HP Data Protector, a Case Study on Scale and Completeness for Total Enterprise Data Backup and Recovery

Transcript of a BriefingsDirect podcast from the HP Software Universe Conference in Washington, DC on backing up a growing volume of enterprise data using HP Data Protector.

Listen to the podcast. Find it on iTunes/iPod and Podcast.com. Download the transcript. Sponsor: HP.

Dana Gardner: Hello, and welcome to a special BriefingsDirect podcast series coming to you from the HP Software Universe 2010 Conference in Washington, DC. We're here the week of June 14, 2010 to explore some major enterprise software and solutions trends and innovations making news across HP's ecosystem of customers, partners, and developers.

I'm Dana Gardner, Principal Analyst at Interarbor Solutions, and I'll be your host throughout this series of HP-sponsored Software Universe Live Discussions.

Our topic for this conversation focuses on the challenges and progress in conducting massive and comprehensive backups of enterprise live data, applications, and systems. We'll take a look at how HP Data Protector is managing and safeguarding petabytes of storage per week across HP's next-generation data centers.

The case-study sheds light on how enterprises can consolidate their storage and backup efforts to improve response and recovery times ,while also reducing total costs.

To learn more about high-performance enterprise scale storage and reliable backup, please join me in welcoming Lowell Dale, a technical architect in HP's IT organization. Welcome to BriefingsDirect, Lowell.

Lowell Dale: Thank you, Dana.

Gardner: Lowell, tell me a little bit about the challenges that we're now facing. It seems that we have ever more storage and requirements around compliance and regulations, as well as the need to cut cost. Maybe you could just paint a picture for me of the environment that your storage and backup efforts are involved with.

Dale: One of the things that everyone is dealing with these days is pretty common and that's the growth of data. Although we have a lot of technologies out there that are evolving -- virtualization and the globalization effect with running business and commerce across the globe -- what we're dealing with on the backup and recovery side is an aggregate amount of data that's just growing year after year.

Some of the things that we're running into are the effects of consolidation. For example, we end up trying to backup databases that are getting larger and larger. Some of the applications and servers that consolidate will end up being more of a challenge for some of the services such as backup and recovery. It's pretty common across the industry.

In our environment, we're running about 93,000-95,000 backups per week with an aggregate data volume of about 4 petabytes of backup data and 53,000 run-time hours. That's about 17,000 servers worth of backup across 14 petabytes of storage.

Gardner: Tell me a bit about applications. Is this a comprehensive portfolio? Do you do triage and take some apps and not others? How do you manage what to do with them and when?

Slew of applications

Dale: It's pretty much every application that HP's business is run upon. It doesn’t matter if it's enterprise warehousing or data warehousing or if it's internal things like payroll or web-facing front-ends like hp.com. It's the whole slew of applications that we have to manage.

Gardner: Tell me what the majority of these applications consist of.

Dale: Some of the larger data warehouses we have are built upon SAP and Oracle. You've got SQL databases and Microsoft Exchange. There are all kinds of web front-ends, whether it’s with Microsoft, IIS, or any type of Apache. There are things like SharePoint Portal Services, of course, that have database back-ends that we back up as well. Those are just a few that come to mind.

Gardner: What are the major storage technologies that you are focusing on that you are directing at this fairly massive and distributed problem?

Dale: The storage technologies are managed across two different teams. We have a storage-focused team that manages the storage technologies. They're currently using HP Surestore XP Disk Array and EVA as well. We have our Fibre Channel networks in front of those. In the team that I work on, we're responsible for the backup and recovery of the data on that storage infrastructure.

We're using the Virtual Library Systems that HP manufactures as well as the Enterprise System Libraries (ESL). Those are two predominant storage technologies for getting data to the data protection pool.

Gardner: One of the other trends, I suppose, nowadays is that backup and recovery cycles are happening more frequently. Do you have a policy or a certain frequency that you are focused on, and is that changing?

As the volume and transactional growth goes up, you’ll see the transactional log volume and the archive log volume backups increase, because there's only so much disk space that they can house those logs in.

Dale: That's an interesting question, because often times, you'll see some induced behavior. For example, we back up archive logs for databases, and often, we'll see a large increase in those. As the volume and transactional growth goes up, you’ll see the transactional log volume and the archive log volume backups increase, because there's only so much disk space that they can house those logs in.

You can say the same thing about any transactional type of application, whether it's messaging, which is Exchange with the database, with transactional logs, SQL, or Oracle.

