Disk to Disk backup solutions

Disk to Disk Backup

Tape has been the backup medium of choice for many years. The advantages of tape are cost; it’s less expensive than other storage options, it’s removable and offers a high capacity (DLT-S4 800GB native). However, the trade-off is performance as a tape can only read/write sequentially along the tape length which limits the amount of data it can write at speed. Many of today’s tape drives use large cache buffers and adaptive speed algorithms to match the host speed to the tape drive. These techniques are employed to prevent the tape drive from “shoe shining” back and forth across the head. The amount of data that organisations are generating and the backup window constantly shrinking means back to tape has become increasingly inconvenient. Likewise, finding data on tape is a time consuming process.

A disk to disk backup solution can significantly improve the backup speed and file restores happen immediately as the disk drives can randomly access any part of the disk surface within ms (milliseconds) to the location on the disk where the desired data is stored.

When factoring in the initial investment in the tape library along with the tape media and the life span of each tape, as well as administrative overhead of replacing backed up data tapes, you might find that disk to disk (D2D) backup is more cost effective than tape.


Disk based backup advantages

As we have explained a disk to disk backup solution has some major advantages over tape, other reasons to consider moving away from tape are:

• Tape is fragile and prone to stretching or breaking
• Vulnerable to environmental issues heat and humidity
• Stored tapes loose tension
• Tape is a contact media whereby each layer touches the next which could cause data loss over time
• Tape drives heads need cleaning regularly
• Bad, faulty or damaged tapes prevent successful backups
• Tape drive or tape library failure causes backups to fail

A disk-to-disk backup solution has none of the inherent problems associated with tape.

• Provide random access to data
• Should a drive(s) (RAID 6) fail, then the backups will still complete
• Do not suffer from continuous overwrites
• The disk head does not touch the hard disk surface it floats over it
• As they are sealed, contaminates cannot damage the head and therefore no regular cleaning is required
• No preventative maintenance is required

Ultera Disk to Disk backup solution

• Reduce Your Backup Window
• Simplify Disaster Recovery
• Restore Files Instantly
• Improve ROI
• Create Reliable Backups

Overcome Your Conventional Backup Limitations! 

The Mirage Virtual Tape Controller (VTC) utilizes disk storage devices to create a hard drive based Virtual Tape Library (VTL) that operates transparently with existing tape backup application software on any hardware platform or operating system.

Mirage based VTL solutions may be configured using one or more Mirage VTCs to offer seamless scalability and meet the performance and capacity requirements of any backup, data management or disaster recovery application.

The Mirage based VTL appears to backup management software as if it was a conventional tape library operating in random tape library or sequential stacker/autoloader mode. The VTL emulation is built-in for plug and play compatibility. No special drivers are required.

Mirage based VTL delivers immediate performance improvements to backup, restore and archival applications.

Mirage based VTL supports investments already made in tape drives, libraries and RAID equipment as well as application software. Mirage enables users to keep their current configuration in place, no hardware changes, no software changes, no procedural or policy changes.

Mirage based VTL has repositioned tape to its appropriate place as a removable storage device for archival purposes.

Mirage based VTL has patent pending breakthrough concepts supporting the management of data from the servers it’s backing up to the archival storage. It's that simple.

Ultera combined with RAID Arrays

Our solution utilises the benefits of the Ultera disk-to-disk controller and the cost effectiveness of either SCSI - SATA or FC - SATA RAID systems that offer RAID levels 0, 1 (0+1), 3, 5, 6, 10, 30, 50 and Seagate Enterprise class SATA II disk drives. The systems are available with 4, 8, 12 or 16 drives with capacities from 1TB to 12TB using 750GB disks.

The RAID systems depending on the model can have redundant RAID controllers, hot swap disk drives with hot spare, hot swap power supplies and fans provide extra protection for your data and dramatically increased reliability when compared to tape. The disk-to-disk system emulates a tape library so you don’t have to change your backup software; disk space appears to the backup software as virtual tape cartridges.

Disk to Disk summary

Backing up data and ensuring the backups are successful is a time consuming but highly important job. The loss of important data can have significant implications for many businesses and the cost of trying to recover lost data from tape is hugely expensive. Increasingly legislation is having more and more impact on how data is stored, managed and retrieved. Today's constantly growing data volumes are putting more of a strain on traditional tape backup systems, which are slow, prone to failure tape and drive, and make it difficult to retrieve small amounts of data, such as a single lost file. Disk based backup is proving to be faster, less prone to failure and easier to manage. Disked based backup solutions are gaining in popularity. By deploying a disk-to-disk backup solution you can start to enjoy the peace of mind that your backups are being successfully carried out. On a final note If disk-to-disk backup systems weren’t reliable or proven, why would the tape automation vendors offer solutions?

If you need further help or assistance please call us on 08704 286186 or email sales