A Texas local government agency ran critical public services from a single production environment, with nowhere to fail over. Weaver designed and deployed its first dedicated government disaster recovery site in a secure colocation facility. We also added lifecycle services to keep it current.
The challenge: a production environment with nowhere to fail over
This local government agency serves a fast-growing population across multiple departments. It runs critical infrastructure and public services. So it needs secure, reliable IT to maintain continuity and public trust.
However, the agency ran a production environment only. It had no designated disaster recovery site. An outage, system failure or cyberattack could have severely disrupted its ability to serve the public. In addition, any fix had to fit public sector budget and compliance requirements.
Our approach to a government disaster recovery site
Weaver worked closely with the agency to design a dedicated DR environment. It replicates production systems and still stays within public sector budget and compliance limits. Our local presence and our experience with government IT helped us keep the design simple.
First, we chose a non-HCI architecture to keep VMware licensing costs down. Next, we placed the government disaster recovery site in a secure colocation facility. Then we deployed on a timeline that kept risk and downtime low. Finally, we added Weaver ELM lifecycle services to simplify ongoing management.
What Weaver delivered
- Secure colocation. The DR environment lives in a secure colocation facility, built around a cost-optimized 3-2-1 design.
- Dell PowerEdge R660 and PowerStore. We deployed new Dell servers and storage as the foundation of the site.
- VMware Cloud Foundation. We virtualized the DR environment with VMware Cloud Foundation.
- Full replication. The new site connects smoothly with the agency’s existing VxRail production environment.
- Weaver ELM. Our lifecycle services keep the environment current and simplify ongoing management.
Results: a government disaster recovery site ready to fail over
Today, the agency is fully ready for disaster recovery. If an outage hits, it can fail over to the new site. The environment also gives the IT team a place for development and testing.
In addition, the non-HCI design lowers VMware licensing costs, and Weaver ELM keeps management simple. As a result, the agency has greater confidence in business continuity. Its infrastructure now has room to grow with the population it serves.
“This is what we mean by building with purpose. Our team delivered a resilient DR and lifecycle strategy that supported their goals, without unnecessary cost or complexity.”
Solutions Architect, Weaver Technologies
A common challenge in local government
Many local governments run critical public services from a single production environment. A dedicated government disaster recovery site gives them a way to keep serving residents through an outage. Also, careful design can make one fit a public budget. For example, a non-HCI design on Dell Technologies servers and storage can lower licensing costs and still deliver full replication.
Running on production alone?
Weaver can review your environment and help you design a DR approach that fits your budget and compliance needs. Talk with our team, or browse more case studies.
