Backup, Archive, Recovery
Jan 1, 2012 12:00 PM, By John Pearring
Education institutions can simplify operations and save dollars with an appliance approach to data backup.
The education sector remains abuzz with cost-cutting expectations despite pressures to increase services. Automation of costly manual tasks could save funds for many of these institutions, specifically in data protection.
The IT departments of schools and universities can take advantage of a proven cost-savings opportunity in data protection that also will increase their new data recovery expectations and school safety.
Data recovery solutions always should include all three major areas for ensuring restores: backup, archive and disaster recovery. Buying technology to perform these three key functions separately creates huge divides in management and implementation. And, skipping out on any one of these areas will leave a facility vulnerable and out of compliance with school safety measures.
All three functions of data recovery have taken a giant leap in automation over the past few years as a result of a single technological development: backup appliances. Beyond bundling all of the components needed to handle data recovery, IT shops now can purchase all-in-one data recovery designed for enterprise-class operations.
Universities are not the only enterprises in education. Even the smallest school districts take on the school safety requirements of enterprises: multiple platforms, remote offices, large numbers of users (at every level), separate retention expectations from different departments and a host of legal rules to follow.
The net result of an appliance is automation for all of these enterprise requirements and the inclusion of every data protection technology an IT department could want. The largest savings come to schools and universities, though, in the areas of pricing (sizing and configuration), implementation and operation. Not only can these facilities save money in adopting an appliance strategy, but also they will get all of those new technologies and enterprise capabilities at incredible savings.
Size Matters
Granted, costs are not the only thing IT is thinking about when buying data protection. Sizing for an appliance shifts conversations from hardware and software (compatibility and preferences) to simple decisions around how big and how fast (scalability and performance). Users should be able to see the prices upfront. Consider the life cycle for such a purchase, typically three to five years, and decide based on how much the current data backup solution costs.
When configuring and pricing an appliance, think about the following details. Rather than giving the appliance vendor only the "ideal" expectations, give them a minimum and maximum. This will help immeasurably during appliance manufacturer comparisons. Do not let a manufacturer or their reseller undersize or oversize your solution:
How much data does the facility have?
- Data files in terabytes.
- Databases that are run in terabytes.
Software licensing structures:
- Pricing by the amount of data backed up or archived, or pricing by the number of machines or databases being backed up.
- General retention policies.
- Number of days to be able to restore everything.
- Number of machines to be able to restore immediately.
- Number of years to keep archives.
- Size and number of each remote office.
- Some facilities will not need a localized appliance, just software.
- Remote office solutions are based primarily on network pipes.
Based on the above, it is easy to see that the configuration and sizing for an appliance shifts from talking about server size, storage arrays, etc., to the practical details of the environment, which is good news.
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