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. 
