According to a new IDC study, the amount of digital information created in 2008 grew 3 percent faster (or 16 million gigabytes more) than IDC had previously projected. Based upon these trends, the research firm expects the “digital universe” to double in size every 18 months. Five times as much digital information will be created in 2012 as in 2008.
Organizations of all sizes continue to struggle with the impact this massive information growth has on their data protection processes. More information, cost constraints, server virtualization and increasingly stringent service levels have stressed traditional backup environments to the breaking point. Previous backup software and processes are just not able to keep up, leaving organizations struggling to meet backup windows, manage application uptime, and meet information recovery requirements.
In response to these changing needs, EMC has expanded backup, recovery and data de-duplication capabilities. New enhancements to EMC NetWorker and EMC Avamar backup software and EMC Disk Library, for disk-based backup, help customers gain maximum efficiency of their storage environment by providing the right solution to solve their unique requirements based on scale, budget and use.
EMC NetWorker now provides source-based de-duplication via integration with EMC Avamar for Microsoft SharePoint Server, Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft SQL Server, as well as Oracle databases. The product already supports VMware virtualized environments and other critical applications. From a single console, NetWorker administrators can manage traditional backups while also protecting their file systems, Microsoft platforms and Oracle databases with de-duplication that requires up to 98 percent less storage and enables 90 percent faster backups.
NetWorker remains the only major backup application to provide source-based de-duplication functionality to customers. In addition, NetWorker Fast Start, a packaged solution for midsize environments, provides more options at the same low price with all the latest features of NetWorker 7.5 and new “push install” capabilities that speed and simplify deployments.
EMC Disk Library includes new software capabilities for improved management and monitoring, and additional features that increase performance and lower costs for data center backup and de-duplication. The new software for the EMC Disk Library 1500 and 3000 models improves replication throughput by up to 80 percent, which significantly reduces disaster recovery risks and cost. With new enhanced monitoring and reporting capabilities via EMC Data Protection Advisor integration, IT administrators can improve management and analysis of the Disk Library environment. In addition, EMC Disk Library now includes EMC NetWorker path-to-tape and replication support, OpenStorage API support for Symantec Veritas NetBackup as well as API support for Oracle RMAN optimized de-duplication, which can provide up to a 300 percent increase in de-duplication ratios.
EMC Avamar, the industry’s leading source-based de-duplication solution for backup, has expanded its support to more environments with fast, single-step recoveries. The newest version of Avamar includes support for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007 and IBM Lotus Domino to further help customers challenged by the data growth and complexities of virtual environments, remote offices, bandwidth-constrained environments and network attached storage file systems.
“There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to backup environments, which is why EMC offers such an extensive portfolio of solutions that can be mixed and matched to provide the right recovery time and recovery point objectives,” said Mark Sorenson, EMC’s Senior Vice President of Storage Software. “As controlling costs and storage efficiency continue to be top of mind for every IT manager, EMC is continuing to deliver new features and functions that help them meet both of those challenges while ensuring that their critical business information is protected and can be restored quickly.”