The rate at which data is growing today is causing heads to spin faster than a whirring disk drive. It can be overwhelming and part of the feeling is brought on by the fact many backup administrators have been caught by surprise at what’s happening.
While tape has long been known tape as the capacity leader—with the best price per TB—it no longer can solve a panacea of problems caused by escalating data growth and ever-increasing backup and recovery requirements.
In the early 1990s, mid-range tape storage was revolutionized when it became possible to put 5 GBs on one tape. At the time, conventional thinking was that it would take three years to fill this expanded capacity. Fast forward to the New Millennium. Now your storage level has reached 5 TBs, and while tape technology has continued to do its part in capacity growth, the speed needed for the lightning-fast way we do business today obviously is missing, causing backup windows to look like a picture window with a very bad view.
There are steps for changing the size and view of your backup window. Start by figuring out exactly how much data truly needs protection. Then evaluate the criticality to establish the value of this data. Calculate the SLAs and data retention requirements that must be achieved and then start benchmarking them vs. the current configuration. Determine these factors against your desired Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs), Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs) and Recovery Granularity Objectives (RGOs).
Introducing a disk-to-disk-to-tape (D2D2T) strategy will enable a faster backup method that will make it possible to meet SLAs. Overland’s REO SERIES disk-based appliances are designed purposefully to solve backup window woes. Once the suitable backup times are achieved, advancements such as data deduplication helps reduce storage of repetitious data while improving the amount of data that can be kept on disk for rapid restores.
With SLAs under control, it’s much easier to determine data protection growth levels for the next three years. If this seems daunting, apply IDC’s standard that data is growing at 60 percent a year. So if there’s 20 TBs of production data today, plan for at least 50 TBs in three years. A good rule of thumb in backups is to keep 10 times your primary disk capacity on-hand for growth, but by using compression and data deduplication the tables tip in your favor. According to Enterprise Strategy Group, a 20-to-1 data reduction ratio is achievable.
Today, one technology is not enough to ensure effective data protection. But have no fears, tape is not going away, it’s just transforming from a first line of storage to a second or third. A summer 2007 study by Aberdeen Group revealed 75 percent of respondents said they will continue to use tape for some form of backup. So matching NEO SERIES or ARCvault tape automation with Overland’s ULTAMUS RAID nearline storage and REO disk-based backup and recovery provides the building blocks necessary for a solid tiered data protection solution that provides years in peace of mind.
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Peri Grover
Director, Product Development