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THE PATH TO TRUE ...

From STORAGE Magazine Vol 7, Issue 7 - October 2007

What is the most valuable asset of any business? A common present-day mantra and response from many organisations is "our people". But really it is the protection of their vital information, says editor Brian Wall

Access to data, and its protection, is what businesses depend on to run their operations. It is their lifeblood. Without it, their people - however highly valued they may be - cannot function productively. Moreover, their networks would not operate effectively and, all too often, the business would be left vulnerable to risk.

It could be said, therefore, that much of the success - and survival - of any modern company lies in its ability to keep data accessible and protected from loss. Regrettably, such terrible events as 9/11, 7/7 and Buncefield also serve to indicate how detrimental inadequate back-up policies can be. More recently, the UK has been subjected to bouts of widespread flooding, all of which reveals the degrees of exposure to which businesses are now susceptible.

With this firmly in mind, the chosen storage media of any organisation will necessarily occupy a key position in its operational processes. And with the volume of information increasing exponentially, dependable recording and preservation of data is crucial. Thus one of the most critical aspects of protecting that data is the scope and quality of the media itself.

That is not something on which there can be any compromise. As Roger Moore, strategic unit business manager, Fujifilm UK, points out: "Single copy, or even copies, on a single piece of media is inadequate. Remember, the purpose of backup is to protect against disaster, data loss, damage or deletion of the primary on-line copy.

clear choices
Backup also provides version history of files, so that prior work can be recovered. It takes many copies of files stored on separate pieces of media to fully ensure that each of these requirements can be met reliably. The costs of recreating data are extremely high. Why expose your company to these risks, when they can be avoided by using an adequate media rotation schedule?"

Recommendations that Fujifilm UK offers for backup include:
• Verify that your backup data can be recovered
• Create a version history
• Store backup copies off-site
• Have a management system in place.

BACKUP ROTATION
A good tape rotation schedule is also vital to ensure data recovery. The best rotation schedule is one that provides you with a long and varied history of file versions. Media not in active use should be stored in a secure, off-site location. Fujifilm UK highlights two popular rotation schedules. Both provide a great depth of file versions and are offered as configurable backup patterns by most backup application software.

"While data may be kept for years, you shouldn't keep data on the same media for years, without a media and data management infrastructure," it argues. "Don't just pretend to have an archive programme. Having one is critical to your business health, as well as essential for legal reasons.

“Think of archive as an additional data protection programme in the same way as you save tax records: only even more important. Because of the importance of this programme, don't be fooled into thinking that backup gives you all the secure archive you need. You need long-term off-site archiving of media, in addition to routine backup.

"The distinction between data in archive and media in archive is important. Multiple copies of data on a single piece of media leave that data at risk. Data security is achieved only through media redundancy on reliable media.

MEDIA HIERARCHY
“The foremost principle is that the quality of media used should always be suitable for the data application. It is also appropriate to see archive as a hierarchy of media that is generated by different processes working in concert. Backup creates short-term media. When coupled with data removed from active storage via hierarchical storage management (HSM) or explicit archive grooming, it is considered medium-term archive. Long-term archive forms a legal record."
Fujifilm suggests a number of ways in which an archive programme will ensure data is safely protected:

• Use the most reliable media available. Your data is an irreplaceable asset and the cost of loss far outweighs the investment in protection. Mainframe data centres have years of investment in archive technologies.
• Record your archive data using the verification feature in your software - and even then ensure that your recorded data set is readable before assuming you have safely recorded what you need. Reading data is not the same as writing it. Too often administrators are surprised that data is missing, although it was never recorded properly to begin with.
• Retain archive data for a period of time appropriate to the legal standards for the type of data you are protecting. You may need to retain data permanently to keep up with current legislation.
• Periodically inspect archive media for any obvious damage or contamination and carry out health checks.

"Whereas backup provides redundancy for recovery of files and discs, a disaster recovery programme is the real insurance policy in the data protection world. Disaster recovery uses the media that you hope you will never need - but, if you do, you will be happy to have."

It also suggests these steps for a disaster recovery programme:

• Make sure your off-site storage facility meets the environmental storage requirements for archive defined in the media handling section
• If you have operations and data vulnerable to loss, move the media off-site daily. Use a service bureau or do it yourself, if you have corporate facilities.
• Remote means off-campus, far enough away not to be impacted by the nature of any local disaster.

All three processes - backup, archive and disaster recovery - as well as storage, consume media independent of each other. It is important, therefore, to have adequate media to ensure redundancy, reliability, legal compliance and business continuity insurance.

DATA RETENTION PAIN
How long any company is compelled to keep data, according to the plethora of regulations now in force, is a moot - and often painful - point that has made the longevity of an organisation’s information a serious issue. Systems that rely on magnetic media, such as tape or hard discs, are prone to corruption, due to electromagnetic interference, and mechanical failure. This means that the data they store will have to migrated to new systems at regular intervals: two to three times per decade, in order to maintain data integrity. This can add significantly to the total cost of ownership.

Optical media is one route that businesses are now pursuing, or at least investigating, as it promises an extremely long lifespan, with DVD and Blu-ray often certified to last up to 50 years. Blu-ray is a technology area in which Sony has been a frontrunner, in terms of storage.

