Modernizing Data Protection in 2015

Learn about the challenges associated with data protection and disaster recovery and the new technologies available to address

these issues.

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We have never been more dependent on our data than we are today, period.

Just as important, we are dependent on all of our data -- regardless of where

it resides. It wasn't that many years ago that a vast majority of our business

data was all conveniently stored within the data center, where full-time

backup administrators ensured its protection. Those days are over. While a

significant amount of data still resides within the data center, platforms are

diversifying and data is starting to live outside the traditional purview of IT.

21st-CENTURY DATA PROTECTION

For storage professionals who might still be wary of putting their primary data

storage in the cloud, the following expert tips explain why it's becoming a

more acceptable practice. Find out how cloud technologies have been

evolving and which types of data are most appropriate to store there.

Modernizing Data Center Protection

Part one of our three-part series on modernizing backup and disaster

recovery takes a look at how data center protection is evolving today

to include snapshots and replication.

While mobile and cloud platforms are relatively new, data centers have been

under the watchful eye of IT professionals for decades; so why is backup not

solved yet? There are at least two primary reasons that even data center

data protection continues to challenge IT:

Changes in workload recovery requirements and workload protection

mechanisms.

The sheer amount of production and protection storage required.

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Part one of our three-part series on modernizing data protection and disaster

recovery takes a look at how data center backup and DR are evolving today.

Protection and recovery requirements are changing

As the platforms that host our production resources change, the protection

methods must change with them. As one notable example, with the mass

adoption of virtualization, many of the traditional methods for backing up

server data have either evolved or been replaced or supplemented. Whereas

each production server used to have its own agent, the ideal scenario for

most environments today is to utilize virtualization host-centric data

protection mechanisms, which provide hypervisor-specific APIs to enable

whole (virtual) machine backups, while still offering granular restore

capabilities. In addition, as production data continues to migrate from

traditional data center servers to either mobile devices or cloud platforms, the

protection and recovery requirements have to evolve accordingly.

Because of the increasing dependencies on data, the tolerance against

downtime/data-inaccessibility of any kind is increasingly tight. But in order to

gain a broader range of recovery agility, one must often use a broader range

of protection mechanisms, including snapshots and replication, in addition to

traditional backups.

Data growth is forcing changes in protection and recovery

The other primary driver -- beyond the desire to improve recovery agility and

production-evolution -- is simply the necessity to change because the status

quo is unsustainable with today's data growth. Enterprise Strategy Group

research indicates that primary storage is growing by nearly 40% annually,

but overall IT spending and storage-specific spending are growing at

nowhere close to that rate. IT professionals are being forced to store data

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more effectively, while also increasing the types of protection and recovery

capabilities. At first glance, those two trends might appear contradictory; but,

in fact, the synergies between them are driving the most exciting parts of how

IT is evolving from a backup mentality to a data protection strategy --

including not only backups, but snapshots and replication, as well.

Snapshots

While not necessarily new, the use of snapshots has evolved over the past

few years. By reverting to a snapshot within primary storage, users can

recover to a previous, albeit somewhat recent, point in time much faster than

restoring from any backup on secondary storage. And, because of the very

granular nature of snapshots, whereby disk blocks that aren't changed do not

incur any storage consumption, snapshots can also partially address

storage-scale issues related to multiple near-term copies held within a

backup server's secondary storage pool.

Those capabilities aren't new, but the extended management and flexible

usability of snapshots is -- and that is making all the difference. In the past,

snapshots (as a storage-centric technology) were managed solely by the

storage administrator and typically without coordination with the upper-level

applications or backup applications. Today, many storage array

manufacturers have developed extensions so that snapshots of common

business applications can be done in a more coordinated fashion; thereby

ensuring a more application-consistent recovery. In addition, the usability of

snapshots has evolved to enable granular file- or object-level restores that

can be invoked by the snapshot management UI, an application/platform UI

(e.g., database or compute-hypervisor), or from within the backup

application. By integrating the management (invocation schedules for snaps

and restores) and monitoring (health-awareness of the underlying storage),

snapshots are now a much more holistic aspect of an overall data protection

strategy.

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Replication

While snapshots provide a complement to backups through rapidly restorable

versions within the primary storage, replication creates yet another copy of

the data -- most often on tertiary storage. This provides a survivable copy of

data at a geographically separate location, typically as part of a business

continuity or disaster recovery scenario.

