The Business Situation
Protecting the company’s business data has always been a key initiative of the IT department. Today, the volume of critical data is growing rapidly with the use of more business applications. The types of data to be stored, protected, and available, are many:
- Company Information such as intellectual information, trade secrets, and personnel records
- Vendor Relationship Information
- Customer Data such as transaction history
Storing this data electronically, for the purpose of making it accessible to authorized users, has also made it vulnerable to being accessed by unauthorized persons, increasing the need for data protection. Governmental regulations have created an even heightened interest in data protection, as well as making sure that data is kept safe for years beyond its time of creation. Access to data repositories must be assured, and the time to retrieve it must be reasonable and relative to business needs. If data is lost, the recovery must comply with both the Recovery Point Objective (RPO), and the Recovery Time Objective (RTO), as established by the business units.
The IT Challenge
For years, protection of data has been provided by backing up the data from disk to magnetic tape and then stored in an "off-site" location for safe keeping. The major problem, under that model, was the lengthy recovery time required when data was lost on the primary storage. Disk to disk backups are now being implemented to improve the recovery time, but a tape media copy is now being created for an off-line copy.
Another issue that has surfaced with the advent of truly distributed computing models, where data at remote locations and data residing with mobile workforces need the same kind of protection. A program that protects only the data residing at the central datacenter is incomplete, and does not achieve corporate goals or satisfy the regulatory requirements.
An additional challenge for the IT department is the fact that multiple copies of the same data exist within a company, especially with the use of email. The volume of data is growing astronomically, and the problem of protecting and recovering it in a timely manner is becoming extremely complex.
No one vendor solves all of the problems with backup and recovery of data, and the IT staff is forced to integrate a set of disparate technologies to accomplish the job.
The dcVAST Solution
Every business has its own unique set of issues and requirements associated with backup and recovery. That’s why dcVAST uses a five step approach to determine a proper solution:
Assessment: dcVAST employs a proven methodology to carefully and completely look at your data protection requirements. We begin with an assessment that analyzes your business processes and your unique business requirements. The methodology we follow includes confidential interviews with representatives from each business unit and the supporting IT staff. We seek to identify all specific and unique requirements of your business processes, including the business requirements for RPO and RTO, and how to meet those requirements in the recovery of lost data. We also seek to discover the timeliness of use and potential for reuse of your company’s data.
Architect: After the assessment is complete, dcVAST analyzes the findings and designs a system architecture that will meet the business requirements. We then develop a report of the findings and the recommended solution alternatives. dcVAST will meet with your business unit and IT personnel to review this report and discuss alternative approaches. Together we will determine the best solution when considering your business requirements, and your personnel and budget constraints.
Implementation: The next step in the process is the development of a detailed implementation plan and its execution. This plan will employ best practices, be governed by the results of the assessment and guided by the solution created in the architecture step. The implementation plan will align with your business needs and fit into your budget. The plan will include the use of your IT staff, as desired. dcVAST will work with your staff, at the level of involvement that you specify. dcVAST will utilize its staff to complete the requirements. dcVAST will then knowledge transfer to your staff as appropriate for you to fully understand the solution, its implementation and its operational processes and support and management requirements.
Support: dcVAST then shifts into a support mode and will provide maintenance support for the physical components of the infrastructure, and the operations support for the software included.
Manage: dcVAST works as an extension to your IT department, and can help you manage the backups and recovery, or we can fully manage them for you. We will monitor the operation of backups, and provide periodic reports on performance levels, completeness of the backups process, and the general health of the environment.
Now more than ever, companies need to take aggressive action to improve reliability and reduce the cost of backup and recovery. We will work with you to develop the right solution for your company to protect your valuable data assets. We provide comprehensive data recovery and backup services in Chicago and Michigan area.