In conjunction with upcoming Dell, Inc. seminars at its data centers, Online Tech, Michigan’s managed data center operator, has launched a SAN Disaster Recovery Package. Online Tech will host a secondary SAN at its secure SAS70 certified data centers, including Internet connectivity, for $399 per month.

At the EqualLogic seminar on June 25th, Dell demonstrated SAN-to-SAN replication between two Online Tech data centers. The EqualLogic SANs were set up in less than one hour with the primary SAN replicating data, snapshots, and restoration points to the secondary SAN for disaster recovery at a separate data center.

“Other SAN solutions we tested took a high level of expertise and days to configure the cross data center replication” said Jason Yaeger, Online Tech’s Operations Manager. “We were stunned at how quickly we could set up cross data center SAN-to-SAN replication with Dell’s EqualLogic product.”

SAN-to-tape backup is quickly giving way to offsite SAN-to-SAN replication, driven by three main factors: lower costs of disk storage, cheaper Internet connectivity costs, and easier to use SAN solutions.

Compared to daily SAN-to-tape backups that are 'sent' offsite, offsite SAN-to-SAN replication provides the peace of mind that the SAN data is 'continuously' replicated. The data can be restored at any time without the delay involved in retrieving tapes from an offsite storage or the risk that the data may not be recovered from a bad tape.

• The SAN hosting package starts at $399 per month and includes everything needed to host a Dell EqualLogic SAN at Online Tech’s secure, SAS 70 audited data centers, including:
• SAN colocation in a secure, locked rack including redundant power
• SAS 70 certified data center assuring physical and network security
• 5 Mbps Internet bandwidth for up to 50GB SAN-to-SAN transfer per day
• Secure VPN network connection into the SAN