W H I T E P A P E R
MOVING BEYOND BATCH BACKUP
Practical Steps to Improve Data Protection &
CONTENTS
Backup’s Busted . . . .3
Moving Beyond Batch Backup . . . .4
Further Savings Based on Archive Storage . . . .6
Unique Benefits of Quantum’s Backup Storage Solutions . . . .7
BACKUP’S BUSTED
Data protection has changed, and although protecting data both for backup and disaster recovery purposes is as important as ever, there are alternative applications and methods for protecting data that are more efficient and less expensive .
Many companies use the same ‘batch’ backup process and application to protect all of their data, regardless of data type, data value, and where the data is in its lifecycle . Furthermore, these ‘batch’ backup applications often charge $2,500 per TB or more in licensing, and also charge $2,000 per TB per year for annual support .*
If we look at a typical scenario for a company with 80TB of data to protect, the architecture and financials probably look something like this:
This adds up to a broken equation . With data growth through the roof, who can afford to continue to spend that much on backup? The status quo is busted .
80TB of data is backed up regularly using batch process. Backup app sends data to backup storage 10TB Database 20TB
VM Data Batch BackupApplication StorageBackup
50TB Unstructured Data
Stored on NAS
Figure 1: Financials in a Typical Backup Environment Protecting 80TB
Backup Application Licensing & Support For Oracle Databases
Licensing 10TB x $2,500 per TB = $25K Support 10TB x $2,000 per TB per yr = $20K per yr Total 3-Yr Cost = $25K + (3*$20K) = $85K
For VMs Licensing 20TB x $2,500 per TB = $50K Support 20TB x $2,000 per TB per yr= $40K per yr Total 3-Yr Cost = $50K + (3*$40K) = $170K
For Unstructured Data
Licensing 50TB x $2,500 per TB = $125K Support 50TB x $2,000 per TB per yr = $100K per yr Total 3-Yr Cost = $125K + (3*$100K) = $425K
MOVING BEYOND BATCH BACKUP
The good news is that there are some practical steps you can take today to move beyond batch backup in your data center—steps that can save you tremendous annual costs while you transition your data center architecture to take advantage of various virtual and cloud technologies .
The three steps below should address the majority of the data that you are managing . Step 1 – Take advantage of applications with built-in data protection utilities.
One common example is Oracle RMAN . Oracle RMAN, or Recovery Manager, is part of the Oracle Secure Backup utility, and enables database administrators to back up their Oracle database directly to backup storage . Oracle administrators have the unique understanding of how primary applications and data need to be protected, which in many cases exceeds the options provided by a centralized batch backup product . Being able to control schedules and schemes used for protection and having the ability to restore for many purposes beyond simple recovery make this the best way to accomplish this requirement of primary Oracle data . In addition to providing the best protection options, using RMAN can prove to be significantly more cost effective than using a centralized backup product .
Benefits:
By eliminating the need for the centralized backup application, you have also eliminated the backup software licensing fee or “capacity tax”, and returned control of the database to the database administrator .
To give a sense of the cost reduction opportunity, a user with a 10TB Oracle database would save $25,000 on licensing, and save another $20,000 annually on support .
This equates to $25,000 + (3*$20,000) = $85,000 in savings over three years for a 10TB database . In addition, there are other primary business applications that have built-in protection utilities, and many more are adding these capabilities all the time .
Step 2 – For all of your virtual servers,
take advantage of leading virtual protection applications like Veeam.
Not only does Veeam improve availability in your data center by being designed from the ground up for virtual server backup; Veeam is less expensive than the traditional backup applications .
Step 3 – Remove old unstructured data from the backup workflow.
This ‘unstructured file content’ is typically the largest amount of data in a data center . Many studies as well as our customers validate that this content can be 75% or more of the total data in the data center .
It is also growing the fastest, and is the hardest to compress, reduce, and “move around” on the network .
The good news is that much of this data, while it continues to have value, is not being accessed and utilized all the time, so it is the perfect candidate for archiving to less-expensive tiered storage . As an example, once files stored on NAS devices or large scalable NAS products have not been accessed in one year or more, these files can be moved to less-expensive storage, and the archive software preserves a ‘link’ to the archived file . Typically, users find that most of their unstructured file content has not been accessed for many months or years, and Quantum has an assessment tool to help characterize your environment .