It is essential to understand the mechanisms that are facilitating replication,

which will affect the efficiency of the replication itself, as well as the usability

of the data. Replication can be achieved at multiple levels within an

infrastructure stack.

Application-centric replication (e.g., SQL database mirroring) is

accomplished between the primary application engine and one or more

partner application engines. It provides an immediately usable secondary

instance of the data, since the entire stack (OS, platform and storage) exists

under each application engine. Efficiency will vary by platform, but each

platform must be managed separately -- through separate UIs, with separate

strategies, often by separate individuals (e.g., database administrators).

OS/platform-centric replication encompasses a variety of technologies,

including file-system centric replication (e.g., Windows Distributed File

System/DFS), virtual-machine replication as facilitated between hypervisors,

or third-party block- and file-centric replication offerings. Most of these

products are designed to replicate data as part of enabling a high availability

scenario. It is notable that resuming functionality may not be transparent to

the users in many cases, but the switchover window is often negligible.

Storage-centric replication is the product that typically impacts CPU

(application/server) the least, since the storage array does the work, which is

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often an external appliance with other advanced capabilities beyond

replication. While storage-based replication achieves the same "data

survivability" goals of other tiers of replication, the secondary instance of the

data isn't necessarily for geographically separate scenarios. Some

environments will replicate a second copy within the original or nearby site,

so that the higher stack (application, OS, VM) has twin copies of data to

access with transparent/synchronous capabilities. In other environments, the

storage copies will be at separate facilities, but will require the second

infrastructure stack to be recreated (in-advance or upon-crisis) before the

secondary storage copy can be mounted and utilized.

Continuous data protection (CDP) and near-CDP. CDP products often

combine some of the aspects of the other replication mechanisms:

application-integration, multi-platform management and highly granular

replication. Storage Networking Industry Association purists would also

suggest that along with truly continuous replication, CDP products should

also offer granular recovery to any of the infinite previous points of time using

journal-like behaviors, while near-CDP products provide the near-continuous

(seconds or less latency) without the infinite/granular restore option.

By combining the agility of snapshots, the durability of replicas, and the

flexibility of backups, you have what you'll need to truly modernize the

protection of your data center.

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Dealing with Endpoint Data Protection Issues

Part two of our three-part series on modernizing backup and disaster

recovery takes a look at endpoint data protection issues and what's

available today to address them.

Perhaps one of the least-expected IT revolutions is the decentralization of

data among endpoint devices. After decades of IT delivering consolidated

infrastructure platforms (servers), data is becoming increasingly distributed

as end users demand increasing flexibility in the devices that they use in their

workplace. "Endpoint" should not be confused with "BYOD," as today's

endpoint devices include not only bring your own device (self-purchased)

units, but also a myriad of corporately issued devices, each of which has its

own data protection issues.

Challenges with legacy endpoint mechanisms

Historically, some IT organizations attempted to treat the "B" in BYOD as

"buy" your own device, implying choice, but then the device was heavily

managed like corporately issued devices. But why would an individual

purchase a device with their own money, just so that IT can then put agents

and other management tools on it? (They wouldn't.) Today, regardless of

who purchased the device and whether the device is used solely for work or

for supporting work and personal life, these devices hold corporate data and

should therefore be protected, period.

The challenge is that traditional endpoint protection mechanisms often use

architectures that aren't that different from the server-centric mechanisms

that have been in use in the data center. Those legacy approaches often

require traditional software-distribution vehicles, heavy

authentication/network methods, etc. -- none of which are conducive to the

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modern and relatively disconnected devices of today. Other legacy

approaches try to force the users to behave differently than they intuitively

would or follow other IT (not customer-centric) directives:

"If you put your data in this directory, we will protect it. Otherwise we

won't."

"Bring your new BYOD to the IT department and we will return it next

week, with new stuff on it."

"Bring your new BYOD to work, configure a VPN, log on with your

corporate credentials, and run this script."

None of these have proven effective because, while companies have

focused on the "B" of "Bring/Buy," some IT organizations have lost sight of

the "YO" for "your own" device. Any product that attempts to change user

behavior for how the personally owned device was intended to be operated

(as a loosely connected, Internet-centric, consumer experience) will almost

assuredly fail.

You must protect the data -- but maybe not the device

If the data is corporate data, it is the IT department's responsibility to protect

the data. That being said, not all devices require protection, as there is a

difference between "consumption" and "creation" devices. Here's a look at

the data protection issues involved with each type of device.

Consumption devices utilize data that exists in other locations, often on

server/service platforms that are more easily backed up by IT professionals.

