Disaster Recovery and Critical Data Backup

Archive Storage Solutions

The TeraStack^® Solution's TBYTe^® offers a robust disaster recovery, critical data backup, and archive multi-tiered storage solution for long term data backup integrity. Any IT infrastructure can utilize Blu-ray data storage technology where data integrity and reliability is crucial to the success of an organization's disaster recovery business continuity plan. The TBYTe^® provides an enterprise application server with up to 42 terabytes (TB) of online data storage and up to eight hot-swappable 6.25TB optical volumes for up to 50 terabytes (TB) of nearline data storage. The TBYTe^® is a scalable data storage solution utilizing hierarchical storage management providing online, nearline, and offline data storage capabilities in one solution.

The TBYTe^® enterprise application server's open design integrates with third-party applications to provide secure application hosting and long term data management support. The system comes complete with its own hierarchical storage management software and Java middleware services for system management and 3rd party application integration services.

Typical multi-tiered storage solution environments are serviced by separate vendors each supporting a different tier. The turn-key ability of the TBYTe^® to handle online, nearline, and offline data storage allows for one piece of equipment to handle multiple functions with significantly reduced footprint, improved energy efficiency, and simplified data management processes providing a "data center in a box". This compact designs allows for a unique disaster recovery and business continuity solution when resources will be limited upon utilization due to natural disasters and the like that may have caused the need for the recovery.

Online files are managed with an energy efficient multi-core enterprise application server with significant RAID cache for application support and during peak processing periods. The scalable 6-42TB buffer acts as a landing zone for data backup or archival jobs waiting to be archived to Blu-ray. When customer requirements require a buffer larger than 42TB, the TBYTe^® can be connected directly to an existing SAN still managed by our hierarchical storage management software.

Virtual nearline files are created as soon as data begins to stream into the buffer. These files are saved onto Blu-ray media and stored in optical media volumes called a TeraStack^® 6.25. Bit level write verification is performed at the time of write for each Blu-ray disc. TeraStack^® units can be easily removed, transported, stored on a shelf, or remounted in an entirely different unit. Data maintained within the TeraStack^® is accessible immediately after it is remounted within a system. Multiple TBYTe^® units may be clustered together into a single cohesive solution, providing virtually limitless expansion capabilities.

Sleeping data, also called static or fixed data, is data that hasn't been accessed within a certain period of time or is rarely accessed. A majority of sleeping data occupies high performance, constantly spinning and expensive hard disk drives (HDD) with operational lifetimes of only 3-5 years. HDD arrays require significant amounts of power to keep them constantly spinning, as well as ample personnel to rebuild, repair, and replace drives and migrate critical enterprise data from one drive to another. IT administrators can free up significant HDD capacity for critical access, high speed transactional data by simply moving the fixed content data onto the lower cost TBYTe^® storage tier.

Data availability and integrity is of paramount concern for the storage of virtually all long term data, especially as it serves for the disaster recovery and business continuity plan. IT administrators have long had to deal with the migration of data to new storage media technologies or new systems altogether because of the relatively short lifespan of those storage technologies. Hard drives have an approximate 3-5 year useful lifecycle and tape follows closely with 5-7 years of useable lifetime. The recurring shuffle of hard drives and magnetic tapes is now an issue of the past for the long term preservation of data with the introduction of high-density Blu-ray optical media and the TeraStack^® Solution. The short lifetimes of tape and hard drive media, due in part to their mechanical and magnetic nature, have resulted in the use of redundant backup practices to compensate for their shortfall requiring extra media, management, space, and energy. Blu-ray optical media data integrity is manufacturer rated for up to 100 years for write-once media and over 50 years for rewritable media.

Hie Electronics, Inc. offers the TeraStack^® Solution TBYTe 8.6.6, TBYTe 8.14.28, and the TBYTe 8.14.42 multi-tiered storage and application processing platforms providing a "data center in box" approach to disaster recovery and critical data backups that can help alleviate many of the space, power, and cost limitations associated with today's storage environments. Whether a data storage technology refresh is necessary or some efficiency improvements need to be made, the TeraStack^® Solution provides a turn-key system that can help solve many of the problems associated with today's storage issues dealing with disaster recovery and critical data backup and archive storage requirements.