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Hardware
Installation
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Software
Installation
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Software
Operational Integration & Performance Optimization
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Enterprise
Backup Design
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Remote
Monitoring & Management
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Storage
Assessment
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Staging
& Integration
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On-Site
Service
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Knowledge
Transfer
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BackupWatch

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Backup Solutions
Driven To Perform
Backup software doesn't work
the way you want it to work. Backup
software works the way the manufacturer designed it to
work. Moreover, engineering services
provided by the manufacturer are related to structuring your
requirements to fit into their backup software
design.
Its actually quite an
interesting dichotomy. Its kind of like
asking a racecar manufacturer to race the
car! You see, they dont race cars - they
build them! The race is actually won by the
driver with the best inherent skills and knowledge on how to
use this experience in conjunction with
the tools provided.
Sourcetek
is your driver. We understand that the key
to an effective backup solution is less about the hardware and
software, and more about an efficient design for your
real-world operation. A skilled Backup
Design Engineer understands how to manipulate the program to
accommodate those unforeseen variables, and maximize
performance within the user-specific
environment. Sourcetek Systems has the
necessary design expertise, experience, and hardware/software
technology to guide you through the maze of products and
associated promises. If you are considering
a change to your current backup/DR methodology, please contact
us at 888-496-7556 or sales@sourceteksystems.com.
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BACKUP - The Value
Proposition
The value of a
fully optimized backup scheme cannot be overstated. The
reports generated supply valuable information about your company's
overall data protection environment and are a key component to
ensuring business continuity based on defined recovery time
objectives (RTO) and recovery point objectives (RPO).
Strategic decisions about architecting your data protection
infrastructure -- to include technologies such as replication,
snapshots, virtual tape, and bigger/faster tape devices -- are all
helped when your backup operation is efficiently designed.
Data extrapolated from backup reports define the operational
capabilities of your environment. This data will expose recovery
time weaknesses thereby arming you with quantitative information to
help in technology selection.
BACKUP DESIGN - Outsourcing
Expertise
(And Sleep Soundly At
Night)
It happens all
the time. A customer expresses interest in a particular backup
software product because their existing product has not met
expectations. Criticized for being unstable, unpredictable and far
too costly to manage. These backup headaches are consuming too
many in-house resources negatively impacting other IT operations and
personnel responsibilities. It is time, the customer says, to
consider a change from their incumbent Brand "X", and is expressing
interest in Brand "Y". What's funny about that? Well,
last week another customer related a similar scenario about Brand
"Y". What's happening here?
Backup software
doesn't work the way you want it to work. Backup software
works the way the manufacturer designed it to work. The Backup
Design Engineer's job is to ascertain what the backup package can
and cannot do relative to user specific backup needs. The real
secret is to know when to use the package as written, and when to
encapsulate it in scripts and other tools to meet data
protection/availability requirements. Backup programs do not
properly address the many variables that can occur in backup
environments. As an example; when your goal is unattended
backup, the software should not hang when a problem is
encountered. It is the job of the BDE to use the scripting
features of backup programs to design a system that continues to
work when failures occur or at a minimum report on the cause of hang
and attempt a corrective action.
All backup
programs have very good -- and in some cases weak components. The
task of the BDE is to compensate for the weak components. On the
other side of this issue, the BDE must let the backup package work
for the user and minimize the backup effort. An example is to
make better use of Policy features, pools, etc. One can compensate
for the weak aspects of a backup package with pre/post scripts or
low cost hardware. In most cases this encapsulation can provide
a very powerful backup program with very easy maintenance at minimal
cost. Many expensive backup packages have
components that look good on paper; however, may in fact provide a
more complicated backup environment with minimal gain in efficiency
and security. It all depends on the user
environment. Along with fast backup and fast restores
the BDE must design an efficient offsite tape storage system. This
design should minimize the number of tapes sent offsite with
programs to age and reuse media to minimize number of media
required.
Investing in
in-house backup expertise is not always viewed as a practical use of
valuable budget funds. However, hugh returns-on-investment can be
realized through outsourcing this function. Backup Design
Engineers have the broad-based knowledge necessary to understand the
nuances associated with the different backup packages, and how to
best manipulate the selected product to operate at maximum
capability within your environment.
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