An extreme example would be an e-reader, whose book and music library

exists in a cloud service. Because there is no unique data on that device,

there arguably isn't the need to back it up -- only secure it from unauthorized

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access or data/device loss. A less extreme example is a consumer tablet.

Data on these devices consists of:

Email -- which exists not only on the device, but also on the email

server/service.

Files -- which are often replicated using an online file

sharing/synchronization (OFS) service, such as Dropbox, while a

copy more capable of being backed up likely resides on a desktop or

other corporate-managed platform.

Multimedia -- which is accessed from a central repository.

Arguably, the only data that may not be natively stored elsewhere is the

configuration of the user experience and optional applications (e.g.,

games/apps) -- and some tablet OS manufacturers provide native backup

tools for those configuration elements, as well. The result is that if a

consumption device is broken, lost or compromised, one can:

Purchase a new/similar device, perhaps newer than the original.

Receive the UI experience/configuration from the OS vendor's cloud

storage, if possible.

Reconfigure the email, file and multimedia client applications, which

are sometimes retained in the configuration above.

Resynchronize data to the new device.

Note the word "resynchronize" rather than "restore." For a consumer, that

may be adequate -- but not for a corporate employee, because

resynchronizing only addresses the most recent/current version of the data; it

isn't a backup. If the data has errors or deletions, those human-caused

issues will replicate to the other server/service instances. Backups ensure

usability by providing access to previous versions of the data and are

therefore still required, even with synchronization technologies. With a

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consumption device, the other copy or copies of the data on a corporate

server, in the cloud, or on another device are more easily protected by the IT

team.

Creation devices, on the other hand, have the ability and user-friendly form

factor to create unique data that may not exist on any other server/service.

As such, they should be backed up with the same tenacity with which any

other corporate IT asset should be protected, while recognizing that many of

the same OS-centric and file-synchronization protection mechanisms will

likely exist on those platforms, as well. Therefore, IT should focus on

ensuring the addition of corporate-backup assurance of the corporate data,

not on trying to make the endpoint device conform to legacy procedures.

How to protect endpoint data successfully

There are two equally important mandates to ensure successful endpoint

data backup, not including the security-related best practices of device

encryption, remote wipe, etc.:

Lightweight delivery -- The data protection application must be

lightweight (i.e., consumer app-like) and not force changes in the

users' behavior. Burdensome installation/configuration or procedural

changes that are counterintuitive will ensure that the data is not

protected well enough.

Highly-visible management -- IT has to have the visibility to ensure

that backups are happening and that access is part of the recovery

solution instead of being part of the backup problem. It is this second

requirement that defines the difference between consumer endpoint

offerings and corporate/enterprise-credible products.

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The right combination of these two mandates will enable IT to ensure

corporate compliance for data protection with the same retention mandates

as corporate servers, while users are unimpeded by the backup. This brings

up one last consideration: understanding the privacy considerations of

backing up data that is mixed with both corporate data and private data.

Users leveraging a consumer product to back up their corporate-plus-private

data will have the only backup copies -- which means that when the user

leaves, their BYOD and the backups will leave the company with them. This

undesirable scenario leaves the former employee with corporate data and

the former employer with nothing.

If IT uses a product that backs up corporate data and private data, it could

result in the company having access to private data that IT shouldn't have.

For example, if an employee volunteers with a youth organization, the

company should not have access to private information about the kids. But

an inflexible, all-encompassing backup product will capture all data on the

machine, resulting in privacy challenges and corporate liability.

Thus, a third key to success is flexibility of protection selection, so that both

the employer and the employee have the data that they need -- without any

data that they shouldn't.

How Cloud and Virtualization are Changing Disaster Recovery

It is impossible to have an IT modernization discussion that doesn't include

the cloud, but the details beyond that will vary greatly:

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Some will replace their legacy backup product with a backup service.

Some should supplement their current backup product with cloud

storage.

Some ought to add a cloud-based DR capability to their on-premises

backup product.

Some are wrestling with how to protect the primary production

workloads that have moved to the cloud.

Here's a look at each of these four cloud and virtualization issues that impact

data protection and disaster recovery in more detail, starting with replacing

legacy backups with a backup service. Then, we'll take a closer look at

augmenting your existing backup product with cloud storage. Because some

of you will choose to add a cloud-based disaster recovery capability to your

on-premises backup product, we'll look at some things that merit

consideration. Finally, we'll investigate how you can protect your chief

production workloads that have moved to the cloud.

