Data Protection: Now More Important an Ever by Jennifer Burl

If you've seen or read the news lately, you know that data hacks are becoming more commonplace than anyone would like. From the recent celebrity iPhone hack-and my recent blog about the same- it's easy to see that data isn't always as safe as it should be-and it goes far beyond saucy celebrity photos. Big retailers such as Home Depot and grocery store chains such as Jewel-Osco and Shaw's have also been hit hard.

Recently, in an article titled Data Protection Solutions: Finding the Right Fit in the 2014 Fall edition of inFocus, Iron Mountain's Jeremey Zhang (@JJZhang) was quoted extensively on his views regarding data protection. Zhang takes Iron Mountain's approach in believing that finding the right data protection solutions is akin to solving a customized puzzle; companies have to ask the right questions and determine how various solutions, such as tape, disk and the cloud, can work together to produce the best protection.

Zhang makes the argument that tape is not dead, as some might suggest. In fact, it's still really relevant for retaining, storing and moving large amounts of data. Tape provides a low-cost, long-term retention solution, but companies must keep up with changing technologies. (LTFS versions 9 and 10 were recently announced, by the way). Having a third-party vendor handle your tape logistics can help with these issues.

Disk storage, for its part, can be highly effective in terms of backup strategy-if it's used correctly, Zhang says. But, companies can't do everything with disk. It's important that overloading doesn't become an issue and that all data isn't treated the same. All data shouldn't be put on primary storage media. There's no way companies can meet their recovery time objectives (RTOs) and point objectives (RPOs) operating this way.

In terms of cloud storage, Zhang discusses both the advantages and disadvantages of the private and public options and a combination of both. Questions for companies to consider include access, cost of ownership, difficulty of migration and management of information and infrastructure.

Zhang's overarching suggestion? Companies should consider all of their backup, disaster recovery and archive needs and determine connections between all of the available data storage services out there, finding which ones align with their technologies correctly. They should also refrain from putting all of their data storage eggs in one basket, (or disk, or tape or cloud, as it were). It's important to utilize tape, disk and cloud services and develop a hybrid approach that matches technology type to data use for the most effect data management solution..

Whew! Sounds like quite an undertaking, right? You may not be able to do it alone, but Iron Mountain has the experience to help you along your way. Contact us, today for more information.

LINK:	http://blogs.ironmountain.com/2014/service-lines/data-backup-and-recov...
	See more stories from ironmountain

Most recent headlines