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.

When searching the market for an offsite data backup and disaster recovery solution, it is easy to become overwhelmed with the multitude of options and all the technical jargon within the remote backup service provider industry.  One such term is “agentless” backup.  Agentless backup is a backup and restore process that eliminates the need for individual software installations, or agents, to be installed on target servers requiring protection.  Agent-based solutions are usually more costly because in most cases the software is proprietary to the service provider and needs to be installed on every computer in the network to be backed up. 

In a situation where an entire site has data loss resulting from a disaster, the physical hardware would need to be replaced and all essential software components have to be installed to restore business continuity.  Then, after worrying about the operating system and applications, it would be necessary to install an agent prior to restoring the data backed up in the service provider’s vault.  This not only drains human resources and time, but also has the potential to be a huge financial burden for a company;  which is counterproductive in these tough economic times.

As an alternative, agentless backup uses communication protocols to manage tasks from a single administrator computer for an unlimited number of machines connected on a local or remote network and doesn’t require the management of agent software.  In general, the agentless remote site backup and recovery solution provides simple, centralized management of the data protection process while eliminating the capital and operational expenses associated with agent-based solutions.  Backup from an agentless architecture can be performed from a single point of administration, which results in lower costs.   Additionally, since agentless backup is priced according to the total storage used, there are no licensing fees.  Businesses reduce backup costs overall by employing disk-to-disk agentless backup.

It’s best to use a remote data backup service company that can also provide disaster recovery consulting in the case of a complete site loss.  Choose a remote data backup service provider that employs a high-end, agentless solution and does not require the use of an agent for every computer in the network for backup and recovery.  Taking this route will keep costs at a minimum because only one backup appliance at each site would need to have the software installed, and there is no need to perform a bare metal restore on the backup machine.

For more information on the agentless architecture, download our Agentless Backup and Recovery white paper.

Fact:   According to the 7^th Annual  ICSA Lab's Virus Prevalence Survey, The average company spends between $100,000 and $1,000,000 in total ramifications per year for desktop-oriented disasters (both hard and soft costs).