DR and Replication: An Affordable Alternative to Achieving Key IT Objectives

TEMPE, Ariz. - June 7, 2013 - PRLog -- When a retail software manufacturer purchased Oracle, it opted for Oracle Database Standard Edition. Because of its power and relative affordability, Oracle Standard Edition often makes more sense to organizations than Oracle Enterprise Edition, explains MicroAge’s Michael Zitar (http://www.microage.com/expert/michael-zitar).

The problem, however, is that Oracle Standard Edition does not provide functionality for disaster recovery (http://www.microage.com/category/disaster-recovery).

“Probably about 95 percent or more of the companies that have Oracle Standard Edition don’t have disaster recovery software,” Michael notes.

Expert engineers might be able to come up with a solution, but most companies are like Michael’s client—going without disaster recovery and hoping for the best.

Working with a database architect at the company, Michael learned about his client’s concerns—they had disaster recovery in place for everything but their Oracle database, and they knew that was a problem. Michael brought Dbvisit (http://www.microage.com/dbvisit.html), a fully authorized Oracle partner, into the conversation. The New Zealand-based company recently partnered with MicroAge to distribute its Oracle disaster recovery and replication products in the United States.

The client was building two Oracle database sites in two different U.S. regions, adds Mark Ripma, who represents Dbvisit in North America. They planned for an active-active configuration, meaning both sites would participate in transactions and work on synchronized copies of the databases.

“This configuration is flexible, maximizes system investment, and ensures continuous availability of the data in the event that one site becomes unavailable,” Mark says.

For this configuration, they determined they needed both replication software and disaster recovery software. MicroAge supplied both products from Dbvisit.

Dbvisit’s Standby (http://www.microage.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Dbvisi...) product provided for disaster recovery. “Whatever you do, Standby writes a physical copy,” Mark explains. “Every time you change data, it captures that.” So, if a server goes down, an identical copy of your data is preserved.

In addition, the client purchased Dbvisit Replicate (http://www.microage.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Dbvisi...) to be used locally at each site for the active-active functionality.

“While Standby creates a bit-by-bit copy of your data, Replicate essentially takes what you do in one database and then, it reconstructs the data and writes it to another database,” Mark says. “It’s a logical replication and is useful if you’re going from one database to another or migrating data.”

Together, the products have provided the client with the peace of mind they were lacking.

“With Dbvisit,” Michael says, “the client is secure knowing he’s not going to get that call at 2 a.m. telling him the data is lost.”

Looking for an innovative way to add infrastructure to your already jam-packed data center? Take the pressure off by contacting Michael at 480-366-2120 or michael.zitar@microage.com.