RenovoData Weekly Articles

Until recently, all "backups" were treated the same.  Traditionally, when people thought of tiered storage technologies, it was for production data only.  However, today's factors such as availability, redundancy, scalability, reliability and regulatory compliance all need to be considered as key aspects of backup storage solutions.  By employing an offsite data backup provider with a tiered solution, small and medium-sized companies can instantly have the high performance data backup storage and data archiving capabilities of large enterprises at a reasonable cost - amongst other benefits. 

Tiered storage refers to the use of storage systems that have different performance, scale and cost characteristics.  A tiered storage solution assigns different categories of data to various types of storage devices and media based on service levels as defined by distinct business needs.  Data is moved across the tiers in accordance with business policies while data backup works throughout the storage environment to meet business continuity and disaster recovery obligations.

Tiered storage is a flexible and effective means of storage architecture.  It is a strategy employed by leading offsite data backup companies that allows for a more practical and streamlined method of managing data.  It enables data to be placed on a platform at an appropriate time for the purposes of providing agreed service levels and achieving desired business objectives. Key benefits of tiered storage include:

• Efficiency. By decreasing the number of systems within the business' data center, a tiered storage solution also delivers higher network utilization, faster access to data and a greater return on investment.

• Simplicity. Tiered storage integrates a simplified backup storage management solution. It eliminates the complex processes associated with disk to disk backups that later gets copied to tape, and finally moved offsite. In one backup process, the user can backup all data that ranges from high-priority and high availability data requirements, down through low-cost, less critical data that still needs to be sent offsite for disaster recovery and/or data archiving.

• Economical. Operational costs and total cost of ownership (TCO) are reduced through optimizing the use of existing devices and eliminating the need to purchase backup hardware, software and media. Using a service provider with tiered storage offers a real-time, "pay as you grow" solution which allows the right type of storage to be purchased at the most appropriate price point that meets the current needs of the business. There is no need to guess and overpay/underpay for the incorrect storage space. Additionally, implementing a tiered storage data backup solution can substantially drive down the costs associated with achieving Recovery Point Objectives (RPO) and Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) without breaking the bank.

• Performance. Application performance is improved by relocating less frequently accessed data to more cost-effective storage. Information is immediately available and accessible and downtime is miniscule while IT staff productivity is maximized.

• Compliance. The rising number of corporate and governmental regulations [such as Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA and SEC] faced by businesses today require data to be stored securely over long periods of time. The rapid growth of this inactive data creates a substantial cost for IT. It is critical that this data be protected, retained, and made available to users, the business and external regulators only when needed.

When considering an offsite data backup company, make sure they offer a comprehensive tiered storage solution that offers offsite data protection, data security, disaster recovery and long-term data archiving capabilities.  These features are essential to meeting today's critical business demands and regulatory requirements. 

Fact:  The Gartner Group reports that 40 to 50% of all tape backups are not recoverable in full, and that 60% of all tape backups fail in general.

Tape backup is an outdated method that compromises the reliability, security, cost-effectiveness and convenience needed for data protection and recovery.  The Gartner Group reported that nearly 50% of tape-based backup systems fail to restore correctly.  Moreover, according to Storage Magazine, more than 34% of organizations do not test their backups, and of those tested, 77% of them found their tape backup failed to recover. 

A remote backup company offers a multitude of benefits as the premier alternative in offsite data storage and data recovery.  Five advantages remote backup services have over the traditional tape method include:

1.   Disaster Recovery.  One of the most important contributions for organizations that properly plan for a disaster is the assurance that data will be stored offsite in the event that the physical building of a business, along with computers, servers and tapes stored inside, are destroyed.  When a disaster strikes, business-critical data stored offsite such as customer billing, intellectual property and proprietary information are all safe and recoverable.  Data can be seamlessly restored to an alternate location, allowing for business continuity.

2.   Automatic Backup.  There are no tapes to manage, IT staff to schedule or vendors to coordinate a pickup and delivery of tapes.  This enables the business to save time and money and significantly minimize errors.  Remote backup allows for backups to automatically occur at any time on a schedule that best meets the business needs of the organization.  The responsibilities of assuring that the backup and restoration are successful fall on the remote backup company so productivity remains high.  When problems arise, the data is guaranteed to be both stored and restored through the automatic backup process.

3.   Low Cost Solution. The cost benefits of remote backup over tapes can be measured in several different ways.  The first advantage is the reduction of expenses associated with IT staff having to manually backup and restore data on a regular basis.  The return on investment can be recognized further through the realization that files can be quickly restored 24/7, keeping business productivity high and the business operations continuous.  Further, remote backup allows savings through eliminating the need for capital investments such as purchasing hardware and software.  Also, since files are compressed, more information can be stored at a lower cost to the business.

4.   Centralized Servers.  Consolidating backup processes through an agentless solution to an outsourced offsite backup services provider eliminates the need for agents installed on each machine that requires backups, thus avoiding the drain on IT resources, minimizing disruptive downtime and positively impacting recoverability.  The agentless solution that is offered by remote backup companies provides significant savings through simple licensing, singular software management, resource conservation, heightened security, backup consistency and improved restoration.

