BasicGov / BLOG

Part 10: Data Availability. An outline about how data remains available and protected, even in the event of a natural – or human-induced disaster.

As part of the process of selecting software for local and municipal governments, it is important to consider data availability, backups, and redundancy.  This is especially important in case of a natural disaster, where you could lose access to your computers and/or data center.  You should ask your software vendor where your data will be stored, how often it is backed up, and whether there is geographic redundancy.  You will want to be sure that the data is frequently backed up, and stored in multiple locations separated by enough distance depending on what disaster you are mitigating. Eg. fire, floods and earthquakes are more regional, while hurricanes can affect entire coast lines.

One of the advantages of some SaaS applications is that the data is hosted externally, backed up frequently, and stored in multiple redundant locations.  In the case of a disaster both your application and data will still be available to you. All that is required is power in your location, a computer and browser, and an internet connection without the hassle of having to reinstall anything or having an IT professional restore backups.

Some of the key considerations in evaluating SaaS applications for local and municipal governments are:

• Data Storage:  The SaaS vendor should be hosting your data in a remote location, and this location should provide secure access to your data.  Some SaaS providers receive third-party certification for data and application security, ensuring that your data is stored in a secure location.
• Data Backups:  In planning for disaster recovery, it is important that the SaaS vendor have a multi-tiered approach to backups.  Data backups should at least occur daily, and there should be secondary backups in a secure offsite location.  If your data is physically stored in multiple secure locations, then you can be confident that you will have access to your data and your application in the event of a natural disaster.
• Application Availability:  SaaS providers should be able to ensure high availability for your application.  The SaaS provider should be hosting your application in an environment with reliable power and network infrastructure, a full high-availability infrastructure, and redundancy.

All aspects of the service are redundant from the location, network, servers, storage devices, databases and backups. This ensures that you will have access to your application and your data at all times.

Tags: BasicGov, building permit software, building planning software, city planning software, cloud computing, code enforcement software, data, data availability, data center, data storage, e-gov, e-Government, Gov 2.0, government software, local government software, municipality software, natural disaster, SaaS, Software-as-a-Service, web-based software