Large enterprises already backup hundreds of terabytes if not petabytes of data. The emergence of these Big Data backups means equally big changes need to occur in how enterprises protect this data. While deduplicating disk-based backup targets are part of the answer, these solutions need to increase the number of options they offer to fully satisfy all of the different backup requirements that large enterprises inevitably encounter. The Sepaton VirtuoSO data protection solution gives large enterprises the dynamic and more modern approach they need to backup their growing number of applications.
Up, Up and Away with Data Growth
Analyst firms are as challenged in keeping their data growth forecasts up-to-date as organizations are in responding to this data growth. IDC in late 2012 updated its “35 zettabytes (ZBs) by 2020” prediction that it made in its 2011 Digital Universe study to now say there will be 40 ZBs of data in the digital universe by that same date. IDC attributes this 5 zettabyte bump to an anticipated10x increase in the number of servers (physical and virtual) that organizations will have by 2020.
The out for analyst firms is they can release a new forecast and say, “Oops, we underestimated data growth by 5 ZBs. Sorry!” Large enterprises rarely get off that easy. A storage architect responsible for data protection at a major website recently told me he has to figure out new, innovative ways to protect tens of PBs. His issue: most deduplicating backup appliances on the market are not designed to handle this type of scale (at least in a single logical solution) or the varying backup needs of the different types of applications that he has in his environment.
The Unique Challenges of Enterprise Backup
Enterprise shops like this one may be forced into using multiple disk-based backup targets – deduplicating or otherwise – to protect the data associated with their various applications. For example, they may need to:
- Backup lots of data really fast. Ask any Oracle DBA how fast they need a large database backed up and they will almost always say, “As fast as possible!” This is why they may send multiple backup streams in parallel to a backup appliance. Of course, that only works if the backup appliance can handle concurrent parallel backup streams.
- Interpret data in the backup stream from multiple backup software products. Most enterprises have three (3) or more backup software solutions and would like to use a common deduplicating backup appliance as the target for each of these solutions. The challenge this creates is that each backup software (CommVault Simpana, IBM TSM, Symantec NetBackup, etc.) packages and transmits data in its backup jobs in different ways and may even deduplicate data before it reaches the backup target. This negatively impacts the backup appliance’s ability to effectively deduplicate data.
- Turn deduplication off. Encrypting backup data sounds great until you encrypt data at the client and then send it to a deduplicating backup appliance. Deduplicating encrypted data results in almost no data reduction. There are also certain data types such as images and videos for which deduplication also provides little benefit. As such, enterprises want the flexibility to turn deduplication off to reduce overhead on the appliance as needed.
- Determine when to deduplicate data. Religious wars used to erupt in the data storage industry as to whether data should be deduplicated inline (while the backup job is occurring) or post-process (after the data is backed up on the appliance.) Enterprises want the flexibility to deduplicate data at the right time using the right algorithm according to the needs of their application.
- Have the “thinking” done for them. Enterprise shops that are honest with themselves know that their applications probably change faster than they can keep track of and adapt to them. For example, an application that was configured for post-process deduplication may now be more suitable for inline deduplication and vice-versa. As such, they need deduplicating backup appliances that dynamically track the nature of the data being backed up and can dynamically implement the appropriate form of deduplication.
Enterprise Backup Requirements Demand a Little VirtuoSO
In response to these sometimes conflicting enterprise backups demands placed on deduplicating backup appliances, Sepaton introduces its VirtuoSO data protection platform. This platform is based upon and brings forward the same scale-out hardware flexibility found in its pre-existing S2100-ES3 solution. But what the new VirtuoSO product introduces is increased flexibility on the software side.
Sepaton has always touted the performance of its hardware. But now with VirtuoSO’s tighter integration with Oracle RMAN, Sepaton has another way for organizations to accelerate backup performance. Using this integration Oracle DBAs can concurrently send up to eight (8) backup streams in parallel to the VirtuoSO data protection platform to help reduce backup times.
VirtuoSO also gives organizations new flexibility to dynamically do either inline or post-process deduplication. To accomplish this feat, VirtuoSO presents multiple NAS shares to the backup software. The backup software then sends the data to a specific share associated with an application.
As this share on the VirtuoSO platform ingests the backup data, it peers inside the backup stream leveraging its integration with enterprise backup solutions such as CommVault Simpana, IBM TSM and Symantec NetBackup to determine and assign the best deduplication algorithm to deduplicate that backup job. In this way backup data is deduplicated in the best way for the application without manual intervention.
While an initial deduplication algorithm needs to be assigned to the share (say inline,) if VirtuoSO recognizes that Oracle backups are being directed to this share or the data has high data change rates, VirtuoSO may dynamically change the deduplication algorithm used by that share from inline to post-process.
VirtuoSO even has the flexibility to turn deduplication off on a particular NAS share if it detects that the incoming data is encrypted or is not well-suited for deduplication. To accomplish this task, it again leverages its integration with enterprise backup software to look inside the backup streams from these respective products to implement the appropriate deduplication solution.
Sepaton VirtuoSO Assumes the Role of the Enterprise Backup Deduplication Director
Enterprises know backup complexity is spiraling out of control. If the prediction for a 10x increase in the number of servers deployed between now and 2020 is even half right, companies can no longer assume that one approach to deduplication will suffice going forward for all of the different applications that they will need to protect.
Sepaton’s introduction of the VirtuoSO data protection platform gives enterprises the flexibility they need to dynamically manage and appropriately adapt to their ever-changing backup environment. This is accomplished without needing to buy multiple deduplicating backup appliances and then hiring IT staff to manage them.
Organizations can instead begin to look to the Sepaton VirtuoSO data protection platform to assume the role of their enterprise backup deduplication director. By aligning the needs of the applications with the most appropriate deduplication method and then scaling so they can use a single solution to back them all up, enterprises finally get the one size fits all deduplication solution that meets their varied and ever-changing requirements.