We have a hosted server running a company application which uses SQL 2008 R2. When our users run reports from this database via the web application it puts a strain on the system which in turn affects our customer facing call centre who log calls on the system.
For both backup purposes and to take some of the strain away from system we would like a copy of the database hosted elsewhere.
Ideally this would be a live copy of the database and allow those who need reports to run the reports from the copy thus not affecting the live system. Also, in an ideal world, if the live system dies for whatever reason, we could simply switch to the copy database.
I am far from an expert in databases/sql etc so would like to throw it out there to see if anyone had any good ideas of the best way forward to achieve this goal. I'm assuming it will have to be some form of database mirroring, but are there any other options available to us?
Any ideas would be appreciated, thanks in advance.