One of the most important things for a brand, company or institute is its data. The data is very important for maintaining the records, transactions or information. Any company or institute cannot afford to lose them under any conditions.
A lot of measures are taken to protect them from internal and external threats which are increasing day by day. These threats can range from virus attacks to faulty power grids. Thus companies or institutions have to think of an idea for successful disaster recovery. And the most efficient and effective recovery option will be replication of data to a secondary site.
Replication of data helps in a number of ways such as reducing the time of system maintenance and testing of applications. There may be two kinds of this replication processes- Asynchronous replication and Synchronous replication.
The efficiency of asynchronous replication
Synchronous systems are used for shorter distances whereas Asynchronous systems are used for longer distances. In terms of data loss, Asynchronous systems may or may not lose some data during transaction unlike synchronous systems where we can get an exact copy of the source and destination files.
However, asynchronous replication systems ensure a rapid restart-able data image. In terms of distance, asynchronous mode of data replication can be used for almost any distance. The distance of the secondary site could range from hundreds to thousands of miles from the source site.
The reason behind this is the absence of propagation delay involved in confirming transactions which is actually the waiting time to update the replication site and its confirmation to return. In terms of data integrity, sequence stamps or codes are used to ensure exact data replication on asynchronous replication systems.
One of the most important advantages of asynchronous replication systems is that it is less costly than synchronous mode of replication and generally suites the organization that can tolerate being down for some minutes to hours until the last few transactions are restored. Also if the company cannot tolerate the performance impact of synchronous mode of replication, asynchronous systems could be a good idea.
Choosing asynchronous replication
We can say that both synchronous and asynchronous replication processes have its own merits and demerits and it’s completely the specific needs of the company which can determine which technique to use.
A complete assessment of the business has to be done before making any choices. The decision is quite complex and generally depends on different aspects of the company like assessments of potential risks and business impact analysis.
However, choosing asynchronous replication is highly advisable when all the aforementioned factors take place in an enterprise.