So, we see an increase in backup frequency around logs to not only mitigate disk space constraints but to also mitigate our RTO, or RPO I should say, and how much data they can afford to lose if something should occur like logical corruption or something akin to that.

Gardner: Let's take a step back and focus on the historical lead-up to this current situation. It's clear that HP has had a lot of mergers and acquisitions over the past 10 years or so. That must have involved a lot of different systems and a lot of distribution of redundancy. How did you start working through that to get to a more comprehensive approach that you are now using?

Dale: Well, if I understand your question, you're talking about the effect of us taking on additional IT in consolidating, or are you talking about from product standpoint as well?

Gardner: No, mostly on your internal efforts. I know there's been a lot of product activities as well, but let's focus on how you manage your own systems first.

Simplify and reduce

Dale: One of the things that we have to do at the scope or the size that we get to manage is that we have to simplify and reduce the amount of infrastructure. It’s really the amount of choices and configurations that are going on in our environment. Obviously, you won't find the complete set or suite of HP products in the portfolio that we are managing internally. We have to minimize how many different products we have.

One of the first things we had to do was simplify, so that we could scale to the size and scope that we have to manage. You have to find and simplify configuration and architecture as much as possible, so that you can continue to grow out scale.

Gardner: Lowell, what were some of the major challenges that you faced with those older backup systems? Tell me a bit more about this consolidation journey?

Dale: That's a good question as well. Some of the new technologies that we're evolving, such as virtual tape libraries, was one of the things that we had to figure out. What was the use case scenario for virtual tape? It's not easy to switch from old technology to something new and go 100 percent at it. So we had to take a step-wise approach on how we adopted virtual tape library and what we used it for.

We first started with a minimal amount of use cases and little by little, we started learning what that was really good for. We’ve evolved the use case even more, so that in our next generation design that will move forward. That’s just one example.

We're still using physical tape for certain scenarios where we need the data mobility to move applications or enable the migration of applications and/or data between disparate geographies.

Gardner: And that virtual tape is to replace physical tape. Is that right?

Dale: Yes, really to supplement physical tape. We're still using physical tape for certain scenarios where we need the data mobility to move applications or enable the migration of applications and/or data between disparate geographies. We'll facilitate that in some cases.

Gardner: You mentioned a little earlier on the whole issue of virtualization. You're servicing quite a bit more of that across the board, not just with applications, but storage and networks even.

Tell me a bit more about the issues of virtualization and how that provided a challenge to you, as you moved to these more consolidated and comprehensive storage and backup approaches?

Dale: One of the things with virtualization is that we saw something that we did with storage and utility storage. We made it such that it was much cheaper than before and easy to bring up. It had the "If you build it, they will come" effect. So, one of the things that we may end up seeing is an increase in the number of operating systems (OSs) or virtual machines (VMs) that we see out there. That's the opposite of the consolidation effect, where you have, say, 10 one-terabyte databases consolidated into one to reduce the overhead.

Scheduling overhead

With VMs increasing and the use case for virtualization increasing, one of the challenges is trying to work with scheduling overhead tasks. It could be anywhere from a backup to indexing to virus scanning and whatnot, and trying to find out what the limitations and the bottlenecks are across the entire ecosystem to find out when to run certain overhead and not impact production.

That’s one of the things that’s evolving. We are not there yet, but obviously we have to figure out how to get the data to the data protection pool. With virtualization, it just makes it a little bit more interesting.

Gardner: Lowell, given that your target is moving -- as you say, you're a fast growing company and the data is exploding -- how do you roll out something that is comprehensive and consolidating, but at the same time your target is moving object in terms of scale and growth?

Dale: I talked previously about how we have to standardize and simplify the architecture and the configuration, so that when it comes time to build that out, we can do it in mass.

For example, quite a few years ago, it used to take us quite a while to bring up a backup infrastructure that would facilitate that service need. Nowadays, we can bring up a fairly large scope environment, like an entire data center, within a matter of months if not weeks. This is how long it would take us. The process from there moves towards how we facilitate setting up backup policies and schedules, and even that’s evolving.

For example, if the backup or resource should fail, we have the ability with automation to go out and have it pick up where it left off.

Right now, we're looking at ideas and ways to automate that, so that' when a server plugs in, basically it’ll configure itself. We're not there yet, but we are looking at that. Some of the things that we’ve improved upon are how we build out quickly and then turn around and set up the configurations, as that business demand is then turned around and converted into backup demand, storage demand, and network demand. We’ve improved quite a bit on that front.

