Backup disk-to-disk for short term retention of data and then archive to tape for longer term storage.

Due to the nature of their business, many organisations prefer to work on data live from a server and offer immediate protection to this data. Then, when this data no longer needs to be stored on live storage it is archived to less costly media such as tape. By archiving data that no longer needs to be saved on live storage, valuable space can be freed and used for more current and pressing needs.

By archiving data to a less costly media, organisations can reduce the ongoing cost and maintenance of primary storage. It is commonly understood that a tape is the best media for long term data storage and a tape Archive will generally pay for itself over a period of about two years.

The success of any archive will be that it remains accessible, it must be easy to search and files must be easily restored. So from this perspective, archive strategies should be carefully planned: How and where will data be stored?; How many copies should be retained? - a minimum of two copies is advice that commonly offered; What additional information can be added to the archive so it can be found and restored at a latter stage - metadata, file previews? Archiving data allows organisations to operate a cost effective way of managing data for the longer term - protect, research, review and restore.  

Synchronise backup

• Long-term storage of data no longer in use
• Data migration removing load from (costly) online storage
• Off-site storage
• Archive data from more than one server

Considerations

• Identify your data protection needs
• Decide what data should be protected short term (synchronised)
• Decide how often data should be replicated
• Look at total data set + how much changes
• Should you keep file versions
• Will cycles of data be held - 1 or more days?
• Check Internet/VPN connection speeds particularly of site
• Can users be switched quickly to the backup server if needed?

• Decide and plan your archiving policies and protection of data longer term
• Will previews of all files be kept?
• Would importing metadata help find files?
• Will users be offered manual archiving processes?
• Off-site protection of data is important - if the location of the backup server is the same as the primary server, consider where tapes will be stored and how this process will be managed.

Features / benefits

• Provide immediate access to data short term
• Long term access to data is maintained with tape archive
• No downtime
• Easy to search and restore using file system
• Keep versions and cycles
• Simple set up
• Little administration
• Scalable - add or upgrade licences to offer new features, servers or workstations, larger tape libraries
• Cost and time effective
• Any general user can be given permission to search backup and archives and restore files
• Searchable Archive indexes
• Previews of media files (PDF, TIFF, JPG, AIFF, MOV, m4v...)
• Import metadata -
• Metadata fields describing files, extensible & searchable
• Detailed PresSTORE Synchronise features
• Detailed PresSTORE Archive features

Licencing Considerations

• How many servers need to be synchronised?
• The server licenced for PresSTORE will be licenced to synchronise to and from itself and other servers
• The number of servers to be included for synchronise, backup and or archive dictates the number of server clients needed
• Will data be held off-site?
• How many tape drives and tape slots are required?
• How many tapes can the library hold? This will determine the number of media management storage licences needed
• How many drives does the tape library have? This will determine the number of media drive licences needed
• Can the tape library be expanded and are their sufficient PresSTORE licences if early expansion is needed?

PresSTORE licences to consider first:

• PresSTORE Synchronise Module
• PresSTORE Archive Module
• PresSTORE Archive Edition