Backup is no longer as simple as copying files to tape and sending them to off-site storage. Because businesses depend so heavily on data, backups need to support high availability and rapid recovery, scale to offer high performance even as Big Data grows and grows, and still be cost-effective. Modern backup strategies need to offer support for:
- Multiple operating systems. Corporate data centers are a mix of operating systems, including Windows and multiple flavors of Linux and Unix. To keep the backup process manageable, data centers need to use a backup product that provides support for all the platforms they use.
- Virtual machines. Corporate data centers are also a mix of virtual machines, using multiple kinds of hypervisors. Your backup software should be able to integrate with the hypervisors you use and able to automatically discover virtual machines requiring backups. Your backup software should be able to create copies of your VMs without shutting down any instances.
- Online databases. Taking databases down to perform backups is unacceptable for businesses that are up 24×7. Backup products need to perform online database backups to ensure no interruption to business.
- Backup to tape. Surprisingly, tape hasn’t been eliminated by cloud. In fact, backing up to tape is still one of the best ways to guarantee you can recover uncorrupted data after a security incident. This is often best used as a supplement to other backup methods that let you restore data more rapidly.
- Customizable recovery. Sometimes a major outage means you need to restore nearly an entire data center. Sometimes user error means you need to restore a single file. Your backup software should offer flexible recovery options that let you match your recovery to the scope of the disaster.
- Automation. The less work your team has to do to set up backups, the more time they can spend doing other things. Backup software should be able to discover instances needed backup and automatically apply appropriate policies.
- Easy management. The complexity of your environment shouldn’t mean overseeing backups is complicated. Your backup software should have a single interface that lets you see your overall status and take any corrective actions easily.
Simplify your backups with a single solution that provides support for all the technologies in your data center. NetBackup supports backup for your entire enterprise, whether the platform is bare metal, virtual machines in your data center, or in the cloud. Managed NetBackup services ensure your backup and recovery process has minimal impact on your business critical, production functions. Contact dcVAST to learn more about how you can use NetBackup to modernize your backup procedures.
