Data Mirroring Advances

Real-time data mirroring is improving, making it faster and cheaper to store huge amounts of critical data at secondary sites, according to IBM, which is unveiling new remote backup products. That's good news on the cost front. But it might also attract notice in Washington, where the physical limitations of mirroring were an issue as federal regulators weighed guidelines on backup data centers for Wall Street firms. as well.

During discussions last year, regulators wanted backup centers to be hundreds of miles outside New York to ensure the markets could reopen quickly after a "regional disaster." The financial industry chafed at codifying a "safe" distance between centers. One of its arguments was that current technology didn't allow reliable real-time mirroring beyond 60 miles, making it untenable for the feds to recommend that facilities be further apart.

Of course, that was a convenient argument for the many financial firms with backup data centers in Manhattan, Brooklyn or nothern New Jersey. A mandate from DC on "geographic diversity" would have meant expensive relocations for these operations. The industry viewpoint won the day, and regulators' final white paper steered clear of including a recommended minimum distance between data centers.

In a perfect world, the issue would never come up again. In the real world, efforts to disaster-proof the American financial system are likely to be revisited often going forward. As mirroring technology improves, a key argument in favor of the status quo becomes less persuasive.