Enterprise Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity Consulting

NetApp MetroCluster Disaster Recovery Solutions
MetroCluster, included with NetApp's ONTAP storage operating system, is high-availability and disaster recovery software that combines array-based clustering with synchronous replication to provide rapid, zero data loss disaster recovery between datacenters separated by up to 185 miles (300km). By synchronously mirroring volumes between storage controllers, MetroCluster allows zero Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and under two-minute Recovery Time Objective (RTO) for mission-critical applications. MetroCluster supports SAN and NAS hosts, is available in 2-, 4- and 8-node configurations, and integrates with NetApp SnapMirror for asynchronous, near-zero data lass protection for datacenters separated by longer distances. Storage costs are kept at a minimum via inline data reduction technologies including deduplication, compression, and compaction.

Progent offers online or onsite access to a NetApp subject matter expert with NCIE, NCDA and NASAP certifications who can provide advanced support to help you design, deploy, manage, optimize, update or troubleshoot a disaster recovery solution based on NetApp MetroCluster technology. Progent also offers support for other NetApp SAN and NAS storage solutions including ONTAP, SnapMirror, SnapVault and Open Systems SnapVault (OSSV), FlexPod private cloud converged infrastructure, Virtual Storage Console, MultiStore, vFiler, OnCommand Unified Manager Core with OnCommand Reporting and OnCommand Insight, plus NetApp's hybrid Flash FAS, all Flash AFF, V-Series and N-Series hardware portfolio. (See NetApp SAN Integration Consulting.)

Key Features of NetApp MetroCluster
MetroCluster provides local high-availability (HA) and rapid, single-command remote disaster recovery (DR) for an organization's storage infrastructure by connecting two clusters, one each at two geographically separated datacenters, in a bi-directional peered storage network where you can quickly switchover either cluster to handle the storage and services of the other cluster in addition its own workloads. By running the Storage Virtual Machines (SVMs) from the offline cluster on the surviving cluster, MetroCluster allows continuous access to data during an outage of a storage cluster or datacenter.

In a four-node configuration, each datacenter has a two-node failover cluster configured as a high-availability (HA) pair with mirrored non-volatile RAM (NVRAM) and multipath storage between the two local nodes. If either node in an HA pair stops working, automatic failover allows the surviving local partner to take over the offline node's operation without incurring downtime. For DR clusters at separate sites, MetroCluster supports active-active and active-passive configurations. In an active-active configuration, both sites serve independent workloads during normal operation. In an active-passive (or active standby) deployment, the cluster at a selected primary site hosts all application workloads in a steady state and switchover only occurs from the protected primary site to the backup site. In this mode, no switchover is required if the secondary site fails but resource utilization is relatively low. You can also configure local HA pairs to operate in active-passive mode.

Switchover between clusters at different datacenters and failover between nodes in a datacenter's cluster can be planned (e.g. for non-intrusive maintenance, testing or upgrades) or unplanned, as in a site disaster. Switchback is the process by which the surviving cluster in one datacenter returns switched-over resources to the original cluster at the other datacenter. Giveback, or failback, is the process by which an offline node in local cluster is returned to a steady operational state.

To provide zero RPO disaster recovery, MetroCluster uses synchronous replication between storage clusters so that any change made at one datacenter is automatically propagated to the other datacenter. The replication process includes storage replication with NetApp SyncMirror, nonvolatile NVRAM replication, and replication of the cluster configuration. For MetroCluster to preserve the identity of the storage access paths during switchover, you must set up an L2 spanned Ethernet network and a single SAN fabric across the two datacenter sites.

MetroCluster requires both datacenters to have the same hardware and disk configurations. A variety of components from multiple vendors are supported. In a four-node deployment, each cluster uses NetApp's standard clustered Data ONTAP cluster interconnects, usually a switchless, back-to-back connection between the two HA nodes. Two Fibre Channel (FC) or FCIP switches at each datacenter connect to the HA nodes via FC initiators and FC-VI interfaces and connect to storage with SAS-to-FC bridges. (Direct-attached configurations do not require FC switches.) This allows all nodes in both clusters to see all the storage. Brocade FC switches supported by MetroCluster allow DR clusters to be up to 185 miles apart. The Clustered Data ONTAP storage OS supports both switchless configurations and a variety of cluster interconnect switches.

