Advanced Backup and Copy Services
Overview
Traditional backups cannot meet the recovery point objective (RPO) or Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) demanded by some organisations. In addition, 24/7 operations mean that critical applications cannot be taken off-line or suffer performance degradation whilst a backup is in progress.
Snapshot tools provide a fast disk-based copy of mission-critical systems and enable copies of the data to be taken at far more regular intervals than traditional backups. A RPO may be as low as minutes.
Snapshots can also be used to remove the backup overhead from a critical server. By taking a snapshot and backing up via a proxy server, performance degradation is reduced.
The downside of snapshots is the performance impact on the target application that will impact the number and frequency of copies taken. Another downside is the amount of additional storage required for the copy and where this resides. Typically the copy will reside on the same subsystem and be backed up to tape.
All the main vendors deliver their versions of snapshot tools and basic versions are often delivered as a standard feature of
mid-range and
enterprise class subsystems. More advanced functionality may be chargeable. The performance impact and RPO benefits of snapshot technology also vary between vendors.
Key Deliverables
Improved Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs) and Recovery Time Objectives (RPOs) compared with traditional backups for critical applications
Minimise performance degradation of applications during backup
Reduce backup window for applications that do not have on-line backup agents
Vendor Alliances
