Ask Umi the IT Dog: One Failure Away from Losing Critical Data

 Dear Umi:  I manage IT storage for a national retail chain and I’m having trouble sleeping at night. Every time one of our Dell PowerStore flash drives fails, I know we are one more failure away from losing critical data which would severely damage our business. Sometimes it takes 24 hours before that failed drive is replaced and rebuilt. Until my data is protected, I can’t seem to get any sleep.

Can you prescribe a sleep aid to help me get some rest?

– Sleepless in San Diego



Dear Sleepless in San Diego: As an IT expert and a dog, I’m not qualified to give medical advice, but I can help you protect your data and get some sleep.

You’re not the only with this concern. Over 48 percent of flash arrays experience at least one drive failure every year. The chances of having a two-drive failure in a flash system is 1 in 170. That is a 1 in 170 chance of losing your data if you don’t have the right protection.

That’s why NetApp recommends our customers leverage two-drive or even three-drive failure protection. Dell doesn’t offer this option on all of its products. Even when it is available, Dell often recommends against it for performance reasons. NetApp doesn’t have that problem.

Over 94 percent of NetApp’s customers make use of at least two-drive failure protection. This allows them to enjoy a better night’s rest even when they have a failed drive. They know their data is still protected

Take two ONTAP and call me in the morning.

– Umi The IT Dog