Develop a Backup Architecture Strategy
Meet data and system protection requirements with the right blend of tape, disk, or Cloud.
- Legacy architectures aren’t cutting it anymore, and many organizations are having trouble meeting their backup windows, or achieving their restore point objectives (RPOs) and restore time objectives (RTOs), driving them to consider modern architectures including disk.
- Many are claiming that “tape is dead” and cloud backup is receiving a lot of hype, raising uncertainty in terms of the direction to take the backup architecture.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- Disk continues to dominate. The majority of new backup deployments remain disk-based, as this enables the shortest restore times of all media.
- Cloud backup is maturing. Overall, cloud backup is not skyrocketing in market share, but use cases are shifting away from direct backup to cloud replication. This enables protection of more critical workloads as restore times are shortened through use of an onsite “cache” of disks.
- Tape is making a comeback. Two years ago, tape was predicted to be on its way out. However, recent advances in tape technology and increasing disk prices have led to a resurgence in tape implementation of late.
- Best-fit backup architecture combines disk, tape, and Cloud, to meet restore objectives at the lowest possible TCO. If restore objectives and TCO are imbalanced, you are either paying too much, or your data is under-protected.
- The key business value of backup is the ability to restore critical data with acceptable downtime. Backing up data without a functional and reliable restore process has a negative value impact.
Impact and Result
- Protect data and systems within restore, backup, and disaster recovery requirements by matching backup technologies to the value of data, and ensuring off-site copies can be brought online on time.
- Ensure your proposed architecture will support strategic goals. If projected needs for 2016 will be met by the architecture, then it is appropriately aligned with your long-term growth strategy.
- Follow and plan for a natural backup upgrade progression that appeals to the cost and data sensitivity of the organization.
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