How Progent Can Help You with MetroCluster and Other NetApp Storage Solutions
Progent's team of seasoned IT consultants can help you plan, deploy, manage, upgrade, test and troubleshoot a disaster recovery solution built around NetApp MetroCluster. Progent can help you design a two-node, four-node or eight-node topology for your MetroCluster environment that aligns with your functional requirements and IT budget. Progent can make sure you follow best practices for installing your MetroCluster environment by providing help with tasks such as assigning disk pools and shelf IDs, arranging aggregate and plexes layout, provisioning NetApp FlexVol volumes, configuring NetApp Snapshot, provisioning Cisco and Brocade switches, implementing a tiebreaker, and setting up a TCP/IP configuration replication network between your peered clusters. Progent can also help you streamline the management of your MetroCluster ecosystem and non-disruptively test your disaster recovery solution to prove compliance with industry standards and government regulations. In addition, Progent offers FlexPod integration consulting to help you incorporate MetroCluster into a resilient private cloud infrastructure that consolidates servers, network fabric and storage assets for hosting critical applications.

Progent can provide as-needed expertise to guide you through occasional technical roadblocks and also offers comprehensive project management outsourcing or co-sourcing. Progent offers remote and on-premises consulting services and gives you easy access to the breadth and depth of knowledge of more than 100 veteran subject matter experts. In addition to offering the support of a NetApp-certified network architect, Progent can provide the services of a Cisco-certified CCIE network infrastructure consultant, a VMware VCDX-certified virtual networking expert, a Microsoft-certified Exchange specialist, a Citrix-certified XenDesktop consultant, and other IT consulting experts.

Zero-Downtime Solutions Supported by Progent's Experts
Progent's Microsoft and Cisco consulting experts can help your company to build a sensible, fault-tolerant network that addresses key issues covering a broad array of networking solutions and processes such as:

Business Continuity Planning
Progent's business continuity planning consultants can show you how to design a disaster recovery plan so you can resume IT operations in case of an IT system catastrophe. Progent can assist you to define a complete disaster recovery strategy that incorporates scheduled disaster recovery assessments and drills. Progent's Microsoft and Cisco-authorized consultants can also show you how to create an affordable, fault-tolerant network solution that takes into account reliability issues involving a broad range of infrastructure technologies and procedures. To learn more, visit Workplace Recovery Consulting Services.

CRISC-Premier IT Risk Mitigation
The CRISC program was established by ISACA to validate an IT professional's skills to design, implement, and support IS control mechanisms to reduce network risk. Progent offers the services of a CRISC-certified consultant to assist you to develop and execute a workplace continuity or disaster recovery strategy based on leading practices promoted by CRISC and geared to align with your company's risk tolerance, business objectives, and budgetary guidelines. For more information, visit CRISC-Premier IT risk control experts.

Windows Server 2019 High Availability Failover Clustering
Microsoft Windows Server 2019 introduced important improvements in capacity, performance, management, security and compliance, application compatibility, Linux support, container networking, and hybrid combinations of on-premises and cloud resources. Headline enhancements of Windows Server 2019 include Windows Admin Center for centralizing the management and monitoring of hybrid on-premises/cloud deployments, System Insights for taking advantage of modern predictive intelligence to control on-premises networks, Windows Defender ATP (Advanced Threat Protection) Exploit Guard for host-intrusion prevention, container orchestration using Kubernetes, Cluster Sets technology for deploying and managing large high-availability scale-out clusters, and Storage Migration Service for simplifying the upgrade process from outdated editions of Windows Server. For more information, see Microsoft Windows Server 2019 Fault-tolerant Failover Clustering Consulting.

Microsoft Server 2016 Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
Progent's Windows Server 2016 disaster recovery experts can assist you to plan and deploy a disaster recovery solution based on Microsoft's most advanced Failover Clustering technologies including Cluster OS Rolling Upgrade for non-intrusive migration to Windows Server 2016, Storage Replica for crash-consistent Recovery Point Objective (RPO), Storage Spaces Direct for enterprise-class network-attached storage using commodity equipment, Virtual Machine Load Balancing for improving the performance and resilience of Failover Clusters while reducing capital investment and operational expenses, and Cloud Witness for easy, affordable deployment of a failover cluster quorum arbitration point. For details, see Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Disaster Recovery Consulting.

VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) Disaster Recovery Solutions
VMware's Site Recovery Manager is an extension to VMware vCenter that allows you to specify, automate and verify a consistent process for restoring applications and services rapidly following a breakdown. Site Recovery Manager provides centrally controlled and automated recovery, application mobility, and transparent site migration, failback and site re-protect. Site Recovery Manager also enables non-intrusive testing for disaster recovery, upgrades and fixes and can produce audit reports to confirm full service recovery, validate SLAs and demonstrate DR compliance. Progent can provide the support of a VCDX certified VMware Site Recovery Manager consultant to assist your organization to plan, configure, test and administer a DR solution powered by VMware Site Recovery Manager.

