The Internet changes the dynamics of competition. Today, a traditional supermarket chain, which probably lorded it over the market for years, can be edged out by a start-up web-based service provider that promises to deliver groceries to your doorstep 7x24. Logistics companies are growing in size and capability to the point that they may someday soon be able to render trading services and compete with banks.
Like all other elements of business, IT is under pressure to match the demands of modern-day business by continually raising productivity of both people and processes. Unfortunately, as the organization gets bigger, it becomes increasingly difficult respond faster to changing market environment. One area of IT that faces a tough challenge of matching the speed of business change is data storage.
"Over the last five years, enterprises have moved storage into the network, via storage area networks or SANs, in response to the need for increased utilization of expensive disks, and the need to centralize storage for easier management and greater security," says Greg Cornfield, Asia Pacific vice president for Copan Systems.
Jimmie Chang, principal research analyst for Gartner China said demand for storage is becoming more complex. "Enterprises had relied on IT for the secure storage and timely retrieval of business data. Nowadays, however, things like regulatory compliance, natural disasters, and terrorism are keeping the pressure on IT to ensure that backup/restore processes are routinely performed and systems are tested," Chang said.
Reliance on tape library is not enough
A year ago, the data center of a food & beverage giant caught fire and when the IT department tried to recover affected transactions from the archive, they found that some of the tape cartridges were corrupted, much to the horror of the CIO.
It is no wonder IT managers are looking to replace their tape libraries with more secure and cost effective alternatives. A report from analyst firm Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) said there are three reasons why enterprises opt to replace their tape libraries: (1) improvement of backup and recovery processes; (2) business continuity and disaster recovery enhancement and (3) reduction of tape library costs.
John McKnight, research director at ESG, says users are turning to disk-based storage systems out of a need for faster, more reliable backup and recovery operations and improved business continuity and disaster recovery protection, but it doesn't really stop there. "A good number of them want highly-available on-line archives to support regulatory compliance initiatives. Clearly, transitioning to disk based solution is influenced by their desire to reduce ongoing operational costs associated with large tape installations disk-based solutions," McKnight explains.
"In larger enterprises, tape libraries are being relegated to deep archive processes and many of them are now using virtual tape library (VTL) systems as interim data backup solutions to meet the shrinking backup window and to improve the DR/BC process," notes Cornfield.
Technological benefits
VTL masks itself to the server as a tape library. But because it uses disks instead of tape, the lag usually associated with storing data on tape is nonexistent. If the VTL is connected to a legacy tape library system (used primary for deep archive), it will take care of writing to the physical tape based on policies set by IT.
"The real benefit of VTL to businesses in this region is convenience," says Anthony Chan, vice president of StorageWorks Division at HP Asia Pacific. "It makes for a much easier transition into the disk backup world. You don't have to learn anything new -- just tell your backup software product that it has another tape library."
Existing backup software seamlessly "recognizes" the VTL as corresponding tape equipment so current backup software can remain in place -- with only minor configuration changes.
Chan said the last three years have been a period of development for VTL in the region. "I see accelerated demand for VTL in the Asia Pacific this year. Users in the region are becoming more familiar with it and it's just really starting to take off now.
"Most of today's enterprises have BCP/DR processes in place. What they will be looking at in 2006 onwards is the deployment of continuous data protection solutions," Chang concludes.
Force of change
All significant shifts in technology evolve out of a combination of forces. In this case, the increasing volume, value, and volatility of information combined with business, financial, and regulatory pressures and finally, the emergence of suitable technological alternatives, all point towards a future increasingly dominated by disk-based secondary storage solutions.
This happens because regardless of business type, enterprises are essentially information processing organizations. The more accurate and fast they are able to process information, the better the chance of staying ahead in the competitive landscape.
