RAID Data Recovery And You

Redundancy, or the "R" of RAID has made many IT Administrators assume that RAID data recovery is somewhat of an oxymoron. And why not? After all, over the past 20 years, RAID servers have been the choice of corporate environments, considered to be the best the data storage industry has to offer. Mission-critical applications such as high-end database servers including SQL and Oracle and communication tools such as Exchange have made their homes on such servers, which provide high speed access to data with a redundancy factor that makes backing up almost seem unnecessary.

Notice the word "almost"? One of the facts even the most savvy information technology administrators don't even think about is that although RAID servers are possibly the most robust data storage solution available today (the form factor, which dates back to the early 1990s and late 1980s, has made small advances, but still remains overall the same solution), they are still based on old technology. The fact is, RAID solutions, whether RAID 5 or 50, still have the same building blocks at their core, the hard disk drive. Hard disk drives have mechanical parts, and mechanical parts fail. Even RAID servers built with newer Solid State Drives will inevitably fail, as these technologies have circuits that wear, virtually guaranteeing their candidacy for inevitable RAID data recovery.

So what then is a proactive administrator to do? Preparation is always the best idea, obviously, and is not as difficult as it may seem. Consider these factors when planning for RAID array failure:

Get An Inventory - If you are in control of your company's IT assets, or have responsibility over part of them, ensure you know exactly what you are responsible for. This means everything, from simple user workstations to major mainframe systems. Don't get caught unaware when RAID or hard drive failure strikes.

Collect Asset Details - Having a full knowledgebase of the hardware you are responsible for is key to developing a recovery or disaster plan. If you are managing PC assets, know the manufacturer forums where you can obtain support or check out recent issues that have affected systems. If you are running RAID servers, know the manufacturers of not only the servers themselves, but of the RAID controller cards. Again, collecting knowledge in case of a RAID data recovery situation is going to make that process far less expensive, and much easier to catch.

Have An External Service Ready - If you haven't had a problem that has required hard drive or RAID data recovery, pretend you do! Now... who are you going to call? Stumped? You shouldn't be. Knowing which are the best RAID repair companies in the industry is a slice of knowledge you need to be familiar with. Not only that, but is there a company that provides 24 hour service in case of hyper-critical failure? It's much easier to find the information now, than it will be when you find yourself in full RAID data recovery panic.

Assuming that the redundancy factor of RAID will save you in all cases has been the downfall of many a great IT administrator. Over-planning, on the other hand, is typically not. Understanding this will ensure your RAID data recovery situation is more a coping exercise than it is an all-out panic.

See the RAID Data Recovery Services Group difference today, and ensure the safety of your mission critical data now. Call us on our toll free line above, or expedite the process by filling in our RAID data recovery quote form here.

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