BACKUP/MASTER: Strategies for Archiving

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BACKUP/MASTERStrategies for Archiving

• Dianne McAdam
• Senior Analyst and Partner
• Data Mobility Group

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Backup versus archiving

• Terms used interchangeably
• Define different processes
• Different end results

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Backups

• Designed to protect ALL data
• Datacenter, desktop, laptops
• Run on a regular basis
• Every 24 hours
• More often for mission-critical applications
• Multiple backup copies are saved
• Several copies of weekly backups
• Incrementals
• Monthly and quarterly backups

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Backups (2)

• Usually not actively deleted
• Overwritten
• Second set of incrementals overwrites the first
• Fifth set of weekly backups overwrites the first
• Multiple backup processes and software can exist
• One product for laptops
• Another for departmental backups

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Archive

• Not a backup copy
• Not a disaster recovery copy
• Data that is kept for a long period of time
• Can be called
• Fixed-content data
• Unstructured data
• Reference data
• Retention managed data

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Archive (2)

• Active archive
• Deep archive

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Active archive

• Software to slim down databases
• Databases expand over time
• Customer databases contain numerous inactive
  customers
• Software extracts inactive data
• Associated table definitions, indexes, metadata
• Migrates inactive data to lower-cost storage
• Disk, tape or optical storage

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Active archive (2)

• Designed to improve management of large databases
• Not a replacement for backup
• Not a form of data protection
• Does not have to run daily, but on a regular
  basis
• Weekly, monthly
• Depends on the amount of data that becomes
  inactive
• Saves money
• Using lower-cost storage
• Improves performance of main database
• Quicker to backup and restore

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Deep archiving

• Corporations have had internal policies for how
  long data should be kept
• Medical, financial, employee records
• Engineering designs
• New regulations are dictating retention periods
• Archival software designed to store regulated and
  non-regulated data for specific period of time

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Deep archiving (2)

• Not a backup copy
• Not a disaster recovery copy
• Data is actively deleted
• When a specified time period elapses
• Seven years for e-mail
• When a specific event occurs
• Two years after an employee leaves the company

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Deep archiving (3)

• Many different types of storage
• Tape, optical, disk, special appliances
• Backups store multiple copies of data archive
  should store only one copy
• SEC 17a-4
• Need to keep one copy offsite
• Some regulations require WORM support

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Deep archiving (4)

• Recovery Time Objectives (RTO)
• Time to recover data
• Different from backups
• Recovery Point Objectives (RPO)
• Age of data used to restore
• RPO 0

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Whats the cost?

• Not just acquisition costs
• Other long-term costs
• Environmental factors
• Maintenance

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Hardware requirements

• How much data will be archived?
• Projected growth rate
• Retention period
• Backed up onsite or offsite
• Extra capacity for unexpected growth

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Hardware requirements (2)

• Media choice
• Disk, SATA disk, tape, optical
• Average disk/tape utilization
• RAID level
• Combination of disk/tape?
• WORM support required?

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Purchase and maintenance costs

• Purchase price
• Installation and freight charges
• Warranty period
• Lifespan of equipment
• Cost to migrate
• People
• Software

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Software requirements

• Archive software costs
• Additional software required?
• Compatibility with existing/new equipment

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Environmental requirements

• Footprint
• Power
• Cooling

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Calculating the costs

• Calculate storage requirements
• Assumptions
• Initial storage requirements 50 TB
• Annual growth rate 10
• Average tape utilization 85
• Average compression 21
• Average disk utilization 70
• No data expires the first 7 years

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Calculating the costs
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All-tape configuration
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All-disk configuration
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Calculating environmentals

• Assumptions
• 20/square foot/month
• .10/KWH
• Electrical (Power cooling) units 8760 .1

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Calculating environmentals (2)

• Assumptions
• 20/square foot/month
• .10/KWH
• Electrical (Power cooling) units 8760 .1

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Seven-year costs
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Some caveats not included

• The cost of maintenance
• The cost to replace disk and tape
• The cost of the software
• The cost of phasing in equipment purchases

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Some caveats not included (2)

• The amount of data that will expire
• The cost associated with backing up data
• The additional cost for RAID-1 or RAID-5 disk
• The additional cost of HBAs and cables, etc.

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Other options

• Hybrid disk/tape solution

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Hardware costs - hybrid

• Disk appliance 276,600

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Seven-year costs Hybrid solution
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Summary

• Disk
• Initially costs more and continues to cost more
  over the years
• Faster retrieval time
• How often do you replace disk?
• Every 3 years?
• Tape
• Initially costs less and continues to cost less
• Slower retrieval time than disk
• How often do you replace tape?
• Every 5 7 years?

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Summary (2)

• WORM support
• WORM cartridges cost 10-15 more
• Evaluate tape/disk combination
• Evaluate integrated tape with disk appliance
• Evaluate migration efforts and costs