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Tag: back-up

  • IT Execs Doubt Virtualization is Data Recovery Remedy


    Separate backup data center locations are not being used by many companies to provide the complete data-recovery system, according to research.

    Instead they are relying on failover to separate storage arrays and servers within the same physical building.

    Market researcher Harris Interactive said this is the Achilles heel of many virtualized IT environments.

    Three-quarters of IT executives surveyed believe virtualization by itself can play a major role in an enterprise disaster recovery plan.

    But they said it in no way represents a complete answer to a DR strategy, according to a "State of Disaster Recovery" survey released by Harris.

    While many IT decision-makers say they have deployed virtualization in a production setting, survey data indicated that most have not yet utilized it in a disaster-recovery situation.

    A full-fledged disaster-recovery system using virtualization replicates the system and all its data to an off-site location away from the main enterprise data center.

    In the event of the main data center going offline and out of action, virtual machines replicated at the backup location continue to keep the workloads running smoothly, with little or no latency in daily production.

    However, many companies are not able to deploy separate backup data center locations to provide the complete data-recovery system, relying instead on failover to separate storage arrays and servers within the same physical building.

    Seventy-four per cent of survey respondents indicated that virtualization can play a major role but is not a total solution for disaster recovery plans.

    One-quarter of IT respondents said they would never include virtualization technologies in their disaster recovery plans.

    Sixty per cent of respondents said they have virtualization in place now as a recovery tool from unplanned outages; only 29 per cent said they have used it successfully.

    Eight per cent said they used virtualization but that it didn’t work to their satisfaction.

    Another 29 per cent of IT decision-makers say they have deployed virtualization but not yet used it as a tool for disaster recovery.

    The survey said that over the next two years, half of IT decision-makers say they will be looking into virtualization as an option for managing unplanned outages and disaster recovery.

    About a quarter of IT executives say they will be looking into cloud computing and grid networking as potential options.

    The survey was commissioned by SunGard Availability Services, which provides disaster recovery services, managed IT services, information availability consulting services and business continuity management software to more than 10,000 customers in North America and Europe.

  • Consumer Network Storage Equipment Market Growing, More Promotion Needed


    Consumer demand for data storage is expected to drive Network Attached Storage (NAS) revenues to more than USD $1.25 billion in revenues by 2011.

    That’s the conclusion of ABI Research, which says the phenomenal growth of digital photography, audio, and video have focused consumers’ minds on the need for secure storage.

    Jason Blackwell, ABI Research senior analyst, says the need to store precious pictures, music, and movies has raised the profile of backup and media server solutions.

    He said that although most consumers still rely on single-computer backup scenarios, a small but growing number are opting for NAS.

    But the market needs to be promoted more to ensure an even greater uptake.

    "In order to move the consumer NAS market forward, vendors, including leaders such as Buffalo Technology and Linksys by Cisco, need to educate and inform consumers about NAS’s advantages," he said.

    Consumer NAS equipment falls into three groups:

    • Integrated NAS drives, which include the necessary networking software
    • Network storage enclosures, for those who wish to add the hard disk themselves
    • Storage routers and bridges, which allow attachment of standard USB or IEEE 1394 hard drives to a network

    Blackwell says that integrated NAS drives comprise the lion’s share of the market, but storage routers and bridges offer vendors the greatest growth opportunity.

    Challenges in this market have traditionally included consumers’ relative indifference to data security: backups have always been considered a bore.

    So marketing and customer education will be key to success. Cost has been an issue too: while prices continue to fall, they still pose a barrier to adoption.

    Blackwell says the rise of the home media server market, however, will provide some lift: DLNA and UPnP-enabled NAS devices can act as media
    servers and are being branded as such.

    "The fact that NAS devices are becoming more like media servers will certainly help them penetrate the digital home network," he said.

    "Vendors are making a concerted effort to market NAS for these more exciting purposes rather than simply for backup."