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

Computer Technology Review, Oct, 2003 by Jennifer Dion

* How old is it? This is a key question, especially if your company must follow government regulations on file retention. Some critical files may need to be maintained for years, while others can be eliminated after six months. SRM provides detailed reports on aged and dormant files.

* Who does it belong to? Was it generated by the CFO, or do some of the files belong to employees no longer with the company? A good SRM product can also calculate chargeback values on a per-department basis.

* Where is my data? Are my key servers evenly loaded, or is one about to run out of space while the others are under-utilized? Is the most critical, time-sensitive data on the fastest servers?

* How quickly is my data storage growing? Use SRM to be proactive about planning and justifying storage hardware purchases, using real information on data growth trends.

* Did I backup my critical data? Since we've been talking about data protection, this is a key question. Figure 3 is an example SRM report on files skipped during a backup.

[FIGURE 3 OMITTED]

How to Not Run Out of Storage

SRM also protects you against the late night pager summons that tells you that a server has run out of room. A key element of protecting your data is ensuring that your servers stay up and running and there is no threat to data integrity, especially with a key application running on an Oracle or SQL Server database, where continuity is critical.

SRM software can set thresholds on volumes, directories and even e-mail folders, both to protect against out-of-space problems, and to enforce limits set on individual storage.

Enforce Your Data Policies, Don't Just Set Them

A key element for SRM is the ability to take action, not just provide passive reporting capabilities. Before you start your backup, make sure that you're actually backing up the "right" data by grooming noncritical files. SRM cannot only identify dormant, aged, inappropriate or temporary files, it can also automatically run preset policies to delete, compress, stage or copy data, or run a script such as a backup. Your SRM product should be able to carefully filter data by age, type and location and then take action on the files you've identified.

So, Do You Have a Data Protection Strategy?

When you sit down to evaluate how you protect your data, can you answer these three questions?

* Is my data ultimately and reliably backed up to tape, both for additional security and for off-site disaster recovery?

* Is my backup and recovery ability as fast as it can be?

* Did I groom and control my data before I started my backup?

If you can answer these questions, then you have a fast, efficient and complete data protection strategy.

Now, relax.

www.overlanddata.com

Jennifer Dion is director, product management at Overland Storage Inc. (San Diego, CA)