Gardner: And what version of Data Protector are you using now, and what are some of the more interesting or impactful features that are part of this latest release?

Dale: Data Protector 6.11 is the current release that we are running and deploying in our next generation. Some of the features with that release that are very helpful to us have to do with checkpoint recoveries.

For example, if the backup or resource should fail, we have the ability with automation to go out and have it pick up where it left off. This has helped us in multifold ways. If you have a bunch of data that you need to get backed up, you don’t want to start over, because it’s going to impact the next minute or the next hour of demand.

Not only that, but it’s also helped us be able to keep our backup success rates up and our tickets down. Instead of bringing a ticket to light for somebody to go look at it, it will attempt a few times for a checkpoint recovery. After so many attempts, then we’ll bring light to the issue so that someone would have to look at.

Gardner: With this emphasis on automation over the manual, tell us about the impact that’s had on your labor issues, and if you’ve been able to take people off of these manual processes and move them into some, perhaps more productive efforts.

Raising service level

Dale: What it’s enabled us to do is really bring our service level up. Not only that, but we're able to focus on other things that we weren’t able to focus on before. So one of the things is there’s a successful backup.

Being able to bring that backup success rate up is key. Some of the things that we’ve done with architecture and the product -- just the different ways for doing process -- has helped with that backup success rate.

The other thing that it's helped us do is that we’ve got a team now, which we didn’t have before, that’s just focused on analytics, looking at events before they become incidents.

I’ll use an analogy of a car that’s about to break-down, and the check-engine light comes on. We're able to go and look at that prior to the car's breaking down. So, we're getting a little bit further ahead. We're going further upstream to detect issues, before they actually impact our backup success rate or SLAs. Those are just a couple of examples there.

We have a certain amount of rate of resource that we do per month. Some of those are to mitigate data loss from logical corruption or accidental deletion

Gardner: How many people does it take to run these petabytes of recovery and backup through your next-generation data center. Just give us a sense of the manpower.

Dale: On backup and recovery in the media management side, we’ve got about 25 people total spread between engineering and operational activities. Basically, their focus is on the backup and recovery of the media management side.

Gardner: Let’s look at some examples. Can you describe a time when you’ve needed to do very quick or even precise recovery, and how did this overall architectural approach and consolidation efforts help you on that?

Dale: We’ve had several cases where we had to recover data and go back to the data protection pool. That happens monthly in fact. We have a certain amount of rate of resource that we do per month. Some of those are to mitigate data loss from logical corruption or accidental deletion.

But, we also find the service being used to do database refreshes. So, we’ll have these large databases that they need to make a copy of from production. They end up getting copied over to development or test.

This current technology we are using, the current configuration, with the virtual tape libraries and the archive blogs has really enabled us to get the data backed up quickly and restored quickly. That’s been exemplified several times with either database copying or database recoveries, when those few type of events do occur.

Gardner: I should think these are some very big deals, when you can deliver the recovered data back to your constituents, to your users. That probably makes their day.

Dale: Oh yes, it does save the bacon at the end of the day.

Gardner: Perhaps you could outline, in your thinking, the top handful of important challenges that Data Protector addresses for you at HP IT. What are the really important paybacks that you're getting?

Object copy

Dale: I’ve mentioned checkpoint recovery. There are also some the things that we’ve been able to use with object copy that’s allowed us to balance capacity between our virtual tape libraries and our physical tape libraries. In our first generation design, we had enough capacity on the virtual libraries inside the whole, a subset of the total data.

Data Protector has a very powerful feature called object copy. That allowed us to maintain our retention of data across two different products or technologies. So, object copy was another one that was very powerful.

There are also a couple of things around the ability to do the integration backups. In the past, we were using some technology that was very expensive in terms of using of disk space on our XPs, and using split-mirror backups. Now, we're using the online integrations for Oracle or SQL and we're also getting ready to add SharePoint and Microsoft Exchange.

Now, we're able to do online backups of these databases. Some of them are upwards of 23 terabytes. We're able to do that without any additional disk space and we're able to back that up without taking down the environment or having any downtime. That’s another thing that’s been very helpful with Data Protector.

Gardner: Lowell, before we wrap up, let's take a look into the future. Where do you see the trends pushing this now? I think we could safely say that there's going to still be more data coming down the pike. Are there any trends around cloud computing, mobile business intelligence, warehousing efforts, or real-time analysis that will have an impact on some of these products and processes?