5.   Security.  A remote backup company ensures data protection and data recovery using the latest encryption technology to secure data.  A key benefit to using a remote backup company that surpasses all other advantages with security is that the data is always available; this is something that tapes cannot promise.  Although some tape storage providers offer encryption, once data is stolen, lost or vandalized, the data is no longer accessible.  For this reason alone, a remote backup company offers the security needed to meet business and compliance standards, while guaranteeing the data will be available for restoration.  The ramifications to the success of a business if valuable records were accessed by someone using unencrypted tape could be substantial, possibly resulting in a loss of customer confidence, stolen trade secrets and litigation.

Discussion:  How would you prioritize these top 5 for your business?

Statistics show that once data loss hits, the problem is pervasive affecting various areas of the business.  The consequences can be devastating.  Research reveals that 93% of companies that experience significant data loss go out of business within a five year period; almost two-thirds of those companies go out of business within six months.  More than 75% of those companies that test their backup tapes have found problems with their tapes, while 100% of disks and tape drives eventually fail.

Data is your business' primary asset that can make or break business operations.  Confidential customer information, important financial records and proprietary product information are all major aspects of running a successful business on a day to day basis.  Each of these plays a significant role in the long-term viability of the company.

There is a positive correlation between the advancement of technology and risks to your business.  Hardware and system malfunctions, viruses, hackers, software corruption and natural disasters can all attack your business' mission-critical data.  In a best case scenario, the downtime for your business will only last for several hours or even days.  At worst, the data loss can cause you to shut down operations completely and go out of business.

Think of remote backup companies as analogous to a bank safety deposit box where you would keep your most valuable personal items and documents in a safe place away from theft, vandalism or natural catastrophes.  Similarly, you should store sensitive data most critical to your business with a remote service which specializes in encrypted and automated offsite data backup and disaster recovery.

Consider the types of data listed below that a remote backup provider would manage.  What would data loss in any the following areas mean to your business?

• Accounts receivable and other information that manages revenue generation

• Accounts payable and other data that shows your company's cash flow

• Proprietary information

• Customer databases that allow you to provide client services and maintain your competitiveness in the industry

• Data that could result in additional costs such as employee downtime

• Government regulated data

Hire a remote backup service company for data protection and feel assured that your data will be secure, most information will be fully restored and your business will maintain operations in the event of data loss.

Fact:  According to National Archives & Records Administration in Washington, 93% of companies that lost their data center for 10 days or more due to a disaster filed for bankruptcy within one year of the disaster; 50% of businesses that found themselves without data management for this same time period filed immediately.

As you are home during the holiday season enjoying your family and eggnog, data backup for your organization is the furthest thing from your mind.  During this time of the year when businesses experience a shorter IT staff, or in incident of weather-related issues which prevent personnel from making it to the facility to respond and recover operations, the need for a secure remote backup company is important.  An offsite backup service provider ensures those accommodations are accounted for within minutes.

When you have multiple servers at a site, the conventional method used by many businesses would be to set up a central backup server with a tape library.  The problem with this solution is that it creates a bottleneck and a single point of backup failure within your network.  Also, with slower backup and recovery speeds, no quick 24/7 access to data recovery, human error and the manual intervention required to get data offsite, tapes have proved to be an unreliable method.  This often cumbersome and lengthy process as a means of data protection can negatively impact the business recovery time and recovery point objectives (RTO and RPO) for your company, and compromises critical business practices such as complying with regulatory requirements.  For the same reasons that mp3 players are more commonly used today while music tapes are pretty much obsolete, remote backup is a better and more advanced solution for protecting your business-critical data.

In the event of a disaster, if employees are on vacation, managing a data center can pose a major challenge.  Remote backup solutions can be specified as a managed service to be installed into the existing infrastructure of your company ran by IT administrators.  If personnel are inaccessible during a critical time such as a server crash, an offsite solution is the guaranteed means of business continuity and disaster recovery.

Trivia Question:  What percentage of companies experiencing significant data loss goes out of business within five years?

Answer:  Posted in our upcoming blog.

I was happy to learn that of the 12 technologies that CRN magazine (September 15, 2008) reported to be most needed by midsized businesses, RenovoData addresses 5 of them.  They are: 1) Virtualization; 2) Data Loss Prevention; 3) Data Deduplication; 4) Software-as-a-Service and 5) Mobile Security. 

According to CRN, typical midmarket CIOs are facing the same struggles that their counterparts are at large enterprises but they're having to deal with more limited budgets.  Not a surprise given the current state of the economy.  In fact, I think the economic downturn will actually accelerate the trend for midsized companies to adopt hosted alternatives as credit markets remain tight through 2009.  As CIOs are forced to do more with less, in the face of more dispersed workforces and craftier threats, the prospect of secure hosted offsite data backup and DR is becoming a more viable alternative for them.    

In case you are wondering what the other 7 technologies are, they are: Blade servers; Unified Communication; Videoconferencing; Network Management; Perimeter Security; Data Center Cooling and Business Applications.