As Organizations Bring on Cloud Storage CommVault Brings on the Data Management
More enterprise organizations are examining the possibilities of storing their data to a "cloud" and archive and backup data are heading the list of the two forms of data that they are most likely to store in the cloud. But managing these two types of data once they are in the cloud is anything but a straightforward process. Different archiving and backup software solutions create their own data silos with their own data management and retention policies. This situation can create new eDiscovery and legal hold challenges that organizations are ill-prepared to deal with.
This problem of managing these data stores created by different, individual archiving and backup solutions already exists in most organizations. It is not uncommon for different departments and business units within an enterprise organization to have their own archive and/or backup products that are not centrally managed. It is only as organizations initiate storage consolidation efforts and move to a common storage platform such as cloud storage that they begin to grasp the scope of the data management problems and their associated costs.
Shannon Smith, an attorney and eDiscovery and Archiving Specialist with CommVault, finds that a specific problem that an organization faces when using different archiving and backup products is the consistent expiration of data across this environment. When an organization goes into court and says, "Look, opposing counsel, you can only ask for email that is three years old because that is all we keep. Our policy is to archive data that is 60 days old and keep it for three years and that is all that we have."
However when an organization has an environment where the data repositories associated with its backup and archive products are separate, they may or may not know that their data exists somewhere else in the organization, such as on the backup side. So if data does show up that is over three years old, it has essentially blown the organizational retention schedule out of the water. Smith says, "At that point opposing counsel can essentially ask for anything it wants because you have shown that, although the organization has a policy, it isn't actually being adhered to."
Organizations can not act or assume that the current challenges associated with managing disparate archive and backup data stores will disappear once it is stored in the cloud. While there is some speculation that this may occur as cloud storage offerings advance in basic storage intelligence, for now organizations need to continue to assume that it is still their responsibility to perform this data management task. So as they look to move these different data stores to the cloud, it is important they put in place a solution that can manage and then consistently expire this data across both their backup and archive data sets.
CommVault has leveraged the cloud in the sense it has made it an extension of its customer's internal storage environment. CommVault has extended what organizations think of as traditional tiers (disk and tape) to include the cloud. Because of the integration that CommVault® Simpana® has, it makes it much easier to do that.
The benefit to organizations that CommVault provides is that it can start to apply retention and life cycle management to these assets or records. That data can then be aged off naturally as opposed to just moving data into the cloud without some sort of tool to manage it. In that situation, organizations are not really clear what data it has in the cloud plus they have no strategy to manage it.
Cloud storage may someday provide "data aware" or "smart" clouds that do not require organizations to use agents to collect, retain and search against your information assets stored in the cloud but that day is not today. What separates CommVault from the competition is that its solution is integrated so that organizations can remove both their storage silos and their data silos as they move data into the cloud. In this way they are managing one single pool of data versus separate archive and backup sets which only improves an organization's ability to find its assets but it also improves the overall management of its data in general.
This problem of managing these data stores created by different, individual archiving and backup solutions already exists in most organizations. It is not uncommon for different departments and business units within an enterprise organization to have their own archive and/or backup products that are not centrally managed. It is only as organizations initiate storage consolidation efforts and move to a common storage platform such as cloud storage that they begin to grasp the scope of the data management problems and their associated costs.
Shannon Smith, an attorney and eDiscovery and Archiving Specialist with CommVault, finds that a specific problem that an organization faces when using different archiving and backup products is the consistent expiration of data across this environment. When an organization goes into court and says, "Look, opposing counsel, you can only ask for email that is three years old because that is all we keep. Our policy is to archive data that is 60 days old and keep it for three years and that is all that we have."
However when an organization has an environment where the data repositories associated with its backup and archive products are separate, they may or may not know that their data exists somewhere else in the organization, such as on the backup side. So if data does show up that is over three years old, it has essentially blown the organizational retention schedule out of the water. Smith says, "At that point opposing counsel can essentially ask for anything it wants because you have shown that, although the organization has a policy, it isn't actually being adhered to."
Organizations can not act or assume that the current challenges associated with managing disparate archive and backup data stores will disappear once it is stored in the cloud. While there is some speculation that this may occur as cloud storage offerings advance in basic storage intelligence, for now organizations need to continue to assume that it is still their responsibility to perform this data management task. So as they look to move these different data stores to the cloud, it is important they put in place a solution that can manage and then consistently expire this data across both their backup and archive data sets.
CommVault has leveraged the cloud in the sense it has made it an extension of its customer's internal storage environment. CommVault has extended what organizations think of as traditional tiers (disk and tape) to include the cloud. Because of the integration that CommVault® Simpana® has, it makes it much easier to do that.
The benefit to organizations that CommVault provides is that it can start to apply retention and life cycle management to these assets or records. That data can then be aged off naturally as opposed to just moving data into the cloud without some sort of tool to manage it. In that situation, organizations are not really clear what data it has in the cloud plus they have no strategy to manage it.
Cloud storage may someday provide "data aware" or "smart" clouds that do not require organizations to use agents to collect, retain and search against your information assets stored in the cloud but that day is not today. What separates CommVault from the competition is that its solution is integrated so that organizations can remove both their storage silos and their data silos as they move data into the cloud. In this way they are managing one single pool of data versus separate archive and backup sets which only improves an organization's ability to find its assets but it also improves the overall management of its data in general.
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