Better and easier backup
In the hardware arena, backup procedures are currently undergoing something of a sea change, with disk taking over some of the backup functions more traditionally associated with tape. For the most part, this change hasn’t had a significant impact on the way in which backup software performs. Most backup systems are largely media-agnostic; as long as sufficient connected capacity is available for storage needs, they’re generally indifferent to whether you’re using tape, disk, or optical systems to store the data. The main impact you’re likely to notice is in time-to-restore; linear systems such as tape are inevitably slower than disk.
Whichever provider you choose, there are some common approaches that can make backup easier. Tools that are easy and intuitive to use will improve productivity, especially because backup software is used so often.
Notification systems should be put in place to in-form you of unusual or aborted backups. Built-in automation and simplified user interfaces let less-qualified staff assume greater responsibilities, freeing more senior staff for other more cost effective duties.
The routine of overnight backup has become less common as businesses move into a 24x7 environment, requiring more sophisticated approaches to scheduling. It’s important to consider backup as part of the overall suite of services provided by IT. Many other functions, such as data warehousing and analysis, will depend on an accurate and regular backup procedure.
While providing easy-to-restore copies in the event of an emergency remains a key part of the backup equation, increasingly back-up will also be needed for these other environments to function.
Backup and ROI
This leads inevitably to the other question: can backup be justified using a return-on-investment model? The short and sharp answer appears to be “no”. Unlike other software investments that provide direct business value, backup on its own has to be considered as analogous to an insurance policy. If you never need the backups, the
ROI will be minimal. However, in the event of an unexpected disaster, the ROI may become extensive. This need not be as extensive as a total
system collapse. As the graph “Estimated costs of downtime” on the previous page shows, even a brief system absence can cost your business tens of thousands of dollars.
When budgeting for backup, you need to consider not just how much it costs, but how much not having it would cost. In effect, even if there’s no return on investment, it’s not a function you can choose to avoid. That said, if you can integrate backup with other functions that provide new business information (such as data ware-housing), then it may have an impact on your ROI calculations. However, this is likely to be at the level of overall system cost: when choosing your warehouse provider, for instance, the ability to easily integrate with existing backup routines may be a consideration.
You can also strategise to minimise the costs of backup, even if the cost itself is not avoidable. With the continuing move towards progressive or incremental backup, where only data altered since the last backup is copied, less data needs to be transferred over the network and stored than with traditional backup and recovery applications. This in turn may reduce overall business costs by providing improved network performance.
In the end, like taxes, Bill Gates, and in-laws, backup will always be with us. “Backup and recovery continue to be one of the top priorities for corporate IT departments,” says Stephen Elliot, research director at Hurwitz Group. “Disasters can occur at any time, and more often than not, they are not catastrophic. But the cost of downtime easily outweighs the cost of establishing a quality backup and recovery.
The database dilemma
It’s a familiar scenario: key databases have to be backed up
overnight, since they can’t be copied while they’re open to new
transactions. This is fine if your company’s access needs are strictly nine-to-five, but rather less helpful if your servers need to be accessed 24x7 by different global branches, or are
used as the basis for a Web server.
Fortunately, the requirement that databases be closed off and then copied in their entirety (a so-called cold backup) has largely disappeared from modern backup software. Many systems have the ability to create a backup while the database is still live (a hot backup), often by working in copy-only mode. As well as allowing non-stop access, this also allows backups to be created more frequently, minimising the amount of re-entry required in the event of a catastrophe.
Despite these improvements, restoring databases is still more complex than many other kinds of file restore. Modern database environments maintain extensive redo logs, which enable databases to be restored on a transaction-by-transaction basis, which can assist this process. Unsurprisingly, backup software vendors argue that such manual solutions are ineffective. “These methods do not have the reliability required by enterprise environments, and do little to improve the ongoing availability of critical systems,” notes a white paper from Veritas.
