Transcript BACKUP/EXECUTIVE: Where Data Protection is Headed A look ahead Pierre Dorion Business Continuity Consultant Mainland Information Systems Ltd. Calgary, Alberta Canada.

BACKUP/EXECUTIVE:
Where Data Protection is
Headed
A look ahead
Pierre Dorion
Business Continuity Consultant
Mainland Information Systems Ltd.
Calgary, Alberta Canada
Definitions
 Backup:
• The action of taking a copy of the data and writing
to an alternate location for safeguard. Data backed
up must typically be restored (written back) for
access.
 Data protection:
• The act of protecting data from potential loss,
corruption, alteration, etc. This can be achieved
through backups, data replication, high availability
or redundant storage components.
Simpler times…
 Not so long ago data protection meant:
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Making sure there was a tape in the drive before leaving
Applications were likely shutdown for the backups
We had all night to backup
Tape operator was an entry-level position
Today’s IT environments
 Terabytes of data to protect
 Multiple applications to support the
business
 Shrinking backup windows
 24X7 access to data
 High-end skills requirements
IT & business trends
 On-demand computing
 Business intelligence
 Portal solutions
 Distributed environments
New paradigms & drivers
 Legislation & regulations compliance
 ILM (Information Lifecycle Management)
 Business continuity
Compliance – The latest driver
 New legislations are taking data protection
beyond business requirements
 Prompting the review of existing B&R
infrastructure, policies and procedures
 Generating increased storage requirements
beyond usual growth
 Will have to rethink storage strategy to
accommodate capacity and recoverability
Information Lifecycle Management
(ILM)
 Vendors offer only partial solutions at this time
 A lot of work remains in order to offer an end-toend solution
 Still a very manual process
 Requires a good understanding of the value of
data, retention policies and requirements
 Will be necessary to exert some form of control
on data growth
Business continuity
 Every organization will need some form of
recovery strategy
 Tighter RTOs keep driving new technologies and
data protection strategies
 Direct links between business continuity and
compliance are emerging
 Again, requires a very good understanding of
data retention policies and requirements
Data replication The way of the future
 Data replication will gain more popularity as the
primary means of data protection
• Allows the creation of data point-in-time copies ready to
be accessed within tight RTOs without requiring a restore
operation
•
Can be supplemented by tape backup for low-cost, offsite
storage
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Copies can be backed up without accessing the production
copy
•
Can be extended to remote site copies at the hardware or
software level
Data replication - Scenario 1
Disk-to-disk
$
Data replication - Scenario 2
Disk-to-disk-to-tape
$$
Data replication - Scenario 3
Disk-to-remote disk-to-tape
$$$
Data replication - Scenario 4
HA Cluster + disk-to-remote disk-to-tape
SERVER A
SERVER B
$$$$
Leveraging technologies Data storage
 Central storage & SAN (Storage Area
Network)
 NAS (Network Attached Storage)
 Storage intelligence
Central storage & SAN
 Central data storage is at the core of
many emerging technologies
 Allows data replication at the storage
device level
 Numerous new technologies
NAS – Network Attached Storage
 Does not require a costly front end
 Data is accessed through a TCPIP
network
 Reduces the cost of deployment
 Back-end disk can be provisioned from a
central storage array or SAN
Storage intelligence
 Storage virtualization
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Sun’s QFS/SAM-FS
IBM SVC & SAN File System
HDS
Compaq/HP
FalconStore Datacore, CommVault & many more
 However, highly competitive market often result
in the hasty release of partial solutions
Leveraging technologies Data transport
 Fibre channel – Offers bandwidth, low processing
and long distance but at a cost
 iSCSI – The new contender which relies on
proven TCPIP to encapsulate SCSI protocol –
More affordable but higher processing
 NDMP – Network Data Movement Protocol.
Specific to NAS.
Disk vs. tape
 Is tape dead?
• Because of the generally slower performance of the
media due to sequential data access, tape is slowly
falling out of favor as the preferred backup media
 Is disk the only way?
• Decreasing cost, multi-session and random data
access capabilities have made disk an increasingly
popular backup media. However, disk still presents
some offsite storage challenges.
 How about backups to disk?
The new order
 We need to change how we look at data
protection
 Data protection must be integrated with the SDLC
(System Development Life Cycle)
 We must close the gap between both the
business and IT’s view of the data
 We must establish the value of the data and make
it common knowledge within the organization
Not all data is critical
 Why should it all be stored on premium
storage?
 Tiered storage with QoS, performance,
availability and redundancy aligned with
the value of the data
 Business continuity planning is a good
way to establish the value of data