DATA BACKUP & RECOVERY SOLUTIONS: Incorporate For Maximum Uptime

With vendors providing a range of solutions, it is up to solution providers to consult with IT managers to make the right choice of these offerings.

The data backup and recovery (DB&R) is a very promising business in
India. In the APac region, while Japan continues to be the largest market,
growth there has reached a saturation level. So India and China are where the
action is really happening.

The total data size in India is about 4-5 PB (petabytes). Of this, only about
30% is addressed with some backup and recovery solutions. That give vendors and
solutions providers a huge opportunity of 70% in the data backup and recovery
business.

With increasing volume of critical data in every organizations, this
opportunity is only expected to grow exponentially. But would this essentially
mean a huge business for all the vendors providing DB&R solutions?

There are quite a few players in this segment offering a range of solutions,
and all of them appears up-beat about their business in India. Both vendors and
solutions providers are doing every bit to make organizations realize how bad it
could be to lose critical data.

While, IT managers were always aware of the need for an efficient backup and
data recovery solution, it is surprising to know that, very few seriously
invested in it till disasters like 9/11 and its likes happened.

OFFERINGS IN THE MARKET

DB&R has become a essential component in planning the IT infrastructure
of any companies for whom data is of utmost importance. Companies are less
likely to experience any kind of downtime in information availability if
DB&R solution is implemented as business continuity solution with a
well-entrenched policy and plan. There are quite a few players in this segment
offering a range of solutions. Starting from software solutions to complete
hardware and software combined solutions.

HP offers to its customers the whole suite of products which includes
libraries, backup software, DAT and Ultriums, catering to almost all kinds of
storage and backup requirements of the various users. "We offer greater
visibility and an array of devices and solutions under one umbrella," says
Amit Malhotra, Business Manager, Nearline and NAS solutions, HP India.

Similarly, Network Appliance markets are range of backup solution with its
trademarked technology called "Snapshot". "The Snapshot enables
data backup in a manner which far exceeds efficiency as offered by other
vendors," says George Thomas, Country Manager, Network Appliance.

Exabyte offers VXA technology, which unlike others is not just backup
technology but is a 100% restore technology. "What this means is we ensure
that the data in not just backed-up but it can also be retrieved when required.
A lot of times, you would see users being unable to retrieve the data that has
been backed up on some or other medium," says Raghu Prasad, Business
Development Manager, Exabyte India.

"We see a good awareness on the backup front and we are now witnessing actual procurement happening" "We see a great opportunity in getting customers onto disk-based backup systems, which can ensure quick restore of data as well as archival" Sunny John Country Manager - India, Quantum B Chandrashekar Country Manager - India, Intransa Inc

Imation is another company which claims to have the complete range of data
storage and information management solutions, which includes backup and data
recovery solutions. Imation targets the entire gamut of customer segment,
starting from the home office to large enterprises.

Similarly, Quantum has a very good portofolio of tape as well as disk-based
backup solutions to address different customer needs.

Computer Associates (CA) offers total backup on all platforms including
capacity utilization and monitoring through storage resource management
completing the lifecycle of backup and restore.

EMC, Veritas, Legato and Backbone are few other vendors offering backup
software solutions that works on various platforms.

BUSINESS TRENDS

There is no doubt that CIOs have realized the importance of investing in a
suitable business continuity solution. This is evident from the growth that
DB&R solutions providers are witnessing now. According to Amit of HP, two
trends are very clear: One is consolidation and the other is investment.
Consolidation is happening in terms of companies going in for auto loading of
tape drives rather than upgradation of tape drives. "Customers are now
buying auto loading devices, which reduce the cost to a great deal," says
Amit.

"Consolidation is happening in terms of companies going in for auto loading of tape drives rather than upgradation of tape drives" "Modular backup gives us a technology edge not enjoyed by other players. This enables us to price our offerings far more competitively" Amit Malhotra Business Manager, Nearline and NAS solutions, HP, India Ashish Gupta Sales Manager (India Sub-Continent), BakBoneIntransa Inc

The increasing trend of storage consolidation makes backup an inherent part
of any storage solution. The enterprise customers while investing big money on
storage ensure that all the data safeguarding solutions are also put in place
simultaneously.

On the investment front, companies are now looking at back up management and
storage area management as a capital investment and a long term asset.
"Which is a good sign for the industry," he adds.

Sunny John, Country Manager, Quantum India agrees, "We are seeing a good
awareness that's happening on the backup front and we are now witnessing
actual procurement happening."

According to B Chandrashekhar, Country Manager, Intransa India, backup as an
activity is going under a paradigm shift. Backup has evolved from a phase where
it just implied archival of data.

Today backup can be classified into three categories: online, offline and
nearline. Customers whose business are on-demand, and have a 24/7 environment,
are the prime users for online data access. This means that data backup happens
almost instantaneously and is available seamlessly.

Then there are offline solutions, which are essentially used for archival
purposes. This has been the most prominent trend so far of archiving data in an
offline environment, not necessarily giving much weightage to the backup or
restore time. This trend will continues as archival needs would continue to
increase with the increase in data size itself.

Then there are nearline solutions, wherein the criticality of data backup and
restore is high but not as high as in an online scenario. Also the price-points
of these solutions are not as steep as an online solution.

GOOD OLD TAPE

A trend that is slowly evolving for backup and restore is that customers are
using disk-based solutions, while for archival purposes the good old tape-based
solution are still popular.

Tape continues to be the cheapest backup medium (which ideally should only be
used for archival purposes). It is cheaper by 30-40% compared to other
disk-based solutions.

