For companies that need nearly instant recovery of all data, a new approach called "continuous data protection" is designed to instantly copy and back up all changes to data. The idea is to record every change to every data element--be it a Word document, a database entry, or an E-mail--thereby eliminating the risk of lost data.
The technology is offered by large systems vendors such as IBM and EMC, as well as niche providers such as Asempra Technologies, Revivio, and TimeSpring Software. It will appeal to financial-services and health-care companies under pressure to guarantee against lost data, while maintaining a high degree of application availability. For most companies, however, daily or hourly backups are sufficient.
Some companies are turning to storage-management systems to help them understand how much storage is being used for what apps. Bocada Inc. offers software that aggregates and analyzes information generated by systems-management software such as IBM's Tivoli and Hewlett-Packard's OpenView to give administrators greater insight into how their storage systems are being used. It helps managers whose companies are seeking to consolidate data centers and platforms.
"Administrators have got to provide greater visibility into their operations at the same time they're having to consolidate services and get costs down," Bocada CEO Mark Silverman says. "They need information to plan, strategize, and make decisions."
Cutting The Tape
Virtual tape operations, which use disk arrays to emulate tape, are rapidly coming to the forefront as companies seek to reduce costly and time-consuming tape operations. Grange Insurance Group implemented a virtual tape system that saved it $1,000 a month in shipping costs alone--costs that were incurred transporting tapes 230 miles from its main data center in Seattle to its backup site in Spokane, Wash.
Bob Friday, Chief AI Officer for Juniper Networks, explains how the advanced technology is transforming operations.
Contact center leaders from 8x8, Awaken Intelligence, and 360insight discuss the importance of agent experience.
AI may force enterprises to rewire parts of their data centers so they are fully optimized to run such workloads. The question is do you use Ethernet or InfiniBand?
