Guest Post by Chuck Dufresne, Senior Product Marketing Manager, EMC Backup Recovery Systems
Do you ever wonder… “Are my disk-based backups safe? Are my backups teetering towards a fall, like a high wire act?
Since Data Domain took the backup and recovery industry by storm in 2001 we have witnessed the general decline of physical tape systems as EMC Data Domain purpose built backup appliances (PBBAs) with inline data deduplication captured the market for next-generation backup and recovery.
Why? Well, we all know the shortcomings of tape for backup including high failure rates, the drudgery of managing removable media, and floor space requirements, but how do you know your disk-based backups are safe?
This is a very good question because not all disk-based backup solutions are created equal. Disk as a backup target must be designed as storage of last resort and needs to be built from the ground up to withstand a number of varied assaults.
EMC Data Domain deduplication storage systems address this challenge with the industry’s highest levels of data integrity and recoverability via the EMC Data Domain Data Invulnerability Architecture. Architected as a storage platform of last resort, Data Domain provides defenses against silent corruption and other various assaults and errors through multiple safeguards.
The EMC Data Domain Data Invulnerability Architecture begins by leveraging the checksum that is generated with the fingerprinting process that has already been generated for data deduplication purposes. The checksum is stored alongside unique data as it is written to disk. When the backup completes, the data is read back from disk and the checksum is recomputed and compared to the stored value to verify data integrity. This ongoing verification process continues weekly as part of a background scrubbing process for self-healing if needed; through the entire retention life of the backup data on disk.
Data Domain also includes other integrity components; double disk parity RAID-6, battery backed, non-volatile RAM (NVRAM), and file system snapshots for point-in-time recovery to protect against malicious deletion or other assaults, intentional or accidental.
To further safeguard your data, Data Domain Replicator software extends the protection of backup data with network-efficient replication to one or more disaster recovery sites. This protects from catastrophic equipment or site failure, offering affordable, next-generation disaster recovery with faster “time-to-DR” readiness.
Data Domain provides the assurance that your backup data is online and available in the data center and up to date at disaster recovery sites. With the EMC Data Invulnerability Architecture, EMC Data Domain is the only purpose built backup appliance built from the ground up to be storage of last resort. Keep your data off the high wire and safely on the ground with EMC.
If you want to stay off the backup high wire then the “EMC Data Domain Data Invulnerability Architecture: Enhancing Data Integrity and Recoverability – A Detailed Review” whitepaper is a must read. Check it out here.
