In-Depth
Podcast: Strategies for Effective Data Protection
With the data inside the data center secured, IT must now address the problems of a growing mobile work force. We discuss how enterprise data protection has changed and where it’s headed.
With the data inside the data center secured and data backup and recovery plans implemented, IT must now address the growing volume of work performed at remote sites and by mobile users. Distributed work calls for new data protection strategies -- changing what needs to be protected and how that backup is performed.
We explore how enterprise data protection has changed and where it’s headed.
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Seven Properties IT Should Look for in a Protection Solution
Easy: Recognizing that time is as important a resource as data, enterprises should only consider data protection solutions that are easy to implement, use, administer, and maintain. With staff members already working at their limits, simplicity is critical. No enterprise wants to experience downtime from lost data, but neither should data protection tasks interfere with their ability to complete other business critical work.
Secure: Data protection should never create risk. This means that backup and recovery processes should secure protected data against illicit access, corruption, and loss. More specifically, solutions must not only protect data while it is being stored, but while it is in transit to and from the storage resource as well.
Affordable: Make sure the data protection solution meets all of the above criteria while delivering the value required. To ensure affordability, be aware of potential hidden costs in implementation, training, and maintenance. Also be wary of solutions that require significant up-front investment, and lock you into a single vendor for an extended period of time.
Automated: Data protection can and should operate in a completely automated, hands-off manner. Unless the solution is automated, human errors or oversights can prevent the consistent protection of key resources. Automated data protection also minimizes operational overhead and administrative costs because no staff time or effort is required to complete essential backups.
Available: Data storage resources must always be available, 24 x 7. Whenever data needs to be backed up or recovered, the storage facility should be ready to do so. Achieving immediate data access is the whole point of data protection, so never accept any solution that cannot guarantee 100 percent availability.
Reliable: Data protection solutions must be rock solid. All data that enterprises target for backup must, in fact, always be backed up. And, if data restoration is required, the solution must ensure that the process can be launched and completed -- 100% of the time.
Scalable: As data volumes grow, so too must the data protection solution. But it is vital that the solution can meet increasing needs without the need for additional large capital expenditures or costly modifications to the existing system. In other words, scalability should be seamless, incremental, and cost-effective.