By Dr. Robert Glorioso

Summary

When availability ranks as a fundamental computing requirement, assured availability technologies, those which delivers 99.999% uptime, constitute the solutions of first choice, from a range of options, including clusters. This risk avoidance posture affords protection from the costs and consequences of unpredictable downtime AND gives the enterprise the ability to analyze, predict, and rationally accept risk, as warranted by an application's availability requirements. Conversely, any other posture relative to system availability exposes an enterprise to the affects of system failures.

Risk Management with Windows 2000 Such top down, tip-of-the-spear positioning of a range of system availability technologies pre-empts criticisms of NT's availability and reliability. Moreover it ensures that organizations can build systems with the highest level of availability, the lowest total cost of ownership, and the fastest time to deployment, all on a single operating system, from desktop to data center.

Availability and Reliability: Code Language for Risk Management

Expressions of need for system and application availability expose the desire to avoid the costs and consequences of system failure. These include:

• Lost Revenue
• Threats to Life and Limb
• Excessive Expense
• Liability Exposure
• Lost Productivity
• Damage to Assets
• Customer Dissatisfaction
• Violation of Law or Regulation
• Career Damage
  

In other words, in today's world of ubiquitous, standards-based computing, the term’s "availability" and "reliability" serve as code language for the desire to manage the risks of dependency on computing.

Assured Availability and Levels of Availability for NT Defined

To satisfy the aforementioned requirements for "mission critical" systems in the enterprise, all availability technologies must also preserve and enhance the expected value and benefits of adopting NT as a server environment. As expressed in the "Scalability, Interoperability, Availability, Management" strategy, these include: 24 X 7 global support, uptime guarantees, global consulting, standard API development, ease of deployment and use, simple maintenance and servicing, and low cost management.

Specifically, assured availability technologies must deliver the following capabilities transparently to users, without human intervention, programming or administration:

• Nonstop processing
• Continuous data access
• Uninterrupted connectivity
• Disaster tolerance
• Constant performance.
  

In addition, these solutions must:

• Rely on configurations of standard, off-the-shelf server components
• Run shrink-wrapped application software and the off-the-shelf NT
• Continue computing through all single points of component failure and repair
• Automatically assimilate new components to restore full redundancy
• Mask transient operating system failures.
  

Assured Availability: The Tip of the Spear

Attributes of other levels of availability, and their constituent technologies, cascade from this high ground position of assured availability.

Range of Availability Attributes

Assured Availability Accelerates Market Acceptance of NT

Increasing dependence on information systems will only accentuate demand for the sort of "digital dial tone" delivered by assured availability systems. Therefore, from a competitive perspective, this tip-of-the-spear positioning strengthens NT as a server platform. First, by delivering 99.999% uptime, assured availability solutions pre-empt criticisms of NT's reliability and availability. Second, promoting a range of availability solutions that do not require proprietary hardware or software, with nonstop service at the high end of the range, puts competitors on the defensive, by forcing a response of like kind. Finally, the strategy gives credence to the following extraordinary claim. Customers can exploit a rich software library, standard API development, simple testing, widely available expertise, uncomplicated deployment, universal management tools, and easy administration, to build systems with the highest level of availability and the lowest total cost of ownership, all on a single operating system, from desktop to data center.

Only Microsoft can make this claim. In the final analysis, in competitive situations, NT, its suite of server software products, and Windows-based third party applications win.

The practical application of the range of availability plays out as summarized in the table below.

Tip of the Spear: Practical Application of Availability Solutions

Two points bear noting. First, the actual risks and consequences associated with system failure, especially for new and expanded applications, may well exceed initial perceptions. Murphy's Law applies. "If something can go wrong, it will go wrong," and Murphy was an optimist. Second, large-scale applications will rely on a rich mix of availability technologies, techniques, and best practices based on the complex of variables and constraints governing the project and deployment. Consequently, it is axiomatic: taking chances by ignoring risk yields unanticipated and potentially catastrophic consequences of system failure.

Conclusion

Risk avoidance positioning for the range of NT-based availability technologies, with assured availability as the tip-of-the-spear, yields tremendous benefits. From this posture, enterprises can guard against the costs and consequences of unpredictable downtime by analyzing, predicting, and rationally accept risk. Moreover, for Microsoft and its partners, the strategy puts competitors on the defensive and accelerates the adoption and implementation of Windows-based systems.

Conversely, no discernable value or upside arises from alternative postures in light of the increasing costs of downtime relative to improving price performance and functionality of standard hardware and off-the-shelf software. Given the burgeoning dependence on computing, taking chances with availability means that the most important, most sensitive applications will be identified when they fail, after damage has been done.

Given the circumstances of the market and the industry, when it comes to positioning availability technologies for the digital nervous system, an ounce of assured availability prevention is worth a pound of cure.

This white paper is courtesy of Marathon Technologies