Have you secured your database environment well enough against data loss and downtime?

It is possible to secure yourself against data loss and downtime, but having 100 percent uptime can quickly cost more than it is worth. With the right solutions and the right set-up, you can secure the most important data and balance costs and requirements for uptime - sensibly and in a financially sound manner.

With the right solutions and the right set-up, you can secure the most important data and balance costs and requirements for uptime in a sensible and financially sound manner. The key activities are database monitoring and creating a strategy for data security and disaster management.

If your business runs Oracle databases, you have several options to protect yourself against the vast majority of reasons that can cause longer downtime or loss of data. One possibility is a "Maximum Availability Architecture", but it can quickly cost more than it is worth. The challenge is to find out what you need and the right price vs loss of money or dissatisfied customers and users. Regardless of whether you have an environment that must be highly available 24/7 or not, it quickly becomes expensive if you don't have the right solutions or set-up.


We have extensive experience with high availability environments

Do you need almost 100 percent uptime 24/7 on all data and systems? We have the experience and expertise to provide businesses with a customized high-availability environment at a sustainable cost. We help both small and large businesses to find the right solution at the right price. This is an advisory service we provide for those who wish to have a chat with us.

• An important question you must ask is whether your business has secured the data well enough to ensure uptime and minimize data loss should something unforeseen occur?
• If yes, great, but do you test and verify the solution?
• Do you trust that the solution will work if the accident becomes a reality?
• Who has to get up at 3 in the morning to get the services back up?
• What about the applications? Something that needs to be changed on them?
• How long does a restore take?

Through our database monitoring service, all of Cegal's customers have some form of protection against data loss. There may be backups at recommended intervals. It can be standby databases or clustered solutions.


Create a strategy for data security and disaster management

Based on our long experience, we at Cegal offer a service that should be highly relevant for all companies running Oracle databases. The service verifies whether the solution for restoring data after a "disaster" works. Our recommendation is to verify the solution twice a year, to ensure minimal loss of data and the least possible downtime. We have called this service Strategy for data security and disaster management.

A good strategy for data security and disaster management should include:

• Startup workshop
• Review of the current solution based on minimum needs and requirements.
• A check on how the environment fits together in terms of applications, integrations, etc.
• One checks what must be done if the database must be run on another server. What about applications etc.
• A plan for who does what for escalations and reactivity.
• A plan of what needs to be done from A to Z, with clear activities that can be done late at night without having to think too much.
• Carrying out the plan as a desk exercise, and then verifying it for real one weekend/night.
• Enter exercises in the year wheel. After the exercise, the plan is updated so that the solution can be trusted one hundred percent.


Why is it a good idea to enter into a service agreement with an IT partner?

Safety, safety, safety!
When you invest a lot of money in a database solution, you also have to trust that the solution is optimally set up, and that the environment is taken care of according to the needs of the business. It will also be an assurance to be able to say that the solution has been verified and stamped OK.