Backup

The information stored on company computers and data storage devices is usually several times more valuable than the equipment itself. Know-how is no longer hidden in development employees' desk drawers or in company safes, but is recorded on server hard drives.

The amount of this data is doubling each year, and requirements for mailbox sizes are climbing together with the number and size of audiovisual files. If we add to this the increasingly utilised UMS technologies, then even when using technologies and tools for management of the data lifecycle the volume is so large that we cannot effectively back it up in a given period with standard procedures. By means of new, modern backup solutions utilizing a flexible backup model called "disk-to-disk-to-tape”, which back up data primarily to disk and then later to tape drives, we are able to solve this problem.

This new approach to backup also takes into account the fact that not all data is the same. Applications and operating systems libraries can be backed up automatically as, for example, in the case of installation of upgrades. For applications tools, documents and databases, a continuous protection function may be used which first takes a complete backup of the data and then only makes incremental backups of what has changed at regular intervals. The data obtained this way can be used to create synthetic full backups at regular intervals. These consist of the original, full backup, combined with all of the incremental backups, giving rise to a new full backup without burdening the network. Naturally, there are possibilities to use system snapshotting technologies, whether on the level of operating system nodes or SAN disk storages spaces.