BandL Weblog

Experts Predict a Tape Renaissance

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At the first annual Tape Summit, vendors and analysts gathered recently to share perspectives on the current and future state of the tape market. Reports are that one word dominated the theme of the conversation at this inaugural event: renaissance. According to experts at the summit, tape is poised for a renaissance as part of the solution to getting our collective arms around the data explosion.

Now, as a provider of tape management solutions, we’re always happy to hear a prediction of growth in the tape market, but we were curious as to what was driving this most recent one. Network Computing’s Dave Hill offered a great summary of the renaissance prediction made at Tape Summit in his recent blog post, “Tape Summit Predicts Tape Renaissance.” Where the greatest opportunity lies for tape, according to Dave’s post, is in active archiving.

Using tape for deep archiving (long-term storage in which files must be accessed by a network administrator) is pretty widely viewed as a no-brainer. But active archives (data that’s not active production data but still directly accessible to users) typically are stored on disk. The argument made at Tape Summit, however, was that active archive, which accounts for the majority of data in the data center, could reside more economically on tape.

Dave’s post goes on to explore whether tape has the cost-effectiveness, reliability, longevity, compliance, security and usability to fulfill this role of supporting a growing active archive. And the answer seems to be yes on all counts.

We at B&L already have seen this strategy in action, with clients who benefit from using tape not only for deep archiving, but also as a cost-effective solution for active archiving. And of course, to help manage backup tapes, B&L offer Vertices & VaultLedger. So, we’ll be watching closely to see how this prediction plays out in the market as a whole.

Have you explored how your organization might benefit from the “tape renaissance?”

SMBs Have Some Thinking to Do About Disaster Recovery Planning

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While we all know how important IT disaster recovery (DR) planning is, some of us still just aren’t doing it—not well enough, anyway. And, not to point the finger, but all too often it’s small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs) who fall into this category. To wit: A January 2011 Symantec study revealed that of the 1,288 small and mid-sized businesses, 57 percent do not have a DR plan in place. Even more disturbing, this number represents an increase from last year’s survey.

The firms surveyed averaged six outages last year, mostly from natural disasters, power failures and cyber attacks. Outages are not just expensive—Symantec estimates $10,000 per day for SMBs—they can sink a business. Forty-four percent of customers of SMBs reported that their SMB vendors shut down temporarily after a disaster.

So what’s stopping SMBs from protecting their computer systems and data?

• Not thinking about it
  The Symantec study showed that a whopping 41% of SMBs without a DR plan said they didn’t have one because “it had never occurred to them” to develop one.
  
  
• Thinking about thinking about it
  The study further revealed that 40% did not view DR as a priority.
  
  
• Wrong thinking
  Unbelievably, more than half of the respondents (52%) did not view their computer systems as business critical.

The Symantec study offers the following suggestions for SMBs:

• Be proactive.
  A limited budget means you can’t plan for every disaster event that might strike, but it’s still essential to examine a wide range of potential events before they occur. Then, formulate a plan that identifies critical systems and data and maps out how to quickly get your systems up and running and retrieve key data.
  
  
• Fully protect your mission-critical data.
  Implement the necessary security solutions to protect your information, as well as the appropriate backup solutions to archive that data on your network or an external hard drive, and in a secure off-site location. One solution many businesses are incorporating into their DR practices is media management software. When backup tapes are used to store corporate information, media management software can help track down these storage devices quickly.
  
  
• Involve employees.
  When resources are limited, use employees as a first layer of defense in protecting customer and corporate data. Educate them on information security best practices and how to retrieve vital information in the event of a disaster or system outage.
  
  
• Regularly revisit and test your plan.
  As your organization grows and changes, your plan will need to change. Re-examine your plan regularly to ensure that it is comprehensive, and test it often to ensure that it works. If resources prohibit frequent testing, review your plan at least quarterly to keep it current.

SMBs clearly lag behind their larger corporate brethren in safeguarding their systems and data and preparing for disaster. The consequences of this inaction can be expensive…or fatal to a business. An IT disaster recovery plan is no longer a “nice to have,” it’s a best practice.

LTFS and LTO-5: Tape Acting Like Tape, Only Better

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Recently, I’ve spent some time talking about LTFS and LTO-5 and how their capabilities are one more signal of strong vital signs for tape in the data storage world. These innovations have demonstrated that tape is an adaptive and evolving technology, and they’re making tape faster and easier to use.