High Availability Load Balancing
Progent offers fault tolerant load balancing support that addresses network load balancing, load balanced applications, LAN/WAN infrastructure routing, and content dispatching products such as F5 Networks 3DNS. Fault tolerant load balancing products for which Progent can provide consulting services include Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and 2008 Network Load Balancing Manager, Citrix Access Suite and Access Gateway, Cisco Content Services Switch, Cisco Distributed Director and ACNS, and F5 Networks BIG-IP. To read more, go to Non-stop Load Balancing.

Non-stop Internet Data Centers
Progent's Data Center engineers can help you select fault-tolerant data centers that match the particular requirements of your company. Fault tolerant colocation sites are especially attractive to small and mid-size organizations due to of their affordability and simplified logistics in comparison to taking a do-it-yourself approach. Attempting to create an on-site data center with even a basic level of fault tolerance is too expensive for most small businesses. Progent can help you get all the benefits of 24x7 data centers by providing a full array of consulting and maintenance services. To read more, visit High-Availability Internet Data Centers Expertise.

Fault Tolerant Branch Office Connectivity
Progent's inter-site connection engineers can help businesses achieve zero-downtime multi-site connectivity solutions through fully redundant networks featuring transparent failover. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE engineers can design and implement ultra-reliable Inter-office networks based on zero-downtime EIGRP network routers or zero-downtime OSPF configurations of Cisco routers. Progent can demonstrate how redundant connectivity and automatic fail-over can provide economical 24x7 interoffice connectivity. To read more, go to Fault Tolerant Inter-office Connectivity.

Fault Tolerant Internet Connections
Progent's Cisco-authorized network engineers can help you design an economical, high availability Internet configuration architecture that can achieve non-stop Internet access via a wide range of fault tolerant Internet access technologies including high availability BGP, transparent fail-over, and redundant ISPs. Progent offers CCIE professionals to help you utilize the most up-to-date technology for fault tolerant Internet connections to implement an affordable, fully redundant Internet interface with automatic failover and other capabilities to deliver fault tolerant Internet access. For details, go to 24x7 Internet Connectivity Architecture.

Backup and Recovery Technology Consulting and Support Services
Progent offers economical online access to consultants skilled in a wide array of products and services that deliver solutions for protecting Windows, Apple Mac, and Linux servers and workstations as well as notebooks and smartphones. Progent can provide consulting support for leading data protection platforms including Acronis Backup and Recovery, Backup Exec, BackupAssist Software, CrashPlan PRO, Double-Take, MozyPro, Retrospect for Macintosh, Apple Time Machine, VMware Data Recovery (VDR), and FLARs. Progent's consultants can help your company to implement, enhance, or maintain backup/restore solutions for a range of environments such as on-premises, edge to datacenter, cloud, or hybrid. For more information, see Backup and Recovery Solutions Consulting and Support Services.

System Center Data Protection Manager (SCDPM) Backup and Recovery Consulting
Progent's certified System Center Data Protection Manager (SCDPM) support professionals can help you to develop a practical disaster recovery plan, implement an affordable high-availability IT architecture, deploy a System Center Data Protection Manager-based recovery system, comprehensively test your DPM system, train your administrative staff or local consultants how to manage Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager, or provide extensive information technology support outsourcing including remote hosting of SCDPM servers in Progent's secure data center. For more information, go to System Center Data Protection Manager Consulting.

Barracuda Backup Multi-site and Cloud Backup and Disaster Recovery
Barracuda Backup is an affordable, subscription-based backup/restore service for small and medium-size businesses. A Barracuda Backup deployment can include a purpose-built physical storage device manufactured by Barracuda or a software-based appliance with comparable functionality but which utilizes your existing storage hardware. Barracuda Backup protects critical business data generated locally, at one or multiple remote locations, or in the cloud. For disaster protection, you can replicate data to the Barracuda Cloud, to Amazon AWS, or to any location with a Barracuda appliance. Progent is a certified Barracuda partner and Progent's Barracuda Backup consultants can provide a wide array of consulting support services to help your business to plan, configure, operate and troubleshoot a BDR solution based on Barracuda Backup. For details, visit Barracuda Backup and disaster recovery consultants.

