Data protection infrastructures face tremendous pressure. Copy data is growing even faster than production data as businesses create copies to support analytics, test and development, and other important initiatives. Copy data also needs to be retained for longer periods of time, and zero data loss can be tolerated – both to support these business initiatives, and to adhere to regulations like the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). Additionally, these market trends require data and applications to be recovered and back online as quickly as possible (often times instantaneously). Older data may also need to be recalled very quickly.
Against this backdrop, it has become more important than ever before that disaster recovery plans be documented and tested. This is so IT can become confident in its ability to facilitate business continuity and to ensure compliance. However, these are highly time-consuming tasks. Disaster recovery solutions that include automated testing, as well as reporting functions regarding IT’s ability to meet recovery point objectives (RPOs) and recovery time objectives (RTOs), become important tools. They make this process faster and less burdensome on IT staff. Automated testing may also be used for additional measures that can improve security and the quality of backups, such as vulnerability testing.
Also important when it comes to meeting demanding service level agreements (SLAs) are cloud integration and mobility capabilities alongside intelligent automation and orchestration. Meeting zero (or near zero) RPOs and RTOs on a finite budget is not an easy task. The more that the disaster recovery solution can determine the most optimal way, according to agreed-upon SLAs, to tier and to recover data will help IT to meet its commitments and its requirements to the business, without breaking the budget. This requires the ability to be flexible in terms of where data is stored, where it is recovered to, and how it is recovered.
For additional discussion and insights, watch the on demand webinar with Veeam and NetApp “Will Your Backup Architecture Meet Tomorrow’s SLAs? 3 Steps to Make Sure!” and receive our latest White Paper “How to Design a Modern Data Protection Architecture.”
Senior Analyst, Krista Macomber produces analyst commentary and contributes to a range of client deliverables including white papers, webinars and videos for Storage Switzerland. She has a decade of experience covering all things storage, data center and cloud infrastructure, including: technology and vendor portfolio developments; customer buying behavior trends; and vendor ecosystems, go-to-market positioning, and business models. Her previous experience includes leading the IT infrastructure practice of analyst firm Technology Business Research, and leading market intelligence initiatives for media company TechTarget.
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