Nowadays, data is one of the most precious assets for any individual or company. Due to this, it must be carefully protected. Imagine a big corporation where data is precious, ever increasing, constantly changing, and in high, urgent demand. Protection becomes paramount, as does availability--the ability to obtain data at a moment’s notice. Now imagine a person charged with making all of this happen every day, no matter what--a daunting task. Hirt, who in this book explains how to design, build, and operate an effective data center, provides the corporate structure devoted to this task.

The book is divided into three sections that cover every aspect of reliable data delivery, from organizational issues to bringing data to end users’ workstations. In the first section, “The building blocks of high availability,” readers learn that high availability is a business. As such, there are other aspects, apart from the technological ones, that must be taken into account. These include the careful study of the organizational processes, the behavior and expectations of people using the data, the monetary costs, and support. Therefore, high availability cannot be guaranteed right out of the blue, but must be carefully planned. The data center is the structure devoted to this task, and this section teaches readers how to design and operate a sound one.

In the second section, “Always on: SQL Server technology,” we learn how to achieve all the goals outlined in the previous section by using Microsoft structures query language (SQL) Server 2005. This section is mostly devoted to configuration issues aimed at implementing basic data protection and delivery techniques: standard backup and restore, failover clustering, log shipping, and database mirroring and replication--only on a grand, enterprise-wide scale with all of the problems involved. This section teaches readers how to anticipate these problems, and how to solve them before they arise.

In the final section, “Administration for high availability,” readers learn the day-to-day administration of Microsoft SQL Server 2005 systems (including basic day-to-day data delivery, administration, and maintenance to disaster recovery).

This is not a book to be frantically browsed through, in search of the solution to the contingent crisis. It is a broad-ranging guide, and is most effectively used when designing a data center. Even the countless screen shots that are scattered throughout are not designed to explain how to solve problems, but to explain how to set things up in order to avoid them in the future. It must be metaphorically chewed and digested by someone who is not only experienced in data design and administration, but also familiar with the processes and needs required to administrate data in a large company. For these people, this book will become a most authoritative source of knowledge.