Continuous Data Protection: The New Imperative

What is the most valuable asset to most companies? Equipment? People?

Very often the answer is - Data.

The Myths

Where would a healthcare company be without its patient records? Or an insurance company without its claims database? Think about how important data is to your very business

The world is becoming more and more reliant on data, while, at the same time, the amount of data continues to grow at an incredible rate. This vast amount of data isn’t static either, it is constantly changing. New customers are added, transactions are processed, and customers are billed. Mounting concerns for security, compliance and business continuity make protecting this data a top business priority.

What do most organizations think is the solution?

Entrusting a faulty system of tapes and once a night backup not only puts their reputations at risk, but also their organization as a whole. Why? The answer you'll most often hear is, "That's how we've always done it." Nightly tape-based backup was invented in the early days of computing, when data was entered through batch processing and duplicate paper records were stored for everything.

While the networking world has changed tremendously over the last 30 years, nightly tape-based backup has not. Tape-based backup remains the sole batch process we still use in our computing environments. It is clear that we need a new approach with today's constant exposure to loss and constant dependence on data.

If not tape-based backup, then what? Continuous Data Protection

The concept behind continuous data protection (CDP) is very simple. Instead of backing up systems every night, CDP captures data changes as they occur and saves them in many point-in-time restorable versions throughout the day. That way, if a file is deleted at 4:39 in the afternoon, you can recover to a point just minutes before the deletion occurred. When compared to the world of tape-based backup where you can only go back to the previous day’s copy — you are saving nearly a full day's worth of business.

CDP began as a “nice-to-have” product. The reason for this - not that everyone couldn't benefit from multiple point-in-time versions throughout the day - is because it was cost-prohibitive. But CDP is moving away from the niche market to the mainstream. In fact, CDP will become the foundation of every sound data protection strategy, virtually eliminating the stale batch backup and recovery solutions of old.

What's causing this move to the mainstream? First, data is just too valuable not to be protected continuously. Second, plummeting disk prices mean companies can get the benefits of disk-based backup and CDP without paying much more than they were before for nightly tape backup.

The last bastions of the old batch processing days are gone. For the first time in 30 years, data protection solutions have finally caught up with mainstream needs. But be certain you distinguish real next-generation recoverability solutions from those simply putting a new marketing spin on old technology.  In order to do this you should assess solutions against the following requirements:

• Disk-based backup may be a required first step, but to get the true benefits, changes need to be captured as they occur, and many point-in-time recoverable versions must be accessible throughout the day. The benefits include little-to-no data loss (RPO), and recovery directly from disk to get back up and running quickly (RTO).

• Automatic offsite protection, also known as online backup, remote backup or electronic vaulting, enables you to move backup data to a secure offsite location to protect against physical loss throughout the day. If you still use tape to move data offsite once a day, then you are back to the old batch mode and NOT doing continuous protection.

• Integrated retention rules are required to recover from data corruption, meet regulatory and fiduciary compliance requirements, minimize risk of litigation and reduce the costs related to retaining unnecessary versions of archived data.

In addition, the best solutions completely automate and integrate the entire continuous disk-based backup, off-site protection, archival and Web-based recovery process to fully eliminate both the opportunity for human error and the risk of physical media error or loss. The result is 100% recoverability of the point-in-time version you need vs. today's high failure rates with tape-based backup.

Data should no longer be put at risk in batch-oriented, nightly tape-based backup environments. In today's networked world, with its heightened risks and far greater dependency on data, businesses need to consider continuous disk-based backup and recovery solutions. These new integrated solutions almost completely eliminate data loss and substantially accelerate recovery time. What was once a luxury is now a core requirement of every business data protection solution.

For more information about why Continuous Data Protection is the right solution for your organization, please ask your EveryNetwork On-Site Engineer or contact EveryNetwork by calling (877) 647-2262 or via email at sales@everynetwork.com.