Current protection approaches to businesses storing and protecting critical data are increasingly falling short due to network, security and usability constraints. In addition restoring end-user data can be slow and resource intensive. Business managers are realising that effective data protection is crucial to the integrity of stored information.
Many local businesses are using a number of single point solutions instead of adopting a single platform to protect, archive, search and access valuable data. Modern data and information management has evolved far beyond traditional backup products to provide a complete view into data across applications, devices, operating systems and locations.
“Data protection is not just about backup today, it’s about a holistic approach that tightly incorporates snapshot management, archive, reporting, deduplication, replication, search and access,” says Nick Wonfor, country manager of CommVault, the world’s fastest growing data management software company and rated as leaders in Gartner Inc.’s June 2012 magic quadrant report for enterprise backup/recovery software.
Demands for back-up modernisation are being elevated as CIOs seek ways to reduce costs and risks, while still ensuring IT decisions yield maximum value. Companies need to realise the economic and operational value of this singular approach.
“It is not so much the backup but the recovery that is important in bringing more efficiency to business environments,” says Johan de Villiers, Regional Director of First Technology, one of South Africa’s largest, independent national IT solutions providers. “Your data must be a protected, well-managed, easily accessible information asset that delivers real value back to your business which is why we’ve partnered with a global firm to offer this to our clients.”
“With data growing 44 times per annum, as well as the space and staff requirements to manage it, businesses are being forced to find more intelligent ways to manage this data growth. There is evidence of a trend towards a one solution data protection approach,” says Wonfor.
CommVault’s software protection technology enables users to restore end-user data quickly and transfer data securely. It reduces complexity with a single platform for backup, recovery and archive management with consolidated reporting, security, controls and auditing.
Utilising this type of technology offers faster recovery and increased levels of protection as well as operational efficiency for managing physical and virtual server environments.
“We make it feasible for companies to replace inefficient point solutions. A case study that highlights this is First Rand Bank where we installed our data protection solution. The savings in tape usage alone covered the costs of our installation,” shares Wonfor.
Staff writer