Some of the things we need to see and we may start seeing in the industry are load management and how loads from different types of technologies talk to each other.

Dale: With some of the evolving technologies and some of the things around cloud computing, at the end of the day, we'll still need to mitigate downtime, data loss, logical corruption, or anything that would jeopardize that business asset.

With cloud computing, if we're using the current technology today with peak base backup, we have to get the data copied over to a data protection pool. There still would be the same approach of trying to get that data. If there is anything to keep up with these emerging technologies, for example, maybe we approach data protection a little bit differently and spread the load out, so that it’s somewhat transparent.

Some of the things we need to see and we may start seeing in the industry are load management and how loads from different types of technologies talk to each other. I mentioned virtualization earlier. Some of the tools with content-awareness and indexing has overhead associated with it.

I think you're going to start seeing these portfolio products talking to each other. They can schedule when to run their overhead function, so that they stay out of the way of production. It’s just a couple of challenges for us.

We're looking at new configurations and designs that consolidate our environment. So we're looking at reducing our environment from 50-75 percent just by redesigning our architecture and making available more resources that were tied up before. That's one goal that we're working on right now. We're deploying that design today.

And then, there's configuration and capacity management. This stuff is still evolving, so that we can manage the service level that we have today, keep that service level up, bring the capital down, and keep the people required to manage it down as well.

Gardner: Great. I'm afraid we're out of time. We've been focusing on the challenges and progress of conducting massive and comprehensive backups of enterprise-wide data and applications and systems. We've been joined by Lowell Dale, a technical architect in HP's IT organization. Thanks so much, Lowell.

Dale: Thank you, Dana.

Gardner: And, thanks to our audience for joining us for this special BriefingsDirect podcast coming to you from the HP Software Universe 2010 Conference in Washington DC. Look for other podcasts from this HP event on the hp.com website under HP Software Universe Live podcast, as well as through the BriefingsDirect Network.

I'm Dana Gardner, Principal Analyst at Interarbor Solutions, your host for this series of HP-sponsored Software Universe live discussions. Thanks again for listening and come back next time.

Listen to the podcast. Find it on iTunes/iPod and Podcast.com. Download the transcript. Sponsor: HP.

Transcript of a BriefingsDirect podcast from the HP Software Universe Conference in Washington, DC on the backing up a growing volume of enterprise data using HP Data Protector. Copyright Interarbor Solutions, LLC, 2005-2010. All rights reserved.

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Case Study Shows How HP Data Protector Notebook Extension Provides Constant Backup for Expanding Mobile Workforce

Transcript of a sponsored BriefingsDirect podcast on how data protection products and services can protect against costly data loss with less hassle for users.

Listen to the podcast. Find it on iTunes/iPod and Podcast.com. Download the transcript. Sponsor: HP.

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Gain more information on HP Data protection Notebook Extension. Follow on Twitter.
Access a Webcast with IDC's Laura DuBois on Avoiding Risk and Improving Productivity on PCs and Laptops.

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Dana Gardner: Hi, this is Dana Gardner, principal analyst at Interarbor Solutions, and you’re listening to BriefingsDirect.

Today we present a sponsored podcast discussion on protecting PC-based data in an increasingly mobile world. We'll look at a use case -- at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, NY -- for HP Data Protector Notebook Extension (DPNE) software and examine how backup and recovery software has evolved to become more transparent, reliable, and fundamentally user-driven.

Using that continuous back-up principle, the latest notebook and PC backup software captures every saved version of a file, efficiently transfers it all in batches to a central storage location, and then makes it easily and safely accessible for recovery by user from anywhere. That's inside or outside of the corporate firewall.

We'll look at how DPNE slashes IT recovery chores, allows for managed policies and governance to reduce data risks systemically, while also downsizing backups, the use of bandwidth, and storage.

The economies are compelling. The cost of data lost can be more than $400,000 annually for an average-sized business with 5,000 users. Getting a handle on recovery cost, therefore, helps reduce the total cost of operating and supporting mobile PCs, both in terms of operations and in the cost of lost or poorly recovered assets.

To help us better understand the state of the art remote in mobile PC data protection, we're joined by an HP executive and a user of HP DPNE software. Please join me in welcoming Shari Cravens, Product Marketing Manager for HP Data Protection. Welcome to the show, Shari.

