Safeguarding information in order to maintain business operations in the event of a computer system or server failure is a concern that should be top of mind given the sheer volumes of electronic data that most modern businesses require to run. Backing up data to disk is one solution that has been proposed, as this technology offers fast access and can be automated and monitored to ensure that information that needs to be kept is retained and duplication of data is minimised.
However, budgets are simply not keeping pace with the overwhelming demand for storage. As the number of regulations around data retention continues to rise and disk storage solutions remain a fairly expensive technology, it is simply not viable for organisations to hold all of their data in tier one storage for the long-term. Tape storage remains the only cost effective option for long-term storage. Disk storage also has a shorter life span than other technologies such as tape storage, but given the relatively slow retrieval times on data stored on tape, this is not an attractive option for data that needs to be accessed quickly and often.
Taking a tiered approach to storage can assist organisations to make data backup and retention a far more cost effective exercise and can also reduce the risks associated with storing data on disk for the long-term, while allowing for adequate recovery time on all data across tiers. Such an approach takes into account the priority of data, by storing high-priority information on highly accessible disk storage and then migrating this data to lower cost, lower performance storage such as tape as the value of the data declines.
A disk to tape type of strategy makes sound business sense as it offers a good balance in terms of availability and retention. However for many organisations, backing up data from disk to tape involves a certain level of manual processing, leading to the possibility of human error creeping in and the inevitable silos of data being formed. A disk to tape storage approach, while useful, is not the best solution to the problem of providing a cost effective data backup and recovery solution.
The modern multi-tiered approach to storage uses all of the available types of storage in an integrated fashion to provide the right amount of availability and retention at a more cost effective price point. A disk-to-disk-to-tape strategy harnesses different storage types with different levels of availability and resultant higher costs, such as flash storage, performance disk, capacity disk and tape storage, in an intelligent fashion to ensure that data is stored according to its value and likelihood of recall.
This multi-tiered approach can incorporate both client side machines through a backup server as well as databases, ensuring that all information is retained for the appropriate length of time. It also allows for the automation of processes such backup of data, moving of data through the various tiers as value decreases and eventual migration to tape. Other technologies such as de-duplication and incremental backups can also be integrated to ensure that storage needs are minimised by reducing the amount of duplicate data that is stored.
A disk-to-disk-to-tape solution with de-duplication forms the basis of a sound, cost effective data protection architecture, offering the lowest total cost of ownership when compared to a purely disk storage solution or a disk-to-tape scenario combined with the best possible availability. In this way organisations can use the different storage tiers to provide a full solution, from professional backup and recovery to restoration of data.
A solution of this type delivers infinite storage scalability, as extra storage can be slotted in at any of the tiers, delivering the best in sizing, storage, capacity, access, throughput performance and price, while at the same time ensuring secured, long term access to all data.
