| When formulating a data protection strategy, | | | | to and in turn, what their loss means to overall |
| companies should build their strategy around the | | | | business function. Essentially, you will be prioritizing |
| business case and not the latest in hi-tech buzzwords | | | | which data and process classes represent critical |
| and pseudo-philosophies. The best way to currently | | | | need and value to the business. |
| achieve this is formulate a data protection strategy | | | | In addition to the internal business case, there are |
| using the business needs of the company and paying | | | | regulatory requirements to meet in the event of |
| close attention to the data type and volume | | | | disaster or other loss of critical data and downtime of |
| necessary for the efficient running of mission critical | | | | business processes. Given the increasing activity of |
| applications. | | | | financial regulators at home and abroad in the wake |
| In the current business climate, companies are | | | | of the near-total global banking collapse which was |
| extremely lean as they work to maximize the use of | | | | very narrowly averted last year, regulators of all |
| their assets and deliver ROI - in many instances, | | | | shades are waking up to the fact that current data |
| businesses are working so close to the bone because | | | | protection and DR strategies may not be robust |
| it is a matter of business survival in the economic | | | | enough to handle data loss or a business' ability to |
| recession. This makes them far more susceptible to | | | | continue with short-term loss of critical processes. |
| even small-scale and short-term loss of their network | | | | In practice, this will require a blending of a range of |
| functionality which increases the business risk they | | | | techniques and technologies - no vendor has all the |
| are exposed to. | | | | solutions and one size does not fit all! |
| To create a data protection strategy which is | | | | Enterprise storage technologies currently on the |
| effective and reliable, companies should first consider | | | | market vary but server virtualization is touted as |
| the business processes and identify critical data | | | | being the best thing since sliced bread but, and it is a |
| assets. Once this is done, decisions must be made | | | | big "but" - they are not the complete answer. Server |
| regarding what data protection tools are available | | | | virtualization has its place but it is simply one tool in |
| (given budgetary constraints) to protect these | | | | an effective data protection strategy. We should not |
| processes and data assets. This will maximize the | | | | ignore data replication, off-site storage or building in |
| protection that can be delivered and place a | | | | network redundancy and disaster recovery. |
| constraint on unnecessary spending on software, | | | | The current lack of storage standards only adds to |
| equipment and support which is not needed to | | | | consumer confusion; vendors such as HP, IBM and |
| achieve the company objectives. | | | | EMC have yet to adopt W3C standards which make |
| Analyzing data assets and business processes will | | | | it imperative that consumers partner with a storage |
| uncover which are mission-critical and the degree of | | | | solution provider so they know what they are buying |
| risk to which loss of their use the company is | | | | when putting into effect their data protection |
| exposed to. It should also uncover the level of risk | | | | storage strategy. |
| the individual asset and process classes are exposed | | | | |