Shari Cravens: Hi, Dana. Thanks for having me.

Gardner: We're also here with John Ferguson, Network Systems Specialist at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, NY. Welcome to the show, John.

John Ferguson: Hi, Dana. Thank you.

Gardner: Let's start with you, Shari. Tell me about the general state of the mobile workforce. Are we getting to the point where we're almost more mobile than stationary these days?

Backup increasingly important

Cravens: It's true. We started hearing from our customers a couple of years ago that PC backup was becoming increasingly important in their lives. Part of that's because the workforce is increasingly mobile and flexibility for the workforce is at an all time high. In fact, we found that 25 percent of staff in some industries operates remotely and that number is growing pretty rapidly.

In fact, in 2008, shipments of laptops overtook desktops for the very first time. What that really means for the end user or for IT staff is that vast amounts of data now live outside the corporate network. We found that the average PC holds about 55,000 files. Of those 55,000, about 4,000 are unique to that user on that PC. And, those files are largely unprotected.

Gardner: Of course, we're also in a tough economic climate, and productivity is paramount. We've got more people doing more work across different locations. What is the impetus for IT to be doing this? Is there a real economic challenge here?

Cravens: The economics of PC backup are really changing. We're finding that the average data loss incident costs about $2,900, and that's for both IT staff time and lost end user productivity. Take that $2,900 figure and extrapolate that for an average company of about 5,000 PCs. Then, look at hard drive failures alone. There will be about 150 incidents of hard drive failure for that company every year.

If you look at the cost to IT staff to recover that data and the loss in employee productivity, the annual cost to that organization will be over $440,000 a year.

If you look at the cost to IT staff to recover that data and the loss in employee productivity, the annual cost to that organization will be over $440,000 a year. If that data can't be recovered, then the user has to reconstruct it, and that means additional productivity loss for that employee. We also have legal compliance issues to consider now. So if that data is lost, that's an increased risk to the organization.

Gardner: I suppose security also plays a role here. We want to make sure that when we do back up, it's encrypted, it's compressed, and we're not wasting valuable assets like bandwidth. Are there economic issues around that as well?

Cravens: Sure. We all have very sensitive files on our laptops, whether it's competitive information or your personal annual review. One of the things that's been a suggestion in the past was, "Well, we'll just save it to the corporate network." The challenge with that is that people are really concerned about saving these very sensitive files to the corporate network.

What we really need is a solution that's going to encrypt those files, both in transit and at rest, so that people can feel secure that their data is protected.

Gardner: Encryption doesn’t necessarily really mean big hogging files. You can do it with efficiency as well.

Cravens: Absolutely, with changed blocks only, which is what DPNE does.

Gardner: I think we understand the problem in terms of the economics, requirements for the data, sensitivity, and the mobility factors, but what about the problem from a technical perspective? What does it take in order to do something that’s simple and straightforward for the end user?

Historical evolution

Cravens: Let me back up a little bit and talk about how we got here. Historically, PC backup solutions have evolved from more traditional backup and recovery solutions, and there are a couple of assumptions there.

One, they employ things like regularly scheduled backups that happen every 24 hours, and sometimes once a week. They assume that bandwidth concerns aren't necessarily much of an issue. This creates some problems in an increasingly mobile workforce. People are generally not regularly connected to the network. They are at coffee shops, at home, or in airports. They're often anywhere but the office, and it's entirely too easy to opt out of that scheduled backup.

We’ve all had this experience. You're on a deadline, it's 10:00 a.m., and your backup window has popped up. You immediately hit "cancel," because you just can't afford the performance degradation on your PC, and it's really not an option anymore. HP has a unique approach to protecting information on desktops and PCs. Some data loss is going to be inevitable -- laptops get stolen or files are deleted -- but we don't think that means it has to be serious and expensive.

The concept behind HP Data Protector Notebook Extension is that we're trying to minimize the risk of that PC data loss, but we're also trying to minimize the burden to IT staff. The solution is to extend some of the robust backup policies from the enterprise to the client environment.

We’re protecting data no matter where the user is -- the home, the coffee shop, the airport.

DPNE does three things. One, it's always protecting data, and it's transparent to the user. It's happening continuously, not on a fixed schedule, so there is no backup window that's popping up.

We’re protecting data no matter where the user is -- the home, the coffee shop, the airport. Whether they are online or offline, their data is being protected, and it's happening immediately. The instant that files are created or changed, data is being protected.

