Why is NetSource adding a new cloud zone in Chicago? After all, NetSource already has a public cloud setup in our Naperville SSAE16 Type II datacenter. Why would a business have public cloud servers running in two different physical locations? Simply put it is to achieve geographic diversity using an affordable disaster recovery solution.
Our customers have put a lot of emphasis on disaster recovery (DR) lately. NetSource continually receives requests for DR solutions. NetSource provides a number of DR solutions and we’ve written about many of these before. See our website for some of the solutions NetSource already offers click here. Also, look for a number of blog posts on the NetSource web site detailing our services.
There are a number of good DR solutions for our client’s specific needs. Adding a public cloud zone in Chicago adds another DR capability for those that run entirely in the NetSource public cloud or that may use a hybrid solution.
We’ve already written a lot about high availability and load balancing in the public cloud. But, what would happen to your application if there was a failure at your primary datacenter? Hard to think about, but many businesses care about defending against such a disaster, however unlikely. Setting up a DR solution might even be required by certain standards for business continuity.
How does it work?
With a public cloud zone in Chicago, you setup public cloud servers in both Naperville and Chicago. Then, if disaster hits one site or the other, your applications can still operate because you have separated your environment into zones.
Check out this simple 3 step process to fail over.
- 1. Create cloud servers in both locations, you can do this through the cloud portal.
- 2. Replicate your applications and databases between the two zone/regions.
- 3. Setup a Geo-DNS service with NetSource (health checks and fast failover to secondary IP).
If either site fails, the other site will still serve your application. You can combine this technique with others like local load balancing or quickly scaling up new servers for a very flexible DR solution.
We expect this new cloud zone to be ready in December 2016.
If you don’t have a technical team to help you out, then NetSource can do all the work for you. If you want to learn more, give us a call at 630-778-1212 or email sales@netsource.com.