A dizzying range of technology choices awaits IT organizations trying to master the art of data protection for virtual server environments. Those choices range from whether to use familiar technologies, something new, or a combination thereof in order to effectively meet the needs of the organization. Based on Datalink's insights gained from our experience protecting enterprise data centers, we provide practical advice and considerations surrounding backup and recovery of virtual server infrastructures.

Deduplication is all the rage today, with a myriad of vendors offering technologies that provide deduplication capabilities. However, it is extremely confusing and time consuming for organizations to determine if the benefits of deduplication are compelling enough to consider implementing the technology. There are a number of factors to weigh. This white paper identifies what those factors are, provides an independent assessment of the types of deduplication, and identifies additional characteristics to look at when considering the deduplication solutions in the market.

As both the quantity and value of information grow, organizations find it increasingly difficult to cost-effectively manage and protect growing volumes of distributed information. Consolidation across systems and among dispersed facilities is improving access and control, and virtualization is a critical part of that process. Many organizations are aware of the tremendous benefits around server virtualization and are implementing it in some way. However, far fewer are actively pursuing storage virtualization with the same vigor, even though the benefits of doing so can be even greater. In fact, doing one type of virtualization without the other can potentially offset the savings in one area with expenditures in another. This is a complex area, in which there are no pre-packaged, end-to-end solutions. This paper addresses some of the critical issues of virtualization and some of the ways it can be effectively implemented to help organizations utilize resources more efficiently, reduce costs, manage data across the entire enterprise, and improve the availability of information.

Data and storage requirements are growing at unbelievable rates for businesses of every type. To help counter this, it's time for organizations to examine the benefits that disk storage subsystems can provide in data protection environments. This white paper details four enhanced data recovery (disk-based backup) architectures and provides guidance on how to determine whether or not those architectures would be an overall fit within the IT infrastructure. The assessment of a solution's effectiveness examines whether its overall benefits balance well against its human, corporate, and financial costs. This white paper offers in-depth insight on what those benefits and costs are so that IT professionals are armed with the knowledge required to make sound decisions.

As email has become a major part of normal business operations, so too has the need to manage, retain and archive the resulting growth in email data. This white paper looks at the drivers behind the introduction of so many email archive solutions as well as the primary features these solutions offer. The paper also outlines some of the key considerations for organizations considering implementing an email archive solution. For IT professionals who are tasked with managing the retention or archival of corporate data, this paper will provide a general overview of how an email archive solution can play a role.

Despite the benefits achieved from today's breed of mature networked storage infrastructures, enterprises continue to struggle with exploding data growth, information compliance requirements and storage expenditures that now outpace the growth of overall IT budgets. To combat these challenges, it's critical for organizations to re-evaluate their storage architectures and reconfigure them, as needed, in order to simultaneously contain future costs while offering better quality storage services to the business. This white paper describes core strategies and emerging technologies that can help organizations transition their storage infrastructures into more efficient, advanced consolidated architectures that align storage with business requirements. The white paper provides key insights to helping organizations achieve better storage cost-containment, more flexible storage architectures, streamlined storage management, and an overall better storage quality of service to meet current and future needs.

As IT organizations are increasingly faced with more stringent SLAs, data replication has become a common component of many companies data protection plans. This white paper defines six types of replication and looks at the advantages and drawbacks of each. It also provides an overview of factors (such as protocol and total cost of ownership) that should be taken into account when developing a replication strategy. This white paper is intended to provide a technical overview as well as high level considerations for IT professionals who are considering augmenting their infrastructure with a replication strategy.

Tape library consolidation can generate significant operational savings. Technology advancements have resulted in more efficient libraries, larger capacity and faster cartridges, and improved reliability. These elements provide substantial savings and improvements over tape libraries that are four years or older. When upgrading or consolidating libraries, organizations need to consider whether the total cost of ownership (TCO) and the return on investment (ROI) meet the company's operational and financial objectives. This paper identifies key areas that generate savings in a tape library consolidation project and examines the steps for calculating ROI. It is intended for IT staff or other management within the organization who influence or have responsibility for the decision-making process related to the design of the IT infrastructure. It will give these individuals a broad spectrum of knowledge so they can determine the financial implications and make the appropriate decisions related to library consolidation.

Organizations house some of their most business critical information in Oracle® databases, making it imperative to have sound backup and recovery processes in place for this data. Backing up and recovering Oracle environments can present unique challenges. A variety of technologies are available that if used correctly can assist companies in overcoming these challenges. This paper provides an introductory overview of some of the enterprise backup options available for Oracle data. It is aimed at IT professionals including database administrators, storage administrators and managers or anyone who plays a role in developing and implementing the backup and restore processes of Oracle systems.