Continuous file protection is number one. Backup policies are centralized and automated by the IT staff. That means that data is always protected, and the IT staff can configure those policies to support their organization's particular data protection goals.

Number two, no matter where they are, users can easily recover their own data. This is a really important point. Getting back to the concept of minimizing the burden to IT staff, DPNE has a simple, single-click menu. Users can recover multiple versions of a file without ever involving IT. They don't ever have to pick up the phone and call the Help Desk. That helps keep IT costs low.

Then, also by optimizing performance, we're eliminating that desire to opt out of your scheduled backup. The process is transparent to the user. It doesn’t impact their day, because DPNE saves and transmits only the changed data. So, the impact to performance is really minimized.

Gardner: What about those times when folks are offline and are no longer connected, perhaps at a customer site or at that coffee shop? What's the process then?

Local repository

Cravens: That's a good question. DPNE has a local repository on each client and we established that to store active files. Whether you're connected to the network or not, data is captured and backed up locally to this local repository. This is important for accidental deletions or changes or even managing multiple versions of a file. You're able to go to the menu, click, and restore a file from a previous version at any point in time, without ever having to call IT.

Each client is then assigned to a network repository or data vault inside the network. That holds the backup files that are transferred from the client, and that data vault uses essentially any Windows file share.

The third element is a policy server. We talked about this a little before. The policy server allows IT staff to administer the overall system management from just a single web interface, and the centralized administration allows them to do file protection policies and set encryption policies, data vault policies, to their particular specifications.

It also provides centralized reporting. Data vault usage, agent status, agent deployments, and license issues can be tracked through the policy server.

The lack of open file protection in a lot of PC backup solutions is a huge gap that we can't ignore. Doing that in a way that doesn't overwhelm the system or create a lot of duplication is the way to go.

Gardner: I really like this idea of taking what's going on centrally in terms of a life-cycle approach to data management, storage, and whatnot. Now, extending that out to these edges, regardless of where they are, really cuts down on the duplication. We have seen instances in the past where so much money is wasted because of duplication of data. This allows for much more streamlined managed and governed approach.

Cravens: Absolutely. It's filling a gap that has been out there for a while in addressing things like open file protection. This is one thing for DPNE that's very important. Email is a really critical application for most organizations now.

The lack of open file protection in a lot of PC backup solutions is a huge gap that we can't ignore. Doing that in a way that doesn't overwhelm the system or create a lot of duplication is the way to go. It's really good for email PST files. DPNE ensures that PST files are saved and snapped, so we always have a copy of them. That works for not just Exchange, but also for Sage, big financial applications, or MySQL. Companies are using those to build home-grown applications. It works for pretty much any open file.

Gardner: Okay, let's go to John Ferguson and learn a little bit about how this has been applied in the real world. Tell me first about Roswell Park Cancer Institute, so we have a sense of the type organization that you are dealing with.

Finding the cure

Ferguson: Roswell Park Cancer Institute is the oldest cancer research center in the United States. We're focused on understanding, preventing, and eventually finding the cure for cancer. We're located in downtown Buffalo, NY. We have research, scientific, and educational facilities, and we also have a 125-bed hospital here.

Our researchers and scientists are frequently published in major studies, reported globally, for various types of cancers, and with related research studies. A number of breakthroughs in cancer prevention and treatment have been developed here. For example, the PSA test, which is used for detecting prostate cancer, was invented here.

Gardner: Tell me about the challenges you have. It seems with all that research, a great deal of data, a lot of people are moving around between your hospital and research facilities. What was the challenge that you've been grappling with in terms of the data?

Ferguson: Well, the real challenge as you mentioned, is that data is moving around. When you are dealing with researchers and scientists, they work at different schedules than the rest of us. When they are working, they are focused and that might be here, off campus, at home, whatever.

They've got their notebook PCs, their data is with them and they're running around and doing their work and finding their answers. With that data moving around and not always being on the network, the potential for the data loss of something that could be the cure for cancer is something that we take very seriously and very important to deal with.

With that data moving around and not always being on the network, the potential for the data loss of something that could be the cure for cancer is something that we take very seriously and very important to deal with.

Gardner: So, when you decided that this mobility issue was really something you couldn't ignore anymore, what was it that you looked for in a solution? What were some of the top requirements in terms of being able to solve this on the terms that you needed?

