Get the Teams Together

Commission both a testing team and an advisory team that represents the requirements of end users.

Conduct an initial discovery of what’s in your environment with each vendor to ensure the POC testing plan is representative of the specific infrastructure.

Test large volumes of data to capture an accurate assessment of how the data protection system will actually handle the high capacity and high performance requirements.

Compare vendors in a way that puts pressure on them to push performance to the full requirements of the enterprise—and then some—to ensure it will meet the inevitable growth needs.

Consider their ability to add capacity as storage and retention needs grow. This includes adding processing capacity, FC and IP connectivity, and storage expansion.

Test the system’s ability to securely erase expired data and recapture capacity automatically according to the user’s policy settings.

Test the reporting and dashboard capabilities to ensure you can monitor the status and efficiency of backup, deduplication, replication and restore operations.

Make sure the vendor is able to work as if they were an extension of your IT staff with experience, professionalism and responsiveness.

Use a decision matrix to evaluate how each of the systems that will be tested compares when tested against the business priorities.

Monitor the system on an ongoing basis and track your need for added throughput and capacity in order to plan for inevitable upgrades. You want no surprises on a weekend—or any other day, for that matter.