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Continuous Data Protection goes offsite


Johannesburg, 31 May 2007

It's a truism: because valuable information like databases, client files and emails are stored on your network, your data backup system has to work at all times or your business can be at serious risk. Continuous Data Protection (CDP) has emerged as a technology that allows businesses to refine their backup and restore strategy with the ability to restore information from any point in time - even 30 seconds prior to requesting the restore. However, CDP is moving towards another level - offsite CDP appliances are now providing a disaster recovery (DR) strategy that enables organisations to be up and running quickly after a disaster event.

CDP is an important component of the data backup solution because it automatically replicates any new or changed data - in real-time. CDP backs up data in real-time, ensuring that any time there's any new or changed data, it is immediately replicated onto the CDP storage unit.

However, until the price point of disk dropped significantly, backup to tape was the popular option. Most tape solutions, however, are so complex and need so much manual intervention - together with a large dose of willpower - that they merely substitute product management for problem management. Speed is another problem; businesses using tape are often forced to back up only at night because data transfer rates are so slow that it may take hours to capture data. Worse still, even finding the right tape does not guarantee you will get back to business after a failure: tape only restores properly in 23% of cases, according to a 2004 study.

Companies rationalise that leaving a day's worth of data unprotected by tape is not such a major issue, since they can always run their backups at night. But stretching the gap to several days may be too high a risk. Fortunately, disk costs have decreased to the point where inefficient tape archiving is no longer necessary. Companies can now go beyond the limitations of tape archiving to achieve 'Any Point in Time' recovery. Even the smallest business can afford to establish a system of continuous backup that makes recovery a snap.

However, to be most effective, backup and recovery systems must be automatic, reliable and include offsite backup in addition to 'bare metal' recovery: taking a snapshot of your entire hard drive so if your system crashes, all you need to do is insert a CD into your new or repaired computer and the entire operating system (with documents and applications and settings) will be recovered. Thus an entire system can be recovered through a simple management interface - in minutes as opposed to days.

The combination of continuous data protection, offsite data backup and bare metal recovery affords the greatest protection in the event of a disaster and forms the foundation of a workable disaster plan. This can make the difference between getting back in business after a disaster, and suffering losses so monumental that economic recovery is impossible.

It is therefore crucial for businesses to look towards CDP solutions that offer backup to a device at an off site location to protect against fire, theft and other major natural disasters. The advantage of this method of DR is that businesses can recover data in an instant in the event that the CDP unit at the local site is not viable

There is no business that can afford to be without CDP DR and solutions that offer incremental changes and reduce the usage of costly bandwidth should be prioritised. In addition, CDP should be extremely easy to use, improving time taken to restore information.

When saving real-time information to a DR site, security is paramount as corporate data is one of the most valuable assets of a business. Having a great off site DR plan is diminished if hackers can tap into corporate data. Encryption, preferably AES 256-bit encryption, eliminates the risk associated with loss of company data through theft rather than disasters.

CDP is a great technology that has lessened the complexity and increased the efficacy of traditional tape backup, and provides fast retrieval for mission or business critical environments. When coupled with secure off-site data replication, where information can be accessed from a remote site in the event of a disaster, CDP is providing businesses with a DR component making it a business imperative.

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Editorial contacts

Liesl Simpson
Evolution PR
(011) 462 0628