/DR protection.

Meet Availability SLAs and RTO/RPOs with Ease

Easily move on premises applications protected by Windows Server Failover Clustering to the cloud without disruption or build a Linux clustering environment with application-specific intelligence built-in. Configure clusters across cloud availability zones or regions for maximum HA/DR protection or create hybrid cloud or multi-cloud configurations to meet availability SLAs and RTO/RPOs with ease.

Delivering HA for Critical EHS Systems

SIOS products protect critical databases that electronic health record (EHR) applications run on from downtime and data loss. Athena Health, Cerner Corporation, eClinicalWorks, Epic Systems, GE Healthcare, Greenway Health, Kareo, MEDITECH, McKesson, Xtelligent, and more.

Protecting Windows Applications and Databases

Add SIOS DataKeeper to a Windows Server Failover Clustering environment to create a SANless cluster where traditional shared storage clusters are impossible or impractical, such as cloud and hybrid cloud environments. Fast, efficient host-based replication synchronizes local storage on all cluster nodes for maximum configuration flexibility. Or, add replication to your existing SAN-based Windows cluster for DR.

Use SIOS DataKeeper Cluster Edition software to protect your business-critical Windows applications and EHR systems and the databases they run on, including Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, in a physical, virtual, or cloud environment.

Configuration Flexibility – Protect all server workloads. Replicate within a single site or across data centers.
Cost-Savings – Advanced clustering without costly application upgrades (e.g. SQL Server Enterprise Edition)
Reduce Complexity – Migrate on-prem WSFC to cloud without disruption

Protecting Applications in Linux Applications

SIOS clusters uniquely failover across cloud regions or availability zones for true HA protection. SIOS Protection Suite includes powerful Application Recovery Kits for leading applications, ERPs, and databases that automate manual tasks, monitor the entire application stack, and ensure failovers maintain application-specific best practices.

Advanced Automation – Auto-validated user input eliminates the need for costly, specialized skills and the risk inherent in manual scripting to configure and manage a cluster in complex EHR environments
Deep application monitoring – Monitors the entire application environment
Application-aware automated failover – maintains compliance with application best-practices for reliable failovers without surprises.

Reproduced with permission from SIOS

Financial Services

June 25, 2023 by Jason Aw Leave a Comment

Financial Services

For banks, credit unions, payment services, and other financial services organizations, a few minutes of downtime for critical system can be expensive and detrimental to both the organization and its brand. Downtime can cause customer dissatisfaction, negative press and social media, drained IT resources, regulatory issues, and reduced end user productivity.

SIOS clustering software provides flexible, cost-efficient high availability (99.99% application uptime) and disaster protection for a wide range of critical transactional, processing, and administrative system, including, accounting, online banking, payment management, mobile stock trading, peer-to-peer lending and many more; on premises and in cloud, hybrid cloud, and multicloud environments.

Protect transactional, processing and administrative financial systems in Windows or Linux environments
Monitor and protect application operation and availability
Move critical systems to the cloud without sacrificing HA or configuration flexibility
Minimize the need for failover with automatic restart functionality
Reliable failover with application-specific intelligence

HA in the Cloud

Cloud infrastructure does not automatically provide application-level HA or disaster recovery protection. Cloud availability service-level agreements apply only to the hardware, which may not ensure that an application or database remains accessible.

SIOS HA clustering for applications in the cloud fails over across both cloud regions and availability zones. Traditional shared storage clustering in the cloud is costly and complex to configure, and is sometimes not available. SIOS DataKeeper Cluster Edition provides block-level replication to synchronize local storage among each cluster node. This enables a standby node to access an identical copy of the primary node storage and an RPO of zero.

Meet Stringent Availability SLAs

SIOS clustering software monitors application availability and if a threat is detected, this software moves the application operations to a standby server where operation continues with minimal downtime and near zero data loss.

Disaster Recovery

Some applications need protection from disasters that damage the local IT infrastructure on premises or in the cloud. SIOS clustering software enables failover across geographically separated cluster nodes and across cloud regions and availability zones for complete DR protection.

Reproduced with permission from SIOS

Fact Sheet: Oil & Gas

May 28, 2023 by Jason Aw Leave a Comment

Fact Sheet: Oil & Gas

Protecting Systems from Downtime and Data Loss

SIOS Technology’s high availability and disaster recovery (HA/DR) software protects critical applications, databases, and systems used in the oil and gas industry from downtime and disasters due to infrastructure, network, and application failures.

Protects Both Windows and Linux Applications and Databases

SIOS offers the flexibility to build SAN and SANless clusters for Windows or Linux environments on-premises physical servers, virtualized servers, and in the cloud. Easily move Windows Server Failover Clustering to the cloud without disruption, or build a Linux clustering environment with application-specific intelligence built-in. Configure clusters across cloud availability zones and regions for maximum HA/DR protection, or create hybrid cloud to meet your specific needs. SIOS helps you ensure regulatory requirements are met, while keeping your systems online and available at all times.

SIOS DataKeeper

Use SIOS DataKeeper Cluster Edition software to protect your business-critical Windows applications and the databases they run on, including Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, in a physical, virtual, or cloud environment. Add SIOS DataKeeper to a Windows Server Failover Clustering environment to create a SANless cluster where traditional shared storage clusters are impossible or impractical. Fast, efficient host-based replication synchronizes local storage on all cluster nodes for maximum configuration flexibility. Or, add replication to your existing SAN-based Windows cluster for DR.

Configuration Flexibility – Protect all server workloads. Replicate within a single site or across data centers.
Cost-Savings – Advanced clustering without costly application upgrades (e.g. SQL Server Enterprise Edition)
Reduce Complexity – Migrate on-prem WSFC to cloud without disruption

SIOS Protection Suite for Linux

Run business-critical applications on-premises or in a flexible, scalable cloud environment such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure, without sacrificing performance or high availability/disaster recovery (HA/DR) protection. SIOS clusters uniquely failover across cloud regions or availability zones for true HA protection. SIOS Protection Suite includes powerful Application Recovery Kits (ARKs) , that automate manual tasks, monitor the entire application stack, and ensure failovers are reliable and maintain application-specific best practices. SIOS ARKs ensure HA/DR protection out-of-the-box without the need for tuning, manual scripting, or specialized training.

Advanced Automation – Auto-validated user input eliminates the need for costly, specialized skills and the risk inherent in manual scripting to configure and manage a cluster in complex environments used in the Oil and Gas industry
Deep application monitoring – Monitors the entire application environment
Application-aware automated failover – maintains compliance with application best practices for reliable failovers without surprises

The Industry’s Most Reliable Failover Protection

SIOS products protect critical applications and databases on which the systems used by oil and gas companies run from downtime and data loss.

HA/DR Fact Sheet

Applications Protected

Applications used in the oil and gas industry, such as Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERP) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), that run on SQL Server, SAP HANA, and Oracle databases can be protected by SIOS HA/DR solutions.

Environments & Platforms Protected

Microsoft Azure Cloud, AWS EC2, Google Cloud Platform, Hybrid Cloud, VMware, Hyper-V, On-Premises

Operating Systems Protected

Windows, SUSE Linux, Red Hat Linux, Rocky Linux

Databases and ERPs Protected

SQL Server, SAP, SAP S/4HANA, Oracle, SharePoint, MaxDB and many others

Learn More

Unlike traditional shared storage clusters, SIOS synchronizes local storage in a SANless
configuration, enabling failover clusters in physical, virtual, cloud, and hybrid cloud environments.

Reproduced with permission from SIOS