7 September 2015

IBM Spectrum Protect 7.1.3 - The Hybrid Data Protection Enabler


It's been 21 months since I last blogged on here, I could use all the excuses in the world but I'm glad to say my drive to get the blog back into a state where useful info is being posted on a regular basis is back and burning bright. 

On that note I'm going to jump into the world of Data Protection to talk about what's happening with the recently re-branded Spectrum Protect (previously TSM and FCM). Spectrum Protect 7.1.3 was announced on the 26th August and is being released at the end of this week on September the 11th and has a host of new features well worth discussing. 

The top enhancement in this release in my eyes is the introduction of optimised next generation data-duplication processing via storage pool containers. So what?? I already have TSM Spectrum Protect with deduplication. 
The current deduplication methodology utilised in Spectrum Protect is relatively inefficient as it requires backups to complete, identification of the duplicates to run and then reclamation to complete prior to the duplicates being removed. As an out-of-band process this causes management overhead and means the mobility of data is limited as you needed reclamation to complete before you could perform node replication.  


With the introduction of Spectrum Protect 7.1.3 optimised next generation data deduplication will occur in-line with the end result being easier management, faster performance, enhanced scalability and a reduced RPO with no need to wait for those pesky identify and reclamation housekeeping processes to complete before replicating data. 

The key enabler of this optimised next generation data deduplication are container storage pools. These ensure storage is handled in an automatic fashion so that no direct management of the storage is required. The tables below fully shows the benefits of container storage pools over file device class storage pools.

VS.

The scalability results as you can see are BIG, with the amount of data processed per day increasing four fold and the data you can manage via a single Spectrum Protect Server ten fold!!

No special license is needed, this is a built in enhancement BUT obviously a change in Storage Pool architecture is required for customers with Spectrum Protect utilising deduplication already, fear not, I will do another post on the migration process shortly. Hopefully your still with me. The two key points here are a reduction in primary storage pool capacity as no storage is required for storing duplicate data waiting to be identified and reclaimed and the potential for a reduced number of Spectrum Protect Servers, 1 Spectrum Protect Server can now perform the same workload as 15 CommVault servers/media agents and 5 NetBackup backp/media servers!

Container storage pools are also a key enabler for my second favourite enhancement in Spectrum Protect 7.1.3, Cloud and native object storage pools. As detailed in this recent ESG paper via Jason Buffington and Monya Keane 22% of IT decision makers stated they are or will be employing Cloud as an integral part of  their organisations data backup processes in the next 24 months. An increase of 15% from just three years ago. Cloud and native object storage pools can be on-premise or off-premise with object based IBM SoftLayer, V1Swift or OpenStack Swift currently supported. This enables a true Hybrid strategy for data protection with the ability to replicate into the Cloud and enable DR on demand. If your still paying for costly old school business continuity contracts where your renting kit to restore onto, take a look in the mirror, your wasting money and we can help you get out of those expensive contracts and enable DR on demand.   

The final enhancement I want to make you aware of is the self-service restore portal for Spectrum Protect for Virtual Environments. File restore requests are a headache for many IT administrators, imagine the ability to empower users so they could request restores via a self-sevice portal ... Spectrum Protect 7.1.3 enables just that. Sean Sperry has put together a great YouTube video detailing the why and how here

If your a currently Spectrum Protect customer or have a Data Protection solution that simply isn't fit for the job and want to discuss these enhancements in more detail please drop me an e-mail @ william.bush@tectrade.com

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