Considerations for backup as a service

For organizations that are struggling with their legacy backup product, where

any kind of upgrade is likely to be a significant replacement, backup as a

service (BaaS) may be a good option. BaaS products enable a fresh start for

data backup that changes the architecture of the backup product, the agent

technologies and the economic model through with backups are achieved.

BaaS products can also provide a different kind of agility, because the data is

natively accessible or restorable from the cloud provider.

To be clear, BaaS is just like many other "as a service" offerings, in that they

are a cloud-based delivery of an IT function. The economics are different, the

management experience is different, and the underlying infrastructure is

designed to be delivered at enterprise-class scale by service providers,

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instead of a centralized IT department. But at its core, it is still just another

backup product, with agent technologies on production platforms, backup

schedules and restore jobs. As such, BaaS won't fix infrastructure issues or

unwieldy production servers that are hard to back up, or drastically change

the administration time devoted to backup jobs or restore requests. This can

be challenging when it comes to DR in the cloud.

Taking your current backup and recovery product to the cloud

For organizations whose current backup and recovery product has the

modern platform capabilities that the organization needs and is performing at

least adequately, BaaS may not be the best answer. Instead, most

contemporary backup products have the ability to leverage cloud-based

storage, as a supplement to the on-premises deployment. In so doing:

While all of that sounds good and easy, it can come with tradeoffs in that the

means by which the data is replicated from the backup server to the cloud

repository can vary greatly and will dramatically affect the agility and

recovery options from the cloud copy. And, again, when it comes to cloud-

based disaster recovery, you'll want to consider both the pluses and

minuses.

Most organizations should plan on a hybrid or D2D2C architecture

It is extremely difficult if not impossible for organizations of most sizes to

maintain the service-level agreements that users and business owners have

come to expect from recovery times and backup performance. Because of

this, it is strongly recommended that most cloud-enabled backup and

recovery products be "D2D2C" configurations -- from production disk to

local backup disks (D2D) before going to the cloud (2C). That said, D2D2C

can take several permutations:

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BaaS products with an intermediate caching product on-site before

going to the BaaS repositories.

On-premises backup hardware replicating to a similar storage array at

a service provider.

On-premises backup software replicating to another software instance

at a service provider.

On-premises backup software writing to a cloud storage repository as

a tertiary tier.

The method of replication and the type of cloud repository will directly affect

the immediate usability of the cloud copy of the data, but some enable easier

extensibility of existing backup software and/or hardware.

Cloud is not likely a tape killer. While other innovative IT technologies are

usurping some usage of tape, one should not necessarily assume that

D2D2C is an adequate replacement for D2D2T (tape), primarily due to most

cloud providers' inability or unwillingness to retain data for five, 10 or 15

years. Most cloud providers utilize disk as their repository, and therefore

don't have a cost-effective way to store data for that length of time.

Cloud and virtualization = disaster recovery. While not entirely accurate,

the key idea is that virtualization (which makes production servers more

portable) and cloud infrastructure (which provides an economical secondary

location) can enable enterprises of all sizes to achieve rudimentary disaster

recovery. This is especially true for midsize organizations that previously

didn't have a secondary venue to use for BC/DR, while enterprises often

have other options.

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Backing up SaaS

While most of this material presumed that the production servers were

traditional on-premises resources, many of those workloads are starting to

move to the cloud, including email platforms, CRM systems like Salesforce,

and file sharing. Unfortunately, many SaaS products have not yet developed

the APIs to enable traditional third-party backup developers to extend their

enterprise backup coverage for the SaaS platforms. Historically, these APIs

come as the platforms grow in mainstream use -- but seldom soon enough.

Without those APIs, traditional backup developers have typically been slow

to add those SaaS offerings to their coverage areas. Because of that, it is not

uncommon for new backup products to come from startup companies. For

example, when VMware hypervisors were gaining initial popularity, it wasn't

the traditional physical server vendors that first mastered VM backups --

instead, Veeam, PHD and Quest brought the first products to market. Later,

when the APIs were released by VMware, the legacy products raced to

embrace the capability and catch up to the early disruptors. It is likely that

that pattern will repeat itself as early innovators are delivering new

approaches for protecting SaaS products like Salesforce (CRM),

Office365/Google Docs (file) and email services.

Any way that you look at it, the cloud will likely be part of every data

protection and disaster recovery strategy, but whether backing up to the

cloud or from the cloud, the approaches will vary dramatically.

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