Backup Appliance — A Definition

Every business operation today has data management requirements around the three data protection areas of backup, archive and disaster recovery. A Backup Appliance should address all three areas:

• Backup – on-line copy of every file a customer has identified for restore. The default should allow for the standard business requirements of a 45 day retention of any file once it is deleted or changed. A customer, however, can set the data retention time for a file at any length, shorter or longer. Backup files should include all files – op/sys, hidden files, databases (DB), flat files, DOC/XLS/PPT files, etc.
• Archive – on-site point-in-time capture of any file or set of files. These files need to be saved for some business or legal time requirement, from months to years. Also, these may be files that no longer need to sit on more expensive active or spinning disks, but need to be moved to a cheaper media.
• Disaster Recovery – copies of all on-line copied data (backup) and on-site saved data (archive). Customers can change their disaster recovery copies to one or more locations, preferably copied simultaneously. Offsite copies can be media removed manually, or copies electronically vaulted. A daily Disaster Recovery Plan can be optionally provided as a function of DR.