NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: MIKE KARP ON STORAGE IN THE ENTERPRISE
10/28/04
Today's focus:  Replication scenarios

Dear [EMAIL PROTECTED],

In this issue:

* Rules regarding remote sites for disaster recovery purposes
* Links related to Storage in the Enterprise
* Featured reader resource
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IDC White Paper, Distributed Applications Performance Management 

Performance management of distributed applications continues to 
grow in complexity, keeping pace with this constantly changing 
environment is a challenge for IT and performance management 
software vendors alike.  Learn how the Veritas i3 Approach can 
be the foundation for your organization's Application 
Performance Management strategy.  Download this IDC White Paper 
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Today's focus:  Replication scenarios

By Mike Karp

Today, let's sing in praise of replication. Replication has been 
the mainstay technology of disaster recovery strategies for 
quite some time now.  Data is copied to a remote site, where it 
is archived and in an emergency, it is brought back online again 
at a primary site.

Rules regarding remote sites are few, but important.  Rule one 
is usually that the more distance between the sites, the better. 
Rule two is that the remote site ought to be in a geologically 
stable area.  Rule three says that recovery ought to be as fast 
as possible.

The first rule works to isolate events at the two sites.  Rule 
two speaks well for property values in North and South Dakota.  
And rule three is a good indicator of why Iron Mountain is 
evolving from being a simple tape depository.

Replicated data has value far beyond DR copies at a remote site, 
however.  Consider some additional usesfor replicated volumes if 
the replicas are stored locally.  The following list is brief, 
but serves to show where this can take you.

Replicate a volume to local cheap storage, and then perform 
high-workload services from the replica.  Under such a scenario 
a database might be copied from Fibre Channel devices to SATA, 
with the following results: the worry about overstepping 
maintenance windows is eliminated because of the speed of 
disk-to-disk copying; reports and backups to tape - 
cycle-suckers in any environment - can be written from the 
replica; and performance on the primary system remains 
unaffected. 

A further benefit: while the replica remains on the near line 
device, recoveries will always be faster than they could ever be 
by tape.

Replication scenario two:  replicate a data set and ship the 
replica off to your R&D team.  You have now provided them with a 
data set for their test beds that exactly reflects the data in 
the real world.  Looking for payback?  All the time that the 
quality assurance group no longer invests in building and 
rebuilding test bed data may more than pay for your investment 
in an efficient replication product, and the test environment 
itself will be far more robust.

Replication scenario three:  replicate a data set and let your 
IT support team use it as they prepare to roll out the next 
version of some key software they are supporting.  They can test 
the new release against a real-world environment, and by the 
time the upgrade goes live you can be sure that the number of 
"gotchas" in the upgrade will be far fewer than what you are 
used to seeing.

Replication's value - particularly when it is automated and 
doesn't take a lot of time out of an admin's day - delivers 
value far beyond what most IT managers expect to get from it. 

Think about how you might be able to use it, and do some 
research on the topic. 

Next week: The straight poop from Storage Networking World, and 
who shoveled it.

RELATED EDITORIAL LINKS

Storage vendors try to ease back-up and protection tasks
Network World, 10/25/04
http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2004/102504snw.html

Emulex, Brocade tout faster Fibre Channel wares
Network World, 10/25/04
http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2004/102504snwside.html
_______________________________________________________________
To contact: Mike Karp

Mike Karp is senior analyst with Enterprise Management 
Associates, focusing on storage, storage management and the 
methodology that brings these issues into the marketplace. He 
has spent more than 20 years in storage, systems management and 
telecommunications. Mike can be reached via e-mail 
<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>.
_______________________________________________________________
This newsletter is sponsored by Veritas 
IDC White Paper, Distributed Applications Performance Management 

Performance management of distributed applications continues to 
grow in complexity, keeping pace with this constantly changing 
environment is a challenge for IT and performance management 
software vendors alike.  Learn how the Veritas i3 Approach can 
be the foundation for your organization's Application 
Performance Management strategy.  Download this IDC White Paper 
now http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=85640
_______________________________________________________________
ARCHIVE LINKS

Archive of the Storage newsletter:  
http://www.nwfusion.com/newsletters/stor/index.html

Breaking storage news and analysis:
http://www.nwfusion.com/topics/storage.html
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