HADR i.e. High Availability and Disaster Recovery is not a very familiar term for BI professionals, but it indeed is the life line in the DBA community. There are great features in SQL Server for the same purpose, but to the best of my limited DBA knowledge, it considerably depends on the kind of topology and configuration adopted for the same purpose. SQL Server 2008 R2 was a special treat for BI professionals, but now SQL Server Denali is committed to be fair to everyone, and SQL Server AlwaysOn is the new offering in the HADR category. CTP1 is available with partial features of this service. A new topology, new server requirements and new set of expectations are set with the advent of this service. For more information on SQL Server AlwaysOn, check out the SQL Server Denali AlwaysOn portal.
SQL Azure Data Sync is another such service on the Azure platform that can be seen as a HADR provider for cloud. Ofcourse data centers take care of the disaster recovery part of the data stored on cloud, but in situations where data is exchanged in-premise and off-premise across data consumers, data sync can play a very active role in the high availability part of the data stored on cloud.
SQL Azure Data Sync is another such service on the Azure platform that can be seen as a HADR provider for cloud. Ofcourse data centers take care of the disaster recovery part of the data stored on cloud, but in situations where data is exchanged in-premise and off-premise across data consumers, data sync can play a very active role in the high availability part of the data stored on cloud.
Imagine a solution the encompasses SQL Server AlwaysOn coupled with SQL Azure Data Sync ! I am sure this recipe has the potential to beat even RAID based solutions in the future. I can't predict much about the future, but for the present, AlwaysOn and SQL Azure Data Sync are worth keeping a watch whether you are on earth or on cloud.
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2 comments:
SQL Azure Data Sync currently (during the CTP) has a minimum interval between syncs of 5 minutes. A 5 minute differential is too long for most DR scenarios. If 5 minutes isn't too long for your business then SADS could work for you. If 5 minutes is too long don't look to SADS for your DR.
If you're interested in SQL Server Data Sync for backup take a look at my article at http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/sql-azure-data-sync-backing-up-your-data.aspx where there are more details and a walk-through on how to use SADS for backup.
I should be adding an article on restore in the next week or so.
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