"We see a great opportunity in getting customers onto disk-based backup
systems, which can ensure quick restore of data as well and not just archival.
For those customers, price is a major barrier, tape would continue to be a
preferred backup medium," says Chandrashekhar of Intransa India, which
offers more of disk-based IP-SAN solutions.

While tape remains cost-effective, it is also undergoing a huge amount of
technological evolution. "In fact for those who thought tape is dead, they
should now be prepared to face tape solutions for next ten years at least,"
says Sunny.

However, depending on the data access requirement of the customers, a
suitable solutions should be chosen.

GROWTH DRIVERS

The key driver of DB&R solutions is the sheer growth in data size across
various user verticals. Today users are looking for reduced back-up time. So for
example in a call-center environment, certain departments would like their
back-ups to happen instantaneously. However, this need may change from one
vertical to another, wherein certain set of users may want to compromise on the
back-up time for a cheaper solution. Majority of DB&R business comes from
manufacturing, BFSI, telecom, enterprise and IT companies. We also see a good
adoption happening in the SMB segment.

The government is one of biggest possible customer backup and recovery
solutions. However, the slow pace of development in government departments keeps
solution providers away from this customer segment.

Almost for all the companies in the field of DB&R products have been
providing these solutions through channel. And for partners in this field, it is
beginning to be a lucrative business.

As a business proposition, backup solutions have still not got commoditized,
hence offer very lucrative margins between 10-20% for channel partners. Also,
there's not many partners in this business, so the business becomes far more
attractive at this juncture. Further, the kind of margins partners can look at
making on tape media is unparalleled at about 30-40%. Sometimes even much more
than that.

For partners, providing backup and data recovery solutions is like a value
add while selling server or storage products to their customers. So backup as a
business is a very interesting proposition as of the day.

?A lot of activity in the SME segment is also visible. With solutions
designed to handle heterogenous environments, it has become easier for many
vendors to deploy backup solutions even at a very small level. For example,
Backbone's modular solutions helps them to deploy some solution at a basic
level and then scale it up over a period of time.

"This gives us a technology edge not enjoyed by other players. Also,
this enables us to price our offerings far more competitively," says Ashish
Gupta, Sales Manager (India Sub-Continent), Backbone.

DATA RECOVERY

While most backup solution comes with it own data recover solutions, there
are few company which specializes only on data recovery products, which includes
preventive as well as post crash recovery products.

The two most prominent players in this field are Stellar and Unistall, both
Indian companies, which are competing with international giants like OnTrack,
which also has its offices in India. The success of the India companies is
triggered mostly because of the local support they provide. Stellar has made a
name for itself even in the international market with their feature rich
products.

Avik Rudra, Regional Manager, Sales West, Stellar Information Systems, says,
"The data recovery business has grown by around 40% in the last one year,
despite the fact that over 70% of the data recovery service providers fall under
the unorganized segment."

According to him, the unorganized players are the ones who use pirate data
recover tools and software and provide data recovery service at one-tenth the
cost of what the organized players give.

However, the organized players are confident that they are able to provide a
better service in term of high success in recovering data than the unorganized
players.

While, Stellar focused on selling feature-rich data recover tools to
corporate and large organizations, Unistall continued on providing low cost
solutions targeting SME.

According to Alok Gupta, MD, Unistal Systems, data recovery as a business
proposition is an extremely viable option. More crucial the data, more important
the need to recover it and higher the cost of recovery.

"Margins here depend on the reliability and the trust, the customer has
on the solution provider," says Alok.

Unistal has grown by almost 100% last year focusing on the SME and OEM
market. This year the target is to provide affordable solutions to both
corporate and SOHO. Unistal is also looking at developing a complete business
solution wherein, no engineer or technical support would be required to deploy
solutions that would give automatic back up to customers and where no user
interface is required.

DR SERVICE PROVIDERS

There are three possible causes for data loss in a normal PC environment:

1) Failure of operating system, 2) A mechanical failure of your hard drive
and 3) A failure of the software controls for your hard drive. While the
marketplace continues to evolve with a large number of data recovery centers
across the country, the capabilities of each firm differ. Those attempting to
recover your crashed drive and access your lost data, should find the reputation
of the firm because using its services.

While choosing data recovery service provider, always insist on references,
from customers you can speak to personally. Also make sure that the company
commits in writing as to what it guarantees, and your recourse should you
ultimately not feel satisfied with the service you receive. Lastly compare
prices and service at 3-4 providers before making your purchase decision.

NELSON JOHNY with inputs from
GOLDIE in Bangalore and KUSUM MAKHIJA in New Delhi.

Grooming Enterprises For Backup

lProtect all your data: Just
backing up your servers is only half the battle. Approximately 40-70% of your
business critical data resides on desktops and notebooks.

lBack up often: Daily is best.
Any less often and Murphy's Law means that disaster will strike just when your
most recent backup is days old.

lDon't depend on dragging:
Even if your users know where all their files reside, they often forgetor don't
bother to burn them to disc or copy them to a server.

lNot just documents: Back up
entire hard drives. If you don't capture all installed software and updates
plus operating system and application settings, restores can be very painful.

lUse open file backups: Some
of your most valuable files are always in use. Open file backups are often the
only way to back up vital data. Forget incremental or differential backups They
result in flawed restores that return files and folders that were previously
deleted, renamed, or moved.

lMake multiple copies: One
backup copy is never enough. Just a single error keeps you from being fully
protected.

Devise a disaster recovery strategy Inventory your hardware, decide which
data to protect, estimate the size of your daily backups, and select appropriate
backup hardware.

lGet a copy offsite: Guard
against a catastrophic loss of your computers and on-site backups by storing at
least one set of backups offsite.

lDon't procrastinate: Far
too many people wait until disaster strikes before implementing a data
protection strategy.