Don't be relieved that the manual is ready

My company uses over 500 computer servers to host our website, email, and Internet application programs developed for our customers. Our main data center is in Seattle, and we have a backup data center at our headquarters. We have designed the backup data center so that if there is a problem with the main data center, we can continue to run our business from the backup data center.

Whenever a server computer in the main data center has a problem, I always tell our staff to failover to the backup data center before they focus on fixing the problem. Doing a failover is often slower than repairing the problematic server from a work efficiency standpoint, and the data center operations staff will not volunteer to do a failover. Still, I keep telling them to do it.

I keep telling people to do it because we have had a few data center accidents in the past where the data center was completely unusable. Needless to say, when that happens, you have to failover. There is a manual for failover, and if our staff follows it, they can do it, but I want them to do it as much as possible to learn these skills.

It's a mistake to be relieved that there is a manual. Even if there is a manual, there is no way of knowing for sure if you can perform an action if you have never done it before. So, can you failover, and how long will it take to recover the system? This is a data center that should not be broken, but there is nothing that will never break. I think it is our job to provide an environment where we can actually "do it", not just a manual on the assumption that things will break.

Kenichi Uchikura
President / CEO
Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.
ken.uchikura＠pspinc.com

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