Implementing High-Performance Backup, Recovery: 10 Best Practices

by Chris Preimesberger

As data volumes grow and backup windows stay fixed (or even shrink), high performance should be your top priority when choosing a backup solution.

Using one system that scales to multiple petabytes of capacity in the primary data center can save significant cost by reducing the administrative burden of implementing, upgrading, managing and maintaining systems.

Choose a deduplication solution that can deduplicate at the byte level without impeding backup performance.

Make sure you can back up Oracle, SQL and DB2 database data using fast multiplexing/multistreaming without having to shut off deduplication.

Detailed capacity usage reporting can save time and eliminate surprises by enabling you to plan accurately for future needs.

Use storage pooling to back up both Fibre Channel/VTL and Gigabit Ethernet/NetBackup OST on the same system. Move backups to a new protocol in phases as you choose.

Buy a system sized for what you need now and add performance and/or capacity to it as you need it over time.

Encrypt data at rest with a technology that does not slow performance and allows you to use the KMIP-compliant enterprise key manager of your choice. Also ensure your backup and recovery system has automated auditable electronic data destruction.

It sounds like a no-brainer, but you would be surprised at how often this isn’t a policy. Always use replication that is integrated with deduplication to replicate enterprise data volumes to remote disaster recovery sites with minimal bandwidth.

One system means less hardware—fans, disks, switches—to wear out and, therefore, less downtime.