Data Protection Dissected

The importance of backing up data and also keeping it safe and easily retrievable – has never been more apparent. As a wise man once said: "You don't know what you've got until it's gone."

As corporate data continues to grow exponentially, so too does its value. Losing access to critical data for even just an hour can cost a company millions. Then, of course, there’s the flurry of more stringent rules and regulations that are requiring companies to keep accessible copies of their electronic records, including email and IMs, for as long as 20 years.

Recent Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rules, governing the financial sector, and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), governing the healthcare industry, for instance, now hold companies responsible if personal files fall into the wrong hands. In addition, electronic documents are also being called more and more often as evidence in lawsuits (see IM Gets Regulated, Oregon Taps StorageTek for Email, Legato Mines Iron Mountain, Will CA Law Spur Storage Crypto?, and Feds Set DR Regulations).

At the same time, the options for safeguarding data are also growing, with a healthy variety of more flexible and cost-effective approaches arriving on the market. For example, inexpensive ATA (Advanced Technology Attachment) disks are allowing companies to back up – and restore – data much more quickly than with traditional tape systems. Low-cost disk is also leading to a broader adoption of reliable backup techniques like snapshot and so-called continuous backup. In addition, new approaches to remote replication are bringing disaster recovery capabilities – previously available only to the largest of Fortune 500 companies – to the masses.

A new Byte and Switch report provides an overview of the different data protection technologies available today and which vendors are at the forefront in each of these categories.Get the full story here.

— Eugénie Larson, Reporter, Byte and Switch