Backup And Recovery Methodologies
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Disaster Recovery is a strategy for recovering important operational data in the event of loss/corruption due to events that are out of our control such as natural disasters, and/or hardware failure. Hardware can be replaced or repaired, but generated data cannot. Businesses must protect data that is critical to their continuous operation with an integrated backup and recovery strategy. Data should be stored securely offsite, so that it can be recovered in the event of a disaster.
There are two basic methods for backup and restore. Both have advantages and disadvantages relating to budget, backup and restore window, and capacity.
The traditional method is Disk-to-Tape Backup. This method leverages tape media for data backup. There are two basic advantages of backing up to tape: 1) it is low cost relative to media and 2) tapes can be removed and stored offsite to provide an additional layer of protection from data loss. In addition, tape backup capacity is only limited to the number of tapes used and the backup window. Disadvantages of tape include its requirement for media management and large backup windows. Another disadvantage is the inconvenience of locating and recovering data. In some cases, data backups may be spread across multiple pieces of media and restoring this data can be extremely time-consuming.
Disk-to-Disk Backup has recently become more popular. This method leverages HDD technology in place of traditional tape. Its advantage is that it can perform a backup and restore of data in a shorter period of time. Its one disadvantage is that HDD backup does not provide a solution for offsite storage of the data backup. In the past, Disk-to-Disk Backup was expensive relative to tape media and its capacity on a per storage device basis was limited. Now, withits ever-growing capacities and decreasing cost per MB, HDD is becoming increasingly attractive as a backup destination.
A combination of both methods provides a solution that minimizes backup windows, provides fast data recovery, utilizes a cost effective media, and permits the required offsite data storage.