Achieve operational resilience with a flexible data store

Are you prepared for the unexpected? In today's rapidly evolving world, operational resilience has never been more critical for businesses to survive and thrive. Resiliency is the ability of a system to maintain its operations under adverse conditions, including system failures, unexpected surges in user demand, or even security breaches. 

The heart of many applications, particularly in this era of data-driven decision-making, is the data store or database. A resilient data store ensures that the application continues to perform optimally and that data integrity is maintained even in the face of unprecedented challenges.

The typical method of making data stores more resilient through a Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) can help protect data by storing it across multiple disks, thus mitigating the risk of data loss if a single disk fails. This is important, but it only protects against hardware failures. In today’s uncertain world, you need a variety of other safeguards in place. Prepare for your systems to be put to the test with a resiliency solution that has distributed architecture, multiple availability zones, and geo-distributed disaster recovery. 

The power of distributed architecture

When considering data store options, one of the key aspects to consider is whether the solution was built with a distributed architecture in mind. Distributed architectures split the load across multiple servers or systems, thereby improving system performance and preventing single points of failure. Distributed data stores are designed to run on multiple servers, possibly in different geographic locations, thereby enhancing their ability to handle large data volumes and high user demand. This design helps to ensure that if a server or even an entire data center fails, the remaining servers can continue to operate, thus providing a seamless user experience.

Distributed data stores offer increased flexibility and scalability, which are critical in today's fast-paced digital landscape. As your organization grows, your data store should be able to scale with it, allowing for increased data volumes and higher throughput. The distributed nature of these data stores allows them to meet these demands, providing operational resilience that is vital for business continuity.

The value of multiple availability zones

In addition to a distributed architecture, another essential factor to consider when choosing a data store is the use of multiple availability zones. These zones are isolated locations within data center regions that public cloud services originate from and operate within. By storing data across multiple availability zones, you can ensure that even if one zone experiences issues, your application can continue to operate without interruption.

The use of multiple availability zones can significantly enhance operational resilience, as it provides redundancy and failover capabilities. If one zone encounters problems, the load can be automatically redirected to another zone, ensuring that your application avoids downtime. This feature is particularly crucial for applications requiring high availability and low latency, where even minor outages can have significant impacts.

Geo-distributed disaster recovery

A data store built with geo-distributed disaster recovery logic adds an additional layer of operational resilience. Disaster recovery strategies ensure that operations can continue even in the event of significant system failures or disasters, usually by maintaining backup systems or data centers in geographically diverse locations. In the event of a significant system failure or disaster in one region, operations can be quickly shifted to another location, minimizing downtime and data loss.

Geo-distributed disaster recovery is an essential consideration for businesses operating in areas prone to natural disasters or those with a global user base. By selecting a data store with built-in geo-distributed disaster recovery, you can ensure that your data is always available, regardless of where your users are or what challenges you might encounter.

Operational resilience is paramount in today's digital age, and a significant part of this resilience lies in the choice of data store. By opting for a data store designed with distributed architecture, multiple availability zones, and geo-distributed disaster recovery, you can ensure that your application is robust, adaptable, and ready to face any challenges that may arise.

Discover how CIOs can put their data to work to improve operational resilience.