The Changing Role of Data Protection in a Virtualized World

Backup administrators who have grown accustomed to traditional batch-oriented backup using a single local system are seeing their world change very quickly these days. Virtualized data centers with cloud computing and resilient, self-healing local and cloud storage combined with existing in-house systems are demanding completely new strategies for data protection. And even the functions and responsibilities of data protection administrators are changing at a fast pace. This tutorial presents the rapid changes and challenges in data protection brought about by storage, both local and cloud, that combines protection such as "time machines" (snapshots and versioning) with primary and secondary repositories. Following from those changes, the discussion will include methods being used by backup administrators as both temporary and long-term solutions to cope with these changes and to maximize their potential benefits.

Learning Objectives

Understand the differences between data protection in traditional environments versus in virtualized environments.
Consider multiple examples of data protection challenges in environments where virtualization and cloud-based storage and computing are increasingly used.
Come away with some useful best practices for coping with the challenges brought on by new responsibilities and functions in data protection.