ProSight Altaro VM Backup Software for Data Protection and Disaster Recovery
Hornetsecurity's Altaro VM Backup provides small businesses a reliable and affordable platform for backing up and recovering Hyper-V and VMware-powered virtual machines. Altaro VM Backup can be used for on-premises, remote, distributed, and cloud-hosted environments and also enables cost-effective backup to Azure Block Blob storage. Altaro VM Backup supports high-end capabilities like Immutable Cloud Storage for an extra layer of recoverability from ransomware. Progent is an Altaro partner and can provide a wide range of remote or onsite consulting services to assist you to design, deploy, optimize and debug a modern backup/restore system based on Altaro VM Backup. With ProSight Data Protection Services Altaro VM Backup, Progent offers a fully managed backup/restore service powered by on Altaro VM Backup. To read more, go to Altaro VM Backup certified consultants.

ProSight Data Protection Services 365 Total Backup Solutions for Microsoft 365
Microsoft 365 offers rudimentary archiving but does not have native support for vital data protection services like Exchange backups or greater than 30-day point-in-time recovery for OneDrive for Business or SharePoint. Hornetsecurity's 365 Total Backup provides a feature-rich BDR solution for programmable backup and rapid recovery of all your company's M365 mailboxes, Microsoft Teams Chats, SharePoint sites, OneDrive for Business data, and content on Windows desktops and laptops. Progent is an authorized Hornetsecurity/Altaro partner and has designed ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS) 365 Total Backup to provide comprehensive managed services for Hornetsecurity's 365 Total Backup product. ProSight Data Protection Services 365 Total Backup provides a budget-friendly backup-as-a-service (BaaS) alternative that guards M365 apps against data loss resulting from human or system mistakes, malevolent corruption, and cyber attacks like ransomware. For more information, visit ProSight Data Protection Services 365 Total Backup services for Microsoft 365.

Managed Cloud Backup: ProSight Data Protection Services ECHO
ProSight Data Protection Services ECHO offer small and medium-sized businesses an affordable and fully managed solution for secure backup/disaster recovery. For a fixed monthly cost, ProSight DPS ECHO automates and monitors your backup processes and allow fast recovery of critical data, applications and VMs that have become lost or damaged as a result of component breakdowns, software bugs, natural disasters, human error, or malicious attacks such as ransomware. ProSight DPS ECHO can help you protect, retrieve and restore files, folders, applications, system images, plus Microsoft Hyper-V and VMware images. Important data can be backed up on the cloud, to an on-premises storage device, or to both. Progent's BDR consultants can provide advanced support to set up ProSight Data Protection Services ECHO to be compliant with regulatory requirements such as HIPAA, FIRPA, and PCI and, whenever needed, can assist you to restore your business-critical information. Read more about ProSight Data Protection Services ECHO managed cloud backup.

ProSight MSP360 Backup Services
Progent's data protection experts can help you to create, deploy and troubleshoot a backup plan built around MSP360 technology. MSP360 offers file/folder or image backup/recovery for VMs and physical computers, works with all leading public clouds, and allows businesses to build a data protection ecosystem with a minimum RTO and a granular Recovery Point Objective. With ProSight MSP360 Backup, Progent can provide comprehensive monitoring and management of your backup environment to protect against data loss resulting from user mistakes, computer glitches, ill-intentioned insiders, and external assaults such as ransomware. To find out more, see ProSight MSP360 Backup solutions.

Consulting for Double-Take Software for Data Backup/Restore
Double-Take offers a selection of tools designed to provide small businesses a range of affordable solutions for backing up and recovering vital workloads such as Exchange Server, SQL, RIM Blackberry, and SharePoint. Progent's disaster recovery planning consultants have in-depth backgrounds integrating Double-Take Software technology into small company IT systems to achieve an advanced level of availability and business continuity readiness at an affordable price. To learn more, visit Consulting for Double-Take Solutions for Backup.

Why Pick Progent for Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity Planning?
Since Progent is a Microsoft AI Cloud Partner and offers high-level application support for a wide variety of small business applications, Progent can help customers to arrive at efficient IT solutions that substantially enhance the business value of your network. As a Registered Partner with Cisco, Progent offers the expertise of premier engineers and specialists with experience in designing, configuring and supporting networking environments built on Cisco products. The breadth of Progent's IT experience and Progent's appreciation for the requirements of small and midsize companies make Progent a great resource for creating and maintaining an affordable, high-availability information system.

Contact Progent for NetApp SAN Storage Solutions
If you are looking for expertise to help you design, deploy or troubleshoot a SAN storage solution based on NetApp technology, call Progent at 800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.