Backup Lifecycle Management

Near-storage of archive and static data in more cost-effective storage media. The ideal solution for weeklies, monthlies and static data that is important but not mission critical.

Data Vault’s online, off-site architecture is the perfect solution for backing up and retrieving your critical data. For data that is important (i.e. not critical) DVC offers the Backup Lifecycle Management (BLM) feature that moves your non-critical data to more cost-effective secondary media. By moving important data to BLM, your monthly data backup bill is dramatically reduced while still maintaining off-site backup protection.

Critical vs important data

Within most corporate environments, data can be described as critical (i.e. integral to ongoing operations) or important (i.e. valuable but not mission critical). An example of the former is your email information store and an example of the latter is your financial data from five years ago. The Data Vault service provides an online, off-site solution that allows for fast retrieval of critical data. For important data, the Data Vault service provides Backup Lifecycle Management (BLM) a more-cost effective secondary storage solution that slightly increases the time-to-restore but maintains the same safe, secure storage that DVC has always been known for.

Your Data: Critical or Important?

There are two types of information that require proper storage.

Critical data, typically information that's less than 12 months old, are files required for the day-to-day operations of any business. Critical data is stored on high-capacity drives and is always available through a network connection for easy and rapid restore, often in a matter of minutes.

Important data, such as archived files, or documents that have not been modified for some time, is data no longer required for uninterrupted day-to-day operation. It still requires safe storage, but unlike critical data, important data does not need to occupy costly online real estate.

How BLM works

In the DVC Data Center, data is copied or moved from online storage to the BLM Storage on a periodic basis based on your corporate data retention policies. Within the BLM storage, there are tiers of online, near-line and off-line devices. Once in the BLM, you can access the data for searches and restores directly through the Web Portal or by calling the DVC Help Desk. If data needs to be restored from BLM storage, one or more restorable images are created that provide a complete snapshot of the data along with associated meta-data. These restorable images are downloaded through the Web Portal or shipped on a portable disk via overnight delivery. The last step of the process is to command the DVC Gateway to access the restorable images on your local LAN to perform a high-speed restore.

Applications

BLM is a powerful feature that adds great flexibility to backup and restore policies. The following is a partial list of the most common applications of the BLM feature. Each of these applications is designed to reduce the amount of data in the online archive, thereby reducing your data backup bill.

Deleted Data — When files or emails are deleted on your servers, they are moved to BLM. This can be used, for example, for reducing the amount of online data devoted to backing up the “Deleted Items” folder in Exchange.

Point in Time Snapshots — On a regular basis (e.g. once a quarter), the latest version of all files can be copied to BLM. This historical “snapshot” can be written to tape or WORM media.

Static Data Archives — Some companies have “archive” folders, holding stagnant data that will not be updated. This data can be transmitted directly to the BLM, thereby providing backup protection at a fraction of the cost of storage in the online archive.

Technical Specifications

All BLM actions can be scheduled or performed on-demand from the DVC Gateway

Typical cost-per-GB will be 50% or less for BLM versus online storage

Upwards of 50% of your data can be moved to BLM

Restorable images can be created via the Web Portal or by calling the DVC Help Desk