Some observers have said that LTFS and LTO-5 work together to enable tape to act like disk. And while I see what they mean, because this combination provides file system access that lets you access files on tape as you would on any other drive, I would argue that with LTFS, tape is acting like tape—only better.

Tape continues to be the best-suited medium for long-term storage and archiving. This is partly because tape offers cost-effective storage capacity, which becomes especially when it comes to storing increasingly larger volumes of data over longer timeframes. LTO-5 improves upon this advantage of tape by offering twice the capacity of its predecessor.

If you’re keeping data for a long time, it’s a good bet that compliance is part of your motivation, and that being able to produce specific files quickly will be important. LTFS makes it faster and easier to identify and locate the data you need.

Also, the longer you’re storing data, the more likely it is that your backup software vendor will go out of business while you still need to access your data. Because it operates independently of the backup software, LTFS removes this concern.

The key theme here: there’s no need to try to make tape into something it isn’t. Instead, LTFS and LTO-5 work together to help tape do a better job at doing what it does best: storing data economically over the long term.

Tape and disk still each offer relative advantages as part of a good balanced storage solution. By improving the usability of tape, LTFS and LTO-5 are making for a better storage solution overall.

What do you think? Does LTFS & LTO-5 change your opinion on tape?

LTFS: The Basics

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A few weeks ago, I shared my thoughts on how LTO-5, in combination with LTFS, is changing the facts of life when it comes to tape. Given that our blog visitors tend to be fairly diverse in terms of industry, function and technical level, I thought it was worth a quick deep-dive into LTFS—what it is, what’s cool about it and why some say it helps tape act like disk. So here it is in a nutshell: your LTFS mini-primer.

What is LTFS?

LTFS (Linear Tape File System), created by IBM, is a self-describing tape file system. With LTFS software loaded, any computer can read any LTO-5 tape. With LTFS, you can see and manipulate files on tape just like you would if they were stored on disk or a thumb drive. LTFS lets you click, drag and drop to open, delete or modify files.

What’s the Big Deal?

These features of LTFS are a major step forward from the old days—pre-2010, that is—when you could access files on tape only in a linear sequence, and there was no directory or index, or sometimes even file names, on the tape to help you identify and locate files. Index data had to be stored in external databases that were part of proprietary backup software. Proprietary meant that you were locked in to your specific software and vendor since your software wasn’t interoperable with other systems, and also that you were kind of stuck—screwed, even—if your vendor went out of business and your software drivers went end-of-life.

LTFS’ capabilities mean two key improvements to this scenario:

• Tape can operate independently of the proprietary backup software used to create it—no worries about interoperability or your backup software vendor going out of business.
  
  
• You can access and modify files on tape using an easy file system interface, which makes the tape appear in the operating system just like any other drive—so tape is faster and easier to use.

These are some of the reasons why industry bloggers like W. Curtis Preston and George Crump have been lauding the praises of LTFS. 

So there you have it—the “what” and the “so what?” of LTFS. What do you think about LTFS? Is this yet another reason to reconsider tape or do the benefits of disk make LTFS irrelevant?

 

5 Ways to Build a Better Retention Policy

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In my post last Tuesday, I gave four good reasons why you need a current, consistently enforced data retention policy. Now that we’re all sold on why we need a retention policy, let’s look at how best to approach developing (or updating) one.

Here are some guidelines for creating a data retention policy that will serve your organization well into the future.

1. Formalize it.
   Only a written, formal policy that’s consistently enforced and routinely audited will protect your organization and have a lasting effect on the way data is handled.
   
   
2. Make it cross functional.
   From the first steps of developing the policy, involve all stakeholders—both functions that own the process and functions that own the data. Cross-functional efforts are not generally known for their speed, but having a comprehensive, fully supported policy as your outcome will be worth the time and effort.
   
   
3. Be specific. Spell out exactly what needs to be retained, for how long and why, as well as which staff or functions within the organization will have different types of access to which data. Detail how you’ll handle data in all devices and media, from smartphones to data centers.
   
   In addition to specifying how you’ll retain data, don’t forget to include how you will ensure that data is properly destroyed once expired. Also, include how your company will handle a litigation hold in the event of a lawsuit so you don’t risk improperly purging evidence required during e-discovery.
   
