Systems and methods for providing business continuity services

Abstract

Systems and methods for providing business continuity services after a disaster or other loss of data are provided. The system and methods include accessing, replicating, and storing customer data. In the event of a disaster or other loss of data, the stored data is used to create fully recovered systems. The systems and methods provide for a remote data center that offers protection against physical disasters. The systems and methods include providing a virtual recovered operating system environment identical to the source operating system environment in less than 8 hours after notification of a disaster.

We claim: 
     
         1 . A system for providing business continuity services after a disaster or other loss of data comprising:
 (a) at least one source server for executing a cloning process in which data volumes and server configuration files are cloned and for executing a replication process in which data volumes are replicated;   (b) at least one target server for mounting a read-only snapshot of the replicated data volumes;   (c) at least one conversion server for executing a conversion process to convert the replicated data volumes from a proprietary disk file type to a disk file type that can be recovered; and   (d) a storage system for storing the converted disk files.   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1  further comprising a replication software controller to control the flow of replication data to the target server. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the target server is located at a remote data center. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 3  wherein the remote data center is a Tier IV, SAS70 certified data center. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the storage system is located at a remote data center. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 5  wherein the remote data center is a Tier IV, SAS70 certified data center. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the alternate computing resources are located at a remote data center. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 7  wherein the remote data center is a Tier IV, SAS70 certified data center. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the replicated data undergoes CDP replication securely across a WAN cloud at the data block level to the target server. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 1  further comprising at least one operator at a remote data center for receiving status notification and monitoring the status of the cloning, replication, conversion, storage and virtualization processes. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 1  wherein cloning software is installed on the source server and the target server. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the storage system comprises a storage array provisioned so that the replicated data is stored in customer assigned volumes. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the at least one conversion server executes a conversion process for converting the replicated data volumes from a “thick” disk file to a “thin” disk file. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 13  wherein the “thick” disk file is deleted once the “thin” disk file has been stored on the storage system. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 1  further comprising:
 (e) alternate computing resources for executing a virtualization process of the read-only snapshot, the converted disk files and cloned server configuration files to create at least one recovered server. 
 
     
     
         16 . A system for providing business continuity services after a disaster or other loss of data comprising:
 (a) at least one source server for executing a cloning process in which data volumes and server configuration files are cloned and for executing a replication process in which data volumes are replicated;   (b) a remote data center; and   (c) at least one operator at the remote data center for receiving status notification and monitoring the status of the cloning, replication, conversion, storage and virtualization processes;   wherein the remote data center is a Tier IV, SAS70 certified data center and wherein the remote data center comprises:
 (a) at least one target server for mounting a read-only snapshot of the replicated data volumes; 
 (b) at least one conversion server for executing a conversion process to convert the replicated data volumes from a proprietary disk file type to a disk file type that can be recovered; 
 (c) a storage system for storing the converted disk files; and 
 (d) alternate computing resources for executing a virtualization process of the read-only snapshot, the converted disk files and cloned server configuration files to create at least one recovered server. 
   
     
     
         17 . A method for providing business continuity services after a disaster or other loss of data comprising:
 (g) accessing data in an operating system environment;   (h) executing a cloning process in which the data is cloned;   (i) replicating the data to at least one target server;   (j) mounting a read-only snapshot of the replicated data to the target server;   (k) converting the replicated data to a disk file type that can be recovered;   (l) storing the read-only snapshot and converted data on a storage system.   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17  wherein the cloning process is executed by cloning software on a source server. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 17  wherein the target server is located at a remote data center. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 19  wherein the remote data center is a Tier IV, SAS70 certified data center. 
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 17  wherein the storage system is located at a remote data center. 
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 21  wherein the remote data center is a Tier IV, SAS70 certified data center.