Showing posts with label Hybrid Cloud. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hybrid Cloud. Show all posts

22 March 2018

Hybrid Backup and Recovery Solutions


As the evolution of the software-defined datacentre continues application support for integration with cloud solutions is improving.
One area you all know I’m very passionate about is backup and more importantly recovery and something I’m going to cover in this blog are the significant steps forward that have been made in terms of the enablement of Hybrid backup and recovery solutions.

Tectrade’s Helix Protect appliances began the Hybrid journey back in 2015 when Spectrum Protect version 7.1.3 introduced a new type of storage pool was introduced, a cloud container storage pool.

A container pool is a pool that combines multiple in line data reduction technologies. Data deduplication and compression technology work together to provide effective overall storage savings. Because of this inline data reduction, container storage pool I/O is dramatically reduced, enabling the use of lower-cost disk technology. Inline data deduplication and compression eliminate the need for post processing tasks, improve daily client ingest capacity, and simplify the management of the IBM Spectrum Protect server.

Support has enhanced and as of Spectrum Protect 8.1.4 cloud container storage pools enable data to be stored in the following cloud environments.
Off-premise:
Microsoft Azure Blob storage
Amazon Web Services (AWS) using the Simple Storage Service (S3) API
IBM Cloud Object Storage using the S3 API (IBM Cloud)
IBM Cloud Object Storage using the Swift API (IBM Cloud)
OpenStack Swift with Keystone Version 2, and OpenStack Swift with Keystone Version 1

On-premise:
IBM Cloud Object Storage using the S3 API
OpenStack Swift with Keystone Version 2, and OpenStack Swift with Keystone Version 1

So why are cloud container pools interesting?
Because they enable you to have an offsite storage tier without the investment required in a dedicated DC or co-lo space and the ability to simply purchase storage to store a secondary copy of your backup data on.

A lot of conversations our Technical Sales team are having are focused around Hybrid adoption and how to reduce the footprint of infrastructure in DCs and ultimately reduce cost.
Our goal is always to focus on outcomes and ensure the correct solution is architected for clients and data is stored in the most efficient and cost effective manner but ensuring that the required level of performance and recoverability is delivered. We enable customers to start on the journey of re-architecting there environments via the creation of a service catalogue. If your interested in a sample catalogue and discussion do let us know.
Once the catalogue is clearly defined we then get to work on the realisation of the benefits defined in the service catalogue. This involves ensuring the solution in place is fit for purpose, the correct service levels and cost are associated with the defined tiers and ensuring the data is aligned to the correct tier. 
The solution we use to ensure a best of breed and fit for purpose solution is in place for data protection is our Helix Protect appliance. They fully integrate with cloud environments utilising Spectrum Protect. A sample architecture is pictured below.

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.