Backup
Data backup is a crucial function in every organization, no matter how big or small. Data can be the most valuable asset to an organization and data loss due to system failure can be catastrophic. Data retention has become so critical that federal regulations have been created to specifically address how data should be stored and retrieved. Yet data backup remains one of the most challenging components of IT administration.
Network Backup
As the limitations of backing up data in a DAS environment have become obvious, organizations have overwhelmingly moved to performing backups over a network. Backing up the data over a network has the advantages of being able to share backup devices across servers and centralized management of the backup function.
Even with the benefits of network backup, the limitation of the backup window still applies. Using an Alacritech Scalable Network Accelerator in the backup server can significantly improve the servers ability to receive data from multiple clients resulting in reduced backup times.
Virtual Tape Libraries (VTL)
To overcome the limitations of tape, IT departments are using VTLs to reduce backup time and improve data recovery. One of the main drawbacks of tape as a primary backup medium is performance. The speed at which a tape device can receive data and record it onto tape is often the limiting factor in performing a timely backup. VTLs consist of hard disk storage that appears as if it was a tape device. Due to the naturally higher speed of the disk drives, backups using VTLs are significantly faster than a tape device can provide.
As with any network backup situation, the more clients being backed up the greater the impact on the backup server. Alacritech Accelerators allow the backup server to handle more clients on the network and connect to iSCSI VTLs for reduced backup windows and improved file restoration.