Due to globalization, Web-based sales and service, more vigorous competition, and more stringent regulations, the goal of ensuring the availability and recoverability of data and applications has risen considerably on the priority lists of today's CIOs. A wide range of technologies is available to address this goal. At the apex of a spectrum of solutions sits a strategy that maintains highly redundant, geographically dispersed systems and data, commonly identified as High Availability (HA) or Disaster Recovery (DR). Occupying the lower extreme is traditional tape-based backups, which provide reliable but rudimentary disaster recovery capabilities.

The point is that to understand the HA/DR solution spectrum requires two-factor analysis. Each technology must be considered for both its ability to protect data and its ability to keep operations online or bring them back online quickly.

This white paper reviews the technology spectrum available for IBM i and AIX environments, including the latest, next-generation solutions, with a goal of preparing IT professionals to evaluate and adopt those most effective and appropriate for their organization.