Do you backup data? Or do you have a data protection strategy? - Backup/Restore

Computer Technology Review, Oct, 2003 by Jennifer Dion

You walk to the closet in the corner of the computer room and, after digging around for a few minutes, you find what you were looking for--a tape with a handwritten label that says "August 2003." So, this must mean that you have a data protection strategy, fight?

Think again. Even if you back up your data, you may miss out on technologies that can give you a faster, more efficient data protection strategy.

While a backup to tape is critical to protecting data, enhancing your backup strategy is simple. You can accelerate your backup with a disk-based appliance and provide control with storage resource management (SRM) software. The three solutions--tape, disk and software management--work together for a complete data protection strategy.

Tape as the Foundation

Tape is and will continue to be the proven foundation of data protection. With its low cost and removable media characteristics, tape remains the ultimate destination for files that need to be duplicated, stored and available for restores.

For years now, experts have predicted the death of tape and the takeover by other methods and media types. But in 2003, tape is still alive and well and relied on daily as the primary storage media for corporate data. According to an IDC research report in September 2003 by Robert Amatruda, approximately 153,000 tape automation units were shipped in 2002--making tape automation a $2.03 billion industry. Additionally, according to Freeman Reports, the tape automation market is expected to grow units shipped by 11% in 2004. With continuing advancements in the cost of ownership of tape, technology enhancements and new applications, the need for tape is as great as ever. A Data Mobility Group research report by Dianne B. McAdam (February 2003) "Debunking the Seven Myths of Tape, stated, "Tape will be around for many years to do what it does best, protect data on removable media." As the well known quote goes, the reports of tape's demise have been greatly exaggerated.

But with data now being measured in petabytes, storage administrators need to take advantage of additional methods for making data protection faster, more efficient and better managed.

The Growth of Data

For the last several years, the amount of data contained on corporate storage has doubled every year. In keeping with that, hard disk manufacturers have also doubled the capacity of their drives every year. Consider these statistics, compiled by a Gartner report from Carolyn DiCenzo in June 2001:

* Email messages carried over SMTP will grow by approximately 40% per year through 2005

* The number of people reachable via the Internet will grow approximately 20% per year through 2008

* Disk capacity, network speed and processing resources will expand to accommodate increases in e-mail message size, per year through 2005.

At the same time and given the tight economy, IT departments frequently have a flat or even reduced headcount. And, unfortunately for storage administrators, the average day still has only 24 hours. With the effects of global business, instant communication, telecommuting and expanded work hours, the backup "window" is an ever-shrinking target.

So, what's an IT manager to do?

Disk: The Need for Speed

"I feel the need, the need for speed!" Top Gun movie fighter pilot "Maverick" must have been a struggling storage administrator before he learned to fly jets.

Disk-to-disk-to-tape (D2D2T) solutions address shrinking backup windows by combining the advantages of tape with the high-speed, random access capabilities of disk. Backups complete faster, and application servers are free to resume their normal, round-the-clock functions. At the same time, files stored on both disk and tape are well protected but easy to restore, almost immediately.

A large, multi-national financial institution recently found its own proof. During an evaluation of a D2D2T backup appliance that uses the iSCSI protocol, serial ATA disks and built-in software to provide backup acceleration, they achieved some eye-opening results. The IT department recorded a 300% improvement in backup speed, reduced their tape consumption by 50% and noted a 33% possible reduction in the number of backup (media) servers required.

And, they're not alone.

Davenport & Company LLC is a well established, 400-employee investment firm with 18 branches throughout the East Coast. As a financial institution and a member of the New York Stock Exchange and the National Association of Securities Dealers, Davenport manages a massive amount of data and has to ensure that its critical financial files are confidential and securely managed. Although the firm has a tape backup solution in place, it became apparent that they needed to use additional measures. The company's particular situation--sensitive data to back up, maintain and quickly retrieve if necessary; multiple remote locations to manage; and a strong desire to be as cost-effective as possible--made it clear that a backup and recovery appliance was vital to their data protection strategy.