Intelligent Backup Software | Implementing Backup and Recovery: The Readiness Guide for the Enterprise

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Embedded Agents

There is a lot of discussion between hardware vendors and software vendors about actually embedding some level of the software application in the hardware. This could include backup software as well as storage management and SAN management software. It could also involve shipping the backup agent within an appliance or actually having some level of the software embedded in a storage library. One also must consider the implications this would have on the manufacturer of the hardware. This whole concept may birth an ever-needed standard for backup agent technology. Without this, the costs of this type of equipment may skyrocket because of the complexity found in the manufacturing of such a solution. The end user may have an option to install or upload an enhanced agent for the backup software you are using or decide to stay with the generic agent stub for cross-product backup support. With a generic agent stub embedded in the hardware, one of the benefits to the end user would be the ability to use the 'best of breed' products to back up your devices. Your decision would no longer be tied to the proprietary agent structure, if you didn't want it to be.

Embedded technology opens up the door for true server-independent backups as well. The device will no longer need to be mediated by a server; embedded technology would allow it to go directly to the backup storage device, eliminating the middleman and increasing the effective backup speeds of the environment.

Or perhaps this agent stub wouldn't get updated at all by the reigning backup tool of choice. Perhaps it would simply be configurable enough to connect on a particular socket to communicate with the reigning backup tool of choice to receive all of its instructions for the particular process it is about to perform. It becomes limitless in what it would be able to accomplish.

It is much too early to know exactly where this will finally lead, but it will be interesting to watch-and it's even more interesting to speculate.

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