The smarter side of data backup

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: How much data have I backed up? Am I within my backup window? What is the state of my storage capacity? How much does it cost to protect my data?

For most large enterprises, answering these questions can be time consuming and difficult. Couple this with expanding data volumes, increasing compliance demands and evolving stake-holder requirements, and the task becomes even more challenging.

No wonder that the traditional manual backup checks and spreadsheet reporting approaches of yesterday’s enterprise simply cannot keep pace in today’s competitive, information-driven environments. Companies now must be able to align backup and recovery processes with their business needs.

The good news is that business-focused backup reporting applications that provide the right backup information to the right people at the right time are emerging. These applications offer the consistent, transparent, business reports needed to establish and document the contributions IT services make to business value.

Backup strategies may vary from one company to the next, but virtually every organisation faces a similar set of backup objectives and challenges. Regardless of company size or industry, organisations must be able to back up and restore growing quantities of data while meeting strict service level agreements (SLAs) as well as external regulations and requirements.

This is no easy feat since the backup needs of an extensive range of stakeholders—from IT management to C-level executives, database administrators, legal teams, and more—must also be addressed. Chances are these individuals must also be kept updated on backup operations and require specific information on backup data tailored to their individual needs and requirements.

However, internal and external compliance issues are only part of the challenge. Many backup administrators lack the tools to make backups more efficient and effective in meeting business-level goals. After all, managing backup data operations, particularly large environments, can be very complex, while critical backup processes such as reporting often consist of rudimentary manual practices that are not only cumbersome but also prone to human error.

Additionally, many organisations do not fully understand how much backup and recovery operations cost the business. Since backup operations are typically run as a silo, with little or no alignment with the overall needs of the business, it is nearly impossible to measure their impact on the business. Yet, the ability to align backup costs with business needs and effectively forecast and budget for critical hardware and software resources is essential in running an effective operation.