|
Inexpensive disks and new deduplication techniques with data reduction ratios greater than 20:1 have created an entirely new paradigm in data protection, offering significant operational benefits, and huge cost savings. Users are shifting their long-standing tape backup strategies to disk-to-disk (D2D) solutions, allowing them to retain months of data on disk, and greatly reducing their use of tape backup. The results are an excellent Return on Investment (ROI), reduced Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), and an extremely fast payback.
Furthermore, deduplication techniques are not limited to storing data on disk. By applying these advanced techniques to the transport of data across the WA N, this new paradigm of disk-based data protection can be extended to include multiple sites. The significant size reduction resulting from deduplication makes it possible for the reduced backup data to be vaulted over the WA N, expanding the benefits beyond local backup to include remote office data protection, multi-site tape consolidation, and offsite Disaster Recovery (DR) through optimized WA N Vaulting.
In addition to the improvements in operational efficiency and peace of mind from an automated and efficient Disaster Recovery plan, WA N Vaulting offers strong financial benefits. The results achieved by Data Domain users in the case studies presented in this paper include total savings of $811K to $1.16M, ROI of 100%-350%, and payback periods of 3-5 months. Clearly, there are strong financial reasons for users to move to this new paradigm.
This paper describes the benefits of deduplication and D2D backup and how it can be extended to deliver cost-effective offsite data protection and DR. It demonstrates how to build a business case for WA N Vaulting, using direct and indirect savings, TCO, ROI and payback periods. Two case studies are presented covering actual users who have implemented WA N Vaulting for remote office data protection and Disaster Recovery. (Appendices include additional background information on the financial analysis used, the effects of D2D and WA N Vaulting on TCO Components, issues involving tape versus disk backup, and additional information on deduplication technology.)
As IT organizations consider how best to meet their increasing data protection and DR requirements, D2D is fast becoming a fundamental element. WA N Vaulting leverages D2D and deduplication technology, and extends the benefits to the network, driving a strong business case for WA N Vaulting.
The New Paradigm for Disk-based Backup and DR
With the advent of ATA disk technology, the base cost of disk has dropped to within the same range as tape. A simple cost comparison from W. Curtis Preston shows a midrange tape library at roughly $4 to $11 per gigabyte (GB) with disk prices hovering around $3 to $11 per GB without compression or deduplication. This drop in price has established the financial viability of disk-to-disk (D2D) backup, without even including the intangible benefits such as improved reliability and time to recover, or the added cost improvements of deduplication.
Data Reduction and Deduplication
Going one step further, the most significant change in cost comparison comes from the introduction of a new technology called data deduplication or data reduction. Deduplication is based on the ability to massively reduce data down to its smallest possible size, in the amount of bytes stored. Though the algorithms and techniques vary across vendors, in general, deduplication uses redundant pattern recognition at a granular level, and goes far beyond traditional compression techniques (which generally yield compression ratios of 2:1). Deduplication technologies have shown data reduction ratios of 20:1 and more, in real customer environments. The case studies discussed here have seen ratios of up to 34:1. (For more information on how deduplication technology works, see Appendix E).
Extending the Paradigm over the Network - WAN Vaulting With this 20:1 data reduction potential, D2D and deduplication provide an excellent option for local backup. In addition, these technologies can be used to address the offsite requirements of DR and regulatory compliance (often with very specific geographic distance requirements). By applying the 20:1 data reduction factor over the WA N, deduplication can greatly reduce the network bandwidth requirements for offsite replication, making the transfer of large amounts of data across the WAN possible.
|
