Data backup and archiving

Business requirements for data archiving

Backup system administrators face the difficult task of meeting the requirements of a business for which every downtime is a real financial loss. Therefore, it is necessary to maximize the frequency of backup copies in order to minimize the amount of data exposed to loss in the event of a failure. The time interval for the possible recovery of work lost since the last copy (RPO - recovery point objective) is known as WRT (work recovery time). The time needed to restore the data from the last backup copy is defined as RTO (recovery time objective). Both these parameters should be as small as possible and their sum cannot exceed the MTD defined by the business (maximum tolerable downtime).

Data backup - technological requirements

The development of mass storage systems and the popularization of virtualization have contributed in recent years to the need to look at the issues of backup and archiving from a new perspective. The most popular model of making backups on magnetic tapes - D2T (disk to tape) is gradually giving way to solutions that require higher efficiency, allowing for copying more and more data in short backup windows. Such possibilities are provided by solutions such as D2D (disk to disk). In order to reconcile the need for quick backup and access to data with simultaneous guarantee of their durability, it is necessary to implement systems connecting the above two models, referred to as D2D2T (disk to disk to tape). In such solutions, quick and frequent backups are made using mechanisms such as snapshots, snapclons, LUN replication, and then the copies created in this way are stored using traditional libraries and disk drives on magnetic tapes.

To facilitate the design, implementation and maintenance of modern, efficient and effective backup systems, UpGreat offers its services in the field of:

• selection and delivery of appropriate mass storage systems
• design and implementation of SAN networks (FC, iSCSI)
• selection and implementation of solutions for data deduplication
• developing backup plans based on mechanisms such as snapshot, snapclone, replication
• selection and delivery of tape drives and libraries
• installation and configuration of backup software (including HP Data Protector, Veeam, Backup Exec, CommVault)