“NetVault: FASTRecover’s 30-second recovery performance will help increase our company’s productivity and help us continue to meet our clients’ needs. The simple and easy-to-use interface has freed me from the unneeded stress and problems of everyday IT administration.” ~ RH Kwon, Systems Operator of Heerim Architects
The Challenge: With many independent file servers allotted for each project team and hundreds of projects constantly in progress, it was critical for Heerim Architects to protect their data and minimize business interruption. Construction Management and architectural drawings were stored on data servers that contained sub-divided data storage space for saving prototypes separately. The new and old data, which included architectural drawings, required full data protection as well as a system that could manage the history of changes and modifications to these files. Heerim’s old backup solution caused too many backup windows and was increasing data recovery costs for the company.
The Solution: Heerim selected NetVault: FASTRecover for real-time data protection based on its 30-second recovery capabilities, which makes it possible to go back to any-point-in-time to quickly retrieve consistent data. This was not possible with their old solution. The fast availability of data after recovery (BakBone’s Virtual On-Demand Recovery technology) was another feature that Heerim looked to employ in their data center because it would minimize downtime.
The Benefit: NetVault: FASTRecover enabled Heerim to protect critical data in real-time and eliminate backup windows. And FASTRecover’s easy-to-use interface reduces the level of expertise for system administrators to perform data recoveries. The high availability of information after recovery also limits operational downtime.
The phrase “out of sight, out of mind” dates back to at least the 13th century. Essentially, the idea here is that something is easily forgotten or dismissed as unimportant if it is not in direct view. Think about it. At some point in your life (home or work), you’ve strategically placed an “IMPORTANT document” on the remaining clear space on your desk. As hours and days pass, other “not so important documents” and Post-it Notes begin to invade the sacred desk space that had once been dedicated to that “IMPORTANT document.” While the value of the “IMPORTANT document” has not really changed, daily distractions and shifting piles have caused the “IMPORTANT document” to become lost in the mix and appear as “just another document,” one that you will eventually get to, eventually read and eventually take action. Sound familiar?
So how does this relate to RPOs and RTOs – recovery point and recovery time objectives – for remote offices? Simple. Even though remote offices/branch offices (ROBOs) are indeed “out of site,” they should not be out of mind – particularly the mind of IT. Only by taking time to classify applications and data at your remote sites, can you ensure adequate protection AND recoverability.
Here’s an easy way to classify data:
Mission Critical Data/Applications are those that could result in negative financial or legal impact on the business if they are lost for any period of time. Real-time data protection solutions often come into play here.
Business Vital Data is just that. This data is vital to the daily operations of your business. Plans for protecting and recovering may include bare metal recovery, backup to disk and perhaps even real-time data protection.
Important Data may be subject to a higher rate of change. Unlike static data, if you were to accidentally delete important data, there would be a higher sense of urgency and a desire to get it back relatively quickly.
Static Data doesn’t change much over time.Likely needs to be backed up once so that a copy does exist and can be accessed at some point if there is a requirement to do so.
So, don’t forget about the applications and data at remote offices. Don’t forget about your remote users. Take time to classify the data at these sites.You may find that the data protection solution you have in place to be sufficient in terms of delivering the desired RPOs and RTOs. However, factor in the need for recovery-ready offsite copies, seamless failover and failback and you may find that your current plan falls short. Only by first classifying remote site data can you begin to put a well-designed and comprehensive data protection plan into place.
In this podcast, BakBone customer Derek Kruger discusses the challenges he faced with his old backup solution and why he switched to NetVault: FASTRecover. He shares with us how FASTRecover helps keep the city’s financial databases up and running, how it has eliminated backup windows and how the product works quietly behind the scenes to keep Exchange and SQL data available for the employees and citizens of Safford. “No one cares if you back anything up, all they care is if you can get it back to them when they ask for it,” Derek says.
In the first installment of the BakBone Whiteboard Sessions, Amit Malhotra discusses application-aware data recoveries and how to successfully recover consistent data.
We’ve all read numerous press and analyst takes on RTOs (recovery time objectives) and RPOs (recovery point objectives) and front page news articles about high profile (and embarrassing) downtime and data loss incidents. RTOs are not as forgiving as they once were. Advances in data protection technologies have led to greater user expectations and demands. It’s the old, “give ‘em an inch, they’ll take a mile” adage.
In an increasingly competitive, fast-paced and connected society, organizations must have a thorough understanding of the consequences that bubble to the surface as a direct result of downtime. Think about it. What bad things happen as a result of a prolonged email outage? For instance, if you are faced with recovery of a 1TB Exchange database, how will the 8+ hours (on a good day…providing it’s a hiccup-free, clean recovery) of downtime impact you organization? What are the hard and soft costs incurred while waiting for Exchange to be put back in the hands of your users? How happy will your executives be when they find out that there will be no email access for the majority of the day? Even better, how much happier will they become when you inform them that the first recovery attempt was a wasted effort and you need to start from scratch? Word to the wise: at this point, it would behoove you to quickly update your LinkedIn profile and release the networking hounds. But this doesn’t have to be the case.
What bad things happen as a result of a prolonged email outage? For instance, if you are faced with recovery of a 1TB Exchange database, how will the 8+ hours (on a good day…providing it’s a hiccup-free, clean recovery) of downtime impact you organization? What are the hard and soft costs incurred while waiting for Exchange to be put back in the hands of your users?
With Virtual On-Demand Recovery from NetVault: FASTRecover you can make very large data objects available for use almost immediately after recovery has been initiated. Users can access the recovered data as soon as a brief recovery setup phase has been completed, in as little as 30 seconds, and to any point in time – without waiting for the full recovery to complete. For example, that 1TB Exchange database we talked about earlier can be mounted before the recovery is complete, allowing users to send and receive email.
If a call is made for data that has not yet been recovered from NetVault: FASTRecover’s Online Storage, Virtual On-Demand Recovery will grab that data and move it to the front of the queue. It’s that easy.
So let’s quickly review here. If you carry the weight of Exchange, SQL Server or Windows File Server applications and data availability squarely upon your shoulders, you don’t have to choose between RTOs and RPOs. You can fight the good fight with Virtual On-Demand Recovery.
