Subscribe

Age of virtualisation

Virtual copy data management is a modern alternative to traditional backup.

Harold van Graan
By Harold van Graan, strategic sales director at Actifio.
Johannesburg, 02 Jul 2015

In a world of digitisation, increasing networking and, of course, the Internet of things (IOT), a powerful potential is generated - with the caveat of a flood of data which is now recognised as one of the major challenges enterprise IT is facing.

Various IDC studies* predict the doubling of data volume every two years. The problem is that while data is valuable, it can often be redundant.

Data collection is a valuable commodity to companies as patterns become visible and mining of the data reveals important insights which in turn lead to more informed decision-making. But only a small portion of the stored data is original, with the greater majority being multi-scale copies of the same production data created by conventional point systems. In traditional architectures, physical copies of data are needed for: backup; business continuity; disaster recovery; test and development; analytics; and other purposes.

Burden of redundant data

The glaring reality is that companies store redundant copies of data. For example, a machine tool builder backs up its primary data on a server and then duplicates this by copying some of the data to a laboratory server for test or development purposes.

In fact, the same data can be stored three times - which may still be manageable, but according to IDC, companies store from 10 to even 120 physical copies of certain data. Most data copies will never be used, but they still need memory space and management, translating into escalating cost and complexity.

If data is to be restored instantly, a reliable backup solution is essential for the entire data set.

Trust no one

Most companies cross their fingers and place their trust in traditional backup solutions. However, the actual recovery with traditional systems is often complex and requires an enormous amount of time. Many companies store their data as a form of insurance with the hope that an "emergency" restoration will never be necessary especially in light of the time investment and the fact that often the recovery mechanisms have never been tested.

Efficient alternative?

As a modern and efficient alternative, copy data virtualisation solutions come to the fore. Using a single physical master copy that can be mirrored to an external location if necessary, it provides infinite virtual copies of data for all use cases and thus reduces the number of physical copies of primary data. Changes to the master copy are captured incrementally, forever. Virtual data copies are available and can be accessed in real-time. For long-term archiving, virtual data copies are globally de-duplicated and compressed for outsourcing to a low-cost storage facility.

The special feature of copy data virtualisation is that the data is not saved in an independent backup format, but in the native format of the respective applications - this facilitates instant re-use.

Most companies cross their fingers and place their trust in traditional backup solutions.

The technology uses a methodology called Changed Block Tracking (CBT), which allows the data to be used much more quickly and is more versatile than in classical data backup processes. For write operations, the differences are recognised, since data is never written to the memory of the primary data. In a development or test environment, this means the environment may be based on an exact virtual replica of the production data, but without physical space being claimed for copies of the same.

Copy data virtualisation is also superior to traditional backup solutions, due to the fast access rates when older backups are needed. The backup data can be used for classical tasks such as disaster recovery, test and development, migration, etc, without any impact on the data pool. Since these processes are carried out detached from the productive storage, there is no fear of adverse effects on production.

Rip and replace?

There are many examples of the successful replacement of traditional backup systems around the world. Even in environments where tape storage plays a significant role, companies can benefit from the advantages of the data virtualisation approach.

Evolution of backup market

According to Gartner, the backup market is in a state of change. In last year's report, Gartner stated: "By 2018, 40% of organisations will augment with additional products or replace their current backup application" and "by 2016, 20% of organisations, up from 7% today, will deploy only snapshot and replication techniques, abandoning traditional backup/recovery."

Enterprise data should be treated as an economic business asset, managed holistically as part of an integrated copy data management model, and leveraged to provide improved resiliency, agility, and deliver on the economic promises of the access to the cloud.

* http://www.actifio.com/company/news/the-copy-data-problem-an-order-of-magnitude-analysis-idc/

Share