There are many benefits to archiving this data, including: • Further reducing backup application licensing costs • Reducing primary storage spend
• Reducing backup storage spend
• Speeding up backups not backing up the same ‘static’ data day after day
The Rocket Arkivio Autostor software application is licensed for $600 per TB, and is able to archive files to less-expensive storage without disrupting your business process . This is key to enabling your users to continue to be as productive as ever, at a lower total cost .
By archiving this unstructured data to a self-protecting tier of storage, this eliminates the need to pay backup software licensing for this data .
To illustrate this savings, if a user has 50TB of unstructured data that could be archived, here’s how the math works:
• Instead of paying $2,500 per TB to back up that data (plus $2,000 per TB per year for support): - Pay $600 per TB to archive that data using Rocket Arkivio Autostor software
- For 50TB, this is a savings of [$2,500 - $600 = $1,900 / TB * 50TB] = $95,000 plus $1,900 per TB per year, or $95,000 support savings .
FURTHER SAVINGS BASED ON ARCHIVE STORAGE
We’ve been focusing on the savings associated with reducing backup software licensing fees, but another benefit of archiving is reducing backup and DR storage costs by replacing backup storage with archive storage .
With Quantum’s new Artico™ appliance, companies can archive files to Artico, then store those files on tape, object storage, and even the cloud in order to reduce overall storage costs .
All without disrupting your existing business processes .
By taking all three of these steps, we’ve addressed database data, virtual data, and unstructured data; and going back to the example in Figure 1, here’s what the architecture and financials look like when you move beyond batch backup .
Figure 2: Financials of Moving Beyond Batch Backup Protecting 80TB
Oracle RMAN sends data directly to backup storage based on policy. Control is returned to the database admin.
Archive old unstructured file content to archive storage. Data is removed from backup workflow. 10TB Database 20TB
VM Data ApplicationVM Backup StorageBackup
50TB Unstructured Data
Stored on NAS
Archive
Application ArchiveStorage
Backup Application Licensing & Support For Oracle Databases
Total 3-Yr Cost = $0 (included with Oracle licensing) Compare to $85K cost of batch backup app
For VMs Licensing 20TB x $700 per TB = $14K Support 20TB x $150 per TB per yr= $3K per yr Total 3-Yr Cost = $14K + (3*$3K) = $23K Compare to $170K cost of batch backup app
For Unstructured Data
Licensing 50TB x $600 per TB = $30K Support 50TB x $100 per TB per yr = $5K per yr Total 3-Yr Cost = $30K + (3*$5K) = $45K Compare to $425K cost of batch backup app
TOTAL 3-YR COST = $23K + $45K = $68K Compare to $680K cost of batch backup app
UNIQUE BENEFITS OF QUANTUM’S BACKUP STORAGE SOLUTIONS
When it comes to your backup storage, Quantum is an industry leader with the best technology options to fit your backup storage needs, including:
• DXi® deduplication appliances that provide leading price-performance to minimize backup
windows, patented variable-length deduplication to maximize data reduction, and intuitive configuration options and visual reporting capabilities to simplify management and reduce operational expense .
• Intelligent, scalable tape libraries for lowest-cost, lowest-power long-term retention for compliance and archiving . Quantum’s Scalar® libraries with iLayer™ software include
proactive diagnostic capabilities to improve library reliability and reduce downtime and management costs, as well as policy-based data integrity checking .
SUMMARY BENEFITS
As we compare the financials in Figure 1 and Figure 2, the savings benefits associated with backup software licensing alone are substantial .
For this example, a customer with 80TB of data to protect (10TB Oracle database, 20TB virtual servers, and 50TB of unstructured file content), the total three-year licensing cost drops from $680,000 to $68,000—a savings of 90% .
And based on the additional savings we can discuss associated with archive storage, the financials will look even better .
Too good to be true?
I’m sure the financials are a little bit different in every account . Licensing costs might be different by 10-25%, but even with some variability allowed for this, the savings will be substantial no matter what .
As a storage company focused on enabling your business applications, Quantum can help you take the practical steps to move in this direction, including:
• Scheduling an appointment with Quantum to discuss your environment .
• We can complete an assessment of your data to characterize your environment and create this type of TCO analysis for you .
We are also investing to make this architecture even better in the future—with better integration with these applications and others, as well as different solutions to enable our customers to move beyond batch backup .
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