Preface

Data protection is like buying insurance or executing a will: It's something we all know we should do but often put off. We are forced to think about all the unpleasant scenarios that force us to do it in the first place. The process can be complex, even daunting to most people. We forge ahead because we know it's important. Ultimately, we sleep better knowing that we have a safe haven in the face of disaster.

New storage technology, such as storage networks, has allowed organizations to collect and store massive amounts of information about customers, suppliers, and operations. Along with this ballooning of stored data has come a new threat to the organization: loss of key information assets. IT managers now realize that these enormous storehouses of information are often left inadequately protected. At the same time, the ramifications of data loss are increasing. Shareholder lawsuits, government regulation, and extreme financial losses are driving changes in the way data is stored and managed.

The techniques, methods, and technology available to the IT professional have expanded greatly. In the past, backup to tape was pretty much all that was available. Disk-to-disk and disk-to-disk-to-tape systems have expanded the options for backup. Remote copy and replication have enabled organizations to constantly move data off-site, far from harm. As more storage systems are networked, storage security is becoming an important tool for protecting data from harm.

It's not only technology that now sits in the data protection bag of tricks. Strategic methodologies such as Data Lifecycle Management and Information Lifecycle Management add new dimensions to the data protection landscape. Both are policy-based processes for managing data and information according to a lifecycle. While data lifecycle management deals with data on a time-based cycle, information lifecycle management is used to manage information assets in an event-driven fashion. Both promise to allow for better data protection at a lower cost.

Data and information are now recognized as core assets that need to be valued and secured like other assets. This book is a guide to protecting data assets in the enterprise. It presents the technology, techniques, strategies, and best practices used to safeguard data. It may even help you sleep better at night.