A Crash Course in Wide Area Data Replication (Fall 2009)

Replicating data over a WAN sounds pretty straight-forward, but it turns out that there are literally dozens of different approaches, each with it's own advantages for different applications. Which approach is the best? Well, that depends on a wide variety of factors! This tutorial is a fast-paced crash course in the various ways in which data can be replicated and the pros and cons of each major approach. We trace the data path from applications to disk drives and examine all of the points along the way wherein replication logic can be inserted. We look at host based replication (application, database, file system, volume level, and hybrids), SAN replication (disk arrays, virtualization appliances, caching appliances, and storage switches), and backup system replication (block level incremental backup, CDP, and de-duplication).

Learning Objectives:

Attendees will learn about different ways to replicate data and how to match business needs to replication technology
Attendees will get a good overview of the terminology of data replication as well as most of the key concepts
Attendees will learn how other storage technologies such as snapshots, backups, SAN storage, and application-failover can integrate with replication solutions