The Blu-ray Disc system uses a blue-violet laser (hence the name), operating at a wavelength of 405 nm, similar to the one used for HD DVD, to read and write data. Conventional DVDs and CDs use red and infrared lasers at 650 nm and 780 nm respectively. On account of its shorter wavelength, substantially more data can be stored on a Blu-ray Disc than on the DVD format. A single layer Blu-ray Disc can store 25 gigabytes (GB), more than five times the size of a single layer DVD. A dual layer Blu-ray Disc can store 50 GB, almost six times the size of a dual layer DVD.

Blu-ray Disc is similar to PDD, another optical disc format developed by Sony, but offering higher data transfer speeds. PDD (Professional Disc for DATA), a recordable optical disc format, was one of the first two formats (along with Ultra Density Optical) to utilise blue-violet lasers for reading and writing, which allowed for much higher density data to be stored on optical media, compared to the higher wavelength infrared laser technology used in the CD and red laser technology used in the DVD format.

Apart from its longevity as a medium, the chances of corruption when using the new Blu-ray technology for storage purposes are regarded as extremely low. Also, hard discs and DVD/Blu-ray libraries can offer fast data retrieval and are extremely adept at handling high volumes.

While traditional storage technologies, such as tape and hard disc, have been at the forefront for some time, when it comes to storage capacity, the arrival of Blu-ray has certainly injected some hot competition into the arena. Currently, the cost per gigabyte still somewhat favours tape and HDD, it must be said. However, Blu-ray media costs are predicted to fall consistently, so the gap is narrowing on that basis alone.

As Sony is quick to stress, DVD/Blu-ray storage libraries offer solid, reliable, long-term storage, fast retrieval times and, because they're based on such a widely available media format, there should certainly be no worries about future compatibility problems.

Sony, of course, has long been an active and significant player in the storage market. Indeed, it manufactures media for many different formats - including AIT and half-inch tape formats such as S-AIT, LTO and DLT, as well as optical discs like MO, DVD and CD.

Its LTO offering, for example, is recognised as one of the toughest and most reliable storage formats. With up to 800GB of compressed capacity and super fast data transfer rates of up to 160MB/second compressed, this half-inch tape media clearly has strong credentials when it comes to backing up, restoring and archiving large-scale applications. LTO is also seen as a format of the future, with a six-generation roadmap. Sony LTO 4 cartridges, for example, feature a native storage capacity of 800GB and a native transfer rate of 120MB/sec to support the more demanding data and media storage requirements. Sony LTO 4 cartridges will also work in conjunction with LTO 4 drives to support 256-bit hardware-based data encryption, adding another layer of security.

HIGHER SPEEDS AND CAPACITY
Another major player in the field of recorded media is Maxell Europe. Earlier this year, the company started shipping its new LTO Ultrium 4 data cartridge. With a compressed transfer rate of up to 240MB/sec and storage capacity of up to 1.6TB, this is the fourth generation in the LTO Ultrium technology roadmap, which extends to capacities of up to 3.2TB. The new technology provides twice the capacity of LTO 3 data cartridge and a transfer rate that is 50% faster.

The LTO Ultrium 4 format also features encryption capabilities designed to enable hardware-based writing of encrypted data to the cartridge, helping to protect the storage and transport of sensitive information. The LTO Ultrium 4 format also features the WORM (Write Once, Read Many) functionality that debuted in LTO Ultrium 3 products, allowing secure backup and storage of critical data for legal support and regulatory compliance.

Significantly, Maxell Europe is now aiming at development of a 10 terabyte class tape through utilisation of the company's proprietary NanoCAP (Nano Composite Advanced Particles) ultra fine spherical magnetic particle technology.

"This technology provides extraordinary magnetic performance when compared with conventional needle-shaped particles, with superior coercivity and extremely high saturation magnetisation," states Maxell Europe. "The spherical shape of NanoCAP particles allows the closest possible packing structure and increases the number of particles per unit volume.

This allows for extremely thin magnetic layer coatings that result in even further improvement in output levels."

The battle for supremacy in the recorded media tape environment will continue apace, with technologies and products that have stood the test of time and that suit a range of needs and budgets. What it amounts to, ultimately, is more choice for businesses and the means to protect their valuable data to the highest specifications, at an affordable price.

There are other well recognised players in this space as well, such as HP with its Ultrium 460 tape drive, the latest generation of the HP Ultrium tape drive family, with a single cartridge capacity potential of 400 gigabytes and an impressive transfer rate of up to 60 megabytes per second (assuming two-to-one data compression).

This builds very much on the success laid down by the HP Ultrium 230 and Ultrium 215 drives, reinforcing HP's position in tape drive products. Overall, it offers powerful levels of performance, capacity and reliability.

The Ultrium LTO 460 tape drive is available in three configurations for use with NonStop S-series servers: an auto-cartridge loader (ACL)-equipped model for use in a NonStop S-series tape enclosure, an ACL-equipped model for standalone table top use and a model for use with a CTL700 or CTL700M tape library. ST