What matters in backup and recovery software
Keeping business running in the event of a disaster is critical for any business: downtime means lost revenue as well as reduced employee productivity. In addition, a prolonged loss of confidence could crystallize. Data centers in particular need to be prepared for outages and other consequences. Backup and recovery measures are therefore of great relevance.
Virtual servers, Big Data applications, the cloud and continuous data growth present new challenges. More than ever, companies are asking themselves which backup and recovery software to use. To keep an overview of the market, the assessments of industry analysts can be helpful.
Important guidance
Perhaps the most important point of reference is Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Data Center Backup and Recovery Software. This was last published in June and is now also available in German. The report is so interesting for users because Gartner evaluates on the basis of a wide range of criteria. High demands on the solution itself are important:
Data center operators depend on solutions that reliably secure data center workloads. They also need to deploy various files and applications on Windows, Linux or Unix OS, in physical and/or virtual environments, as well as support VMware and Hyper-V.
On the other hand, supplier criteria are relevant: How future-proof is the investment? How quickly does the provider react to changes in the market? What about the viability of the solution? Gartner also takes a close look at the vendor's understanding of the market, and assesses marketing strategy and innovative strength.
After assessing a total of eleven criteria, a strength/weakness profile of the providers is created and they are classified into categories. For data center operators, the report offers a good introduction to various solutions and their providers due to the large number of criteria.
Profound prerequisites
With the increasing expansion and diversification of the business environment, there is an explosion in the amount of data and often the creation of data silos. The consequences for a company: a complex infrastructure, increasing costs, etc.. - Below, Commvault.com has defined three options regarding backup and recovery strategy:
- Develop a unified strategy across all environments, from on-premises to the cloud. In hybrid environments that include both on-premises and cloud infrastructures, you run the risk of adding complexity by deploying multiple solutions. Choosing a single solution that covers all environments not only simplifies your strategy, but also ensures lasting success.
- Reduce operational costs through automation. Manual steps in your backup and recovery plan not only create additional work, but also represent potential sources of error and introduce the risk of human error. Automating previously manual steps frees up resources and reduces overall execution time.
- Reduce the cost of your infrastructure by becoming independent of hardware vendors. By choosing a backup and recovery solution that is independent of your storage vendor, you can separate storage and backup costs. Retain the option to adopt multiple storage solutions, move to a new solution, or even to cloud providers and switch between them.
