Your Oracle databases are the heart of business operations. To mitigate the business impacts of downtime and data loss, every Oracle database must be recoverable. This means every Oracle shop needs a strong backup and recovery strategy—one that takes into account the probabilities of hardware, software, network or procedural failure(s) in your current environment.
Losing database transactions against a customer-facing application could mean thousands of dollars in lost purchase orders and invoices. Do your backups still have you covered? Or are you vulnerable to unacceptable data loss or inability to meet recovery point objectives?
Some of the emerging challenges that can leave your Oracle data unprotected over time include:
- Rampant data growth
- Unstructured and/or new data types
- New and more complex storage landscapes
- Cloud and virtualization (of storage, applications, servers… you name it)
- New requirements for 24×7 availability; e.g., e-commerce applications
- New regulatory mandates
- Lack of funding or insufficient staff to manage growing backup demands
Without a viable backup strategy, Oracle database recovery is impossible. Likewise, an inadequate recovery plan leaves the viability of backups to chance. Many Oracle shops rely on Oracle’s Recovery Manager (RMAN) utility for backup and recovery operations. But a tool does not a strategy make. To know your data is protected you need a comprehensive backup and recovery strategy—and you need to test it regularly across a range of scenarios.
According to Oracle’s recent Oracle Database Management and Data Protection Survey, slow backups and long backup windows, backup management hassles and complex backup/recovery scenarios are commonplace even in large enterprises. A couple of interesting statistics:
- Many large organizations are struggling to backup hundreds of siloed databases adding up to petabytes of data daily.
- Overall, less than 5% of Oracle data is protected in real-time, meaning that the other 95% is vulnerable to data loss (usually all the data generated since the last backup).
- Speaking to the dynamic nature of backup needs, 45% of companies surveyed had changed their backup tools as a result of growing data volumes.
For many companies, Oracle database backup and recovery requirements are becoming more complex than their current staff can effectively handle. Can you even identify where your data is actually located, let alone how to resurrect it in the event of an operating system crash, DBMS crash, power loss, disk/hardware failure, cyber attack, disaster or (most commonly) human error?
A third-party Oracle DBA expert can support your data protection strategy in multiple ways, including reducing staffing and management costs associated with backup/recovery, augmenting your in-house expertise and resources, helping you deal with changing technology, and helping you review good practices and develop a cost-effective, practical strategy that will meet your business needs. An outsourced Oracle DBA expert can also leverage specialized tools and skills to help you recover corrupt, missing or deleted Oracle data.
To talk over your current backup/recovery process and challenges, and gain insight into how you can benefit from the latest technology and best practices, contact Buda Consulting.