   
4. Segment your storage.
   When possible, try to store files with the same retention period together, and avoid mixing files that have different retention requirements. This approach can both keep down your long-term storage costs and make it easier to adhere to your policy’s stated retention timeframes.
   
   
5. Keep it updated.
   Revisit your policy regularly to ensure that it reflects the types of data and media in your organization and the pace of change in your business. Your update schedule will be unique to your business needs.

No doubt, developing a retention policy that works for your business is much more complex than just these five tips. But it’s been said that a journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step—and these guidelines will definitely get you started in the right direction on what can be a challenging (yet inarguably worthwhile) journey toward a living, evolving, comprehensive and effective retention policy.

 

Our Thoughts on Symantec Vision 2011

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As we get back into our regular routine after attending the Symantec Vision 2011 show this week, I'd like to share some quick thoughts on the show.

As usual, Symantec did a great job incorporating the Partner Expo Hall into the show. In some years past, Symantec held learning sessions when the show floor was open. This usually made for slower than normal traffic. This year, Symantec incorporated the Partner Expo Hall into meal breaks. This allowed attendees to grab a quick bite to eat and also mingle with exhibitors. It was great to see old friends, and meet with new ones. One of the highlights of the week was the Partner Expo Hall Reception on Tuesday night.  All the "aliens" walking around the show and glow sticks made it a lot of fun.

As we have talked about in past blogs, our theme for this show was "Turns out, Tape Doesn't Suck." In fact, we had bumper stickers made up for the event that were very popular. I will be happy to send you one. Just email me here.

We carried over this theme into the presentation we gave at the show, "Archival Data Management: Strategies and Solutions." We were happy to find out our thoughts on tape as an archiving media provided some attendees with useful information. We'll be posting the presentation on slide share soon, so stayed tuned (or again email me here and I'll let you know when it is up).

All in all, the attendance seemed a bit down, but this is a trend with many of the shows we are attending. I believe budgets are still a bit tight and less people are attending these types of events when much of the information is readily available online. 

The bottom line is that it was a great show, we'll be back next year for sure, and we're very proud to have Symantec as one of our Alliance Partners.

I'm curious to see what you thought of this year's Vision show. Let us know in our comments section.  

 

 

4 Reasons You Need a Retention Policy

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Is your organization operating without a data retention policy? Or under a policy that needs updating or isn’t being consistently enforced? If so, this is one issue you’ll want to move closer to the top of your priority list, ASAP. Here’s why: 

Reason #1: Staying Compliant

Regulatory compliance is the top driver for having a retention policy. Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, SEC regulations and other compliance requirements dictate how long you need to retain information—up to seven years for some types of data. The key is to look across all of the data in your organization and strategically identify what exactly you need to retain for which specific time periods to meet external compliance and internal audit requirements.

Not having the data you need (or not being able to produce it on demand) could result in millions of dollars in fines for noncompliance. Get clear on which compliance regulations apply to your business and make sure you have a policy to meet them.

Reason #2: Minimizing Legal Exposure

The legal implications of a data retention policy can be tricky. Companies are keeping more data for longer timeframes for compliance, business and other reasons. But keeping everything forever just isn’t realistic or even smart. One major reason: legal risk.

Having too much data to sift through in the discovery phase in the event of litigation can drive up your legal costs and delay the discovery phase, which can result in sanctions. A glut of data also can create unnecessary exposures—for example, calling into evidence older data that could be incriminating or taken out of context and used against your organization. A consistent data retention and discovery policy minimizes these risks, while also demonstrating that any data destroyed prior to a lawsuit was purged methodically, according to a policy, rather than targeted for destruction as potential evidence.

Reason #3: Business Information

Whether for analytic, historical or other purposes, businesses need to retain information. It’s easy to see how this reason can come into conflict with reason #2. A good retention policy strikes a balance between keeping data long enough for business and compliance purposes without exposing the business to any unnecessary risks.

Reason #4: Keeping Costs Down

Sure, tape is cheap—but that doesn’t mean you should endlessly invest in a limitless supply of storage media for volumes and volumes of data without just cause. Storing too much data adds up. Let policy determine how much data you need to store and you may see storage costs drop.

Creating and implementing a good data retention policy is not as straightforward as it seems. But the answer to the question of whether or not you need one is as clear cut as it gets.