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Disk vs. Tape

Whether it's a large data center or one that's just running a couple dozen servers, backing up from server to tape presents similar issues, said Sloan. Specifically, he cited the time required to back up, the reliability of the medium and the time it takes to retrieve data.

Businesses have begun to convert to disk backup in the past couple of years, choosing a virtual tape library to help reduce the storage space by a fraction, and also perform the task of backing up and retrieval faster. The use of virtual tape libraries across organizations of all sizes, said Sloan, is typically triggered by issues encountered with tape like the process taking too long or the tape turning out to be bad. Enterprise customers are increasingly using disk for performing operational recovery, said Gahagan, however, tape still has a role to play in helping businesses meet regulatory requirements. "Will tape ever go away? No, but I think the use cases for tape become very, very much geared toward long-term archiving."

De-Duplication

Coupling disk with data de-duplication, said Sloan, makes "the cost per gigabyte of your backup more inline or more palatable." The process of de-duplication entails eliminating redundant blocks of data by saving only data that changes. De-duplication is often used with virtual tape libraries that emulate storage and function in a similar fashion, except that backups and recovery can be performed much faster, said Sloan. "That's why the virtual tape library has been gaining a lot of ground."

According to Barnes, the confusion that once existed among organizations regarding de-duplication -- what it does, the risks, ROI, and how it fits in the data center -- is beginning to subside.

Flash-Based Storage

Sun Microsystems Inc. recently announced that it would begin using flash-based disks in its servers and storage. And earlier this year, EMC began shipping solid-state disks in its disk arrays. EMC believes that flash technology will influence future storage product design because it offers better performance and response time. Likening the technology to "a revolution," Gahagan said data centers will be able to combine very fast and dense low-speed storage and create an environment with "unbelievable" performance and reduced energy footprint. "[Flash] is a whole shift in how you would think about deploying capacity," he said. Although in its infancy and still costly, flash-based storage will, in a short time, account for a large portion of the data center, said Gahagan.

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