CDP Makes the Value of Disk-based Data Protection Self-evident

This past spring a debate erupted on BackupCentral.com between a user complaining about not getting new features in his backup software as part of his annual maintenance contract and his backup software provider wanting to charge extra for it. The user was, in his words, 'faithfully paying his annual 20% fee for maintenance' and now wanted the backup software's new Advanced Recovery option as part of his support costs. But as I read this, I found myself wondering, "Why is his management balking at spending this extra money if the value of backup software and the new features it provides are self-evident?"

Let's assume for the sake of argument that this user goes ahead and pays his annual 20% maintenance fee plus the extra money for the new Advanced Recovery feature he wants. In this case, he can continue to successfully backup data to disk and, with the new Advanced Recovery feature, achieve zero-impact backups and full backup images reconstituted from previous backup images.

That's great but he already senses that his management will balk at this proposal because it views backup software as a cost to the business. If it didn't, he probably would not be fretting about whether or not he should ask for the extra money to pay for the Advanced Recovery option.

This user's concerns get to the heart of why the value of backup and recovery remains somewhat elusive to organizations even today. Companies justify it based on its ability to do recovery but even in situations when it is used, file or application recoveries are infrequent and disaster recoveries are rare and, until recently when disk was thrust into the mix, they really did not have the assurance that it worked reliably at all.

In today's economic environment, backup software's shortcomings are exacerbated. Organizations are looking to get more value from every dollar they spend and backup software is not exempt from this scrutiny. Backup software's drawback is that it still remains difficult to document what other tangible benefits it provides beyond the ones already mentioned.

Part of the problem is that many organizations still view backup and recovery from a tape-based recovery perspective. But with backup to disk a growing trend, it is opening up new use cases beyond just faster backup and recovery. The trick is taking advantage of these new options.

However some organizations have already cracked this code and are leveraging software from InMage Systems that better utilizes disk in the data protection process. In so doing, they are deriving new value from their backup data. For example:

• They use InMage's continuous data protection (CDP) feature as their front line method for backup. When backup software makes a copy of data and stores it to disk, it stores it as an image that only the backup software can read and recover. This is less than ideal if you want to re-use the data for other purposes.

Organizations that are fully leveraging the benefits of disk prefer InMage as it stores the data in a format so the application and/or the data it protects are immediately recoverable. This removes the need to introduce the backup software (and backup administrator) into the recovery equation which facilitates simpler and faster data recoveries.

• They test drive running applications in the cloud. InMage does more than make data immediately recoverable locally; it can also replicate the data to other sites (including the cloud) where it is also immediately recoverable. Configured this way, it opens the door for organizations to perform tasks such as more easily test driving applications that they are considering moving to the cloud.

A prime example of this is Microsoft Exchange. Since InMage integrates at the application level with Microsoft Exchange, organizations can replicate Exchange data to the cloud and then recover application consistent images of Microsoft Exchange. They can then run Exchange in the cloud to see how it will work to include failover and failback.

• They create near real time copies of data for testing. Very few organizations that have I talked to or worked for in the past have a well-developed test and development environment for anything but a few mission-critical applications. So when it comes to testing a code upgrade or even an operating system patch on any of their other servers, many system administrators cross their fingers and hope for the best.

InMage creates an entirely new value proposition for these environments. It eliminates cumbersome and time-consuming restore processes because it supports physical-to-virtual (P2V) and virtual-to-virtual (V2V) replication as part of its CDP technology. Used this way, they can temporarily suspend replication to the target and recover the application. They can they use the target as a test bed for installing the OS patch or new version of application software to see how it works before they put their production application at risk.

Users asking for more funds for new backup software features are likely fighting a losing battle as their management is already struggling to see backup software's larger value proposition. These individuals are better off looking for new solutions that take better advantage of disk while opening new avenues for the business to save money, reduce risk or generate revenue. If in these circumstances, InMage is one such product that can do more than just deliver on its primary use case of disaster recovery but meet these three new objectives as well.