Instant disaster back-up in place

By RICHARD PAMATATAU

The Ministry of Social Development has spent $1.5 million on more back storage systems that will give it instant access to information that is less than a minute old following a natural disaster like an earthquake.

That follows a spend of around $12 million last year for new development computers which will be housed in Auckland with some of its existing machines at computer giant EDS's site.

Ministry of Social Development capacity planner Steve Hickey said the new storage system supplied by American giant EMC polled the network every 30 seconds for data changes and sent the information to a special site in Auckland.

The ministry runs the Swiftt benefit payment computer system and Trace, another system responsible for managing beneficiary debt.

"To be without them would be a disaster as well."

The new system replaces tapes which were sent to Auckland at the close of each business day.

Hickey said a review of the systems last year revealed it would take the department several days to get up and running after a disaster if the existing system was kept on.

The snapshot is accurate to the last 30 seconds, he said, using the Symmetrix Remote Data Facility/Asynchronous (SRDF/A). The technology delivers a consistent and restartable remote copy of production data at all times, over any distance, with no host application impact.

EMC New Zealand country manager Alister Dias said the ministry is the first business in the Australia and New Zealand region to implement this new technology.

It is understood Telecom has just bought new storage systems from EMC.