Is there a better way to perform data backups?
Of course there is a better way. But it means gutting the current backup solution – especially the software. With few exceptions, any technological advances to backup software have revolved around using new hardware in the same old way. Disk to disk? Make the disk look like tape, aka the virtual tape library (VTL). What really needed to happen was a change in the way the backup software worked. In fact, we needed to go beyond that. We needed to think about the way businesses need to store and use reference data and design software that does that. This is a deep concept isn’t it? IBM developed the correct software roughly 15 years ago. It is now called Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM). It is the centerpiece of STORServer’s Backup Appliance. First, the Backup Appliance differentiates between backup, archive and DR data. These are three distinctly different uses of reference data that can be tailored to meet specific business objectives for each unique customer and for each unique data type.