Ferguson: One of the big things was transparency to the user and being simple to use if they do need to use it. We were already in the process of making a decision to replace our existing overall backup solution with HP's Data Protector. So, it was just a natural thing to look at DPNE and it really fits the need terrifically.

There's total transparency to the user. Users don't even have to do anything. They're just going along, doing their work, and everything is going on in the background. And, if they need to use it, it's very intuitive and simple to use.

Gardner: Tell me about the implementation. How far in are you and to what degree do you expect to get to -- the number of seats, etc.?

Ferguson: In terms of the overall Data Protector implementation, we're probably about 40 percent complete. The DPNE implementation will immediately follow that.

A good test run

We anticipate initially just getting our IT staff using the application and giving it a good test run. Then we'll focus on key individuals throughout the organization, researchers, the scientists, the CEO, CIO, the people with all the nice initials after their name, and get them taken care of. We'll get a full rollout after that.

Gardner: It might be a little bit premature, as you're about 40 percent in, but do you have any sense of where this is going to take you on a total cost basis for the PCs and mobile notebooks themselves, or perhaps even applying that to the larger overall lifecycle data cost?

Ferguson: I don't think I can come up with actual cost numbers, but I do know that covering the exposure that we have for the possibility of losing critical data is enormous. You can't put a price tag on saving the potential possibility that someone who has a cure for cancer on their laptop says, "Oh, we lost it, sorry." It doesn’t work that way.

Gardner: I suppose another intangible, but nonetheless powerful benefit, is this element of trust that people will be more trusting of these devices. Therefore, they'll become more productive in the way they use them, when you have given them this sense of a backup and insurance policy, if you will, on their work.

When people are working on something, they don't think to “save it,” until they're actually done with it.

Ferguson: Absolutely. In the past, we've told people to follow best practices. Make sure that when you want to save your data, save it on the network drive. That, of course, requires them to be on campus or connected remotely. A lot of thought that has to go into that. When people are working on something, they don't think to “save it,” until they're actually done with it. And, DPNE provides us that versioning saving. You can get old versions of documents. You can keep track of them. That's the type of thing that's not really done, but it's really important, and they don't want to lose it.

Gardner: John Do you have folks that are in the legal department or proprietary, intellectual property minded folks who have some understanding of some of the benefits of this system?

Ferguson: We have plenty of people in our legal department, auditors, and all kinds of federal regulations that we have to adhere to. When it comes down to keeping track of data, keeping versions, and that type of thing, it's definitely important.

Gardner: Shari, as you're listening to John, is there anything that jumps out at you about how this is being implemented that you think highlights some of the values here?

Nothing more compelling

Cravens: John's comment about losing a laptop where you have a researcher working on a cure for cancer. I can't think of anything that's more compelling in terms of how important it is to save the data that's out there on notebooks and laptops.

I don't think it matters how big your organization is -- small, medium, large -- a lot of that data is very valuable, and most of it is running around outside the network now. Even for an average-sized organization, they could be spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in a year that they shouldn't have to in IT support and lost productivity.

Gardner: Very good. Let me take a quick peek at the future. Most people seem to agree that the amount of data is going to continue to explode for some time. Certainly, regulations and requirements for these legal issues don’t go away. John, is this problem something that from your perspective is going to be solved or is this sort of an ongoing rising tide that you have to fight to keep up with?

Ferguson: When it comes to federal regulations, it always is a rising tide, but we've got a good solution that we are implementing and I think it puts us ahead of the curve.

Gardner: Shari, how about you? Do you see a trend in the future in terms of data quantity, quality, and security issues that will give us a sense of where this problem is headed?

Information is continuing to explode and that's not going to stop. In addition to that, the workforce is only going to get more mobile.

Cravens: Absolutely. Information is continuing to explode and that's not going to stop. In addition to that, the workforce is only going to get more mobile. This problem definitely isn’t going to go away, and we need solutions that can address the flexibility and mobility of the workforce and be able to manage, as John mentioned, the increase in regulations.

Gardner: Of course, there's that old important issue about getting those costs under control at the same time.

Cravens: Absolutely. Going back to the possibility that there are organizations spending hundreds and thousands of dollars now that they don’t need to, with HP DPNE, they can actually avoid that.

Gardner: One thing I want to also hit on, Shari, is how you get started. If folks are interested in maybe doing a trial or trying out with this, what are some steps to get some hands-on experience?

Simple implementation

Cravens: HP Data Protector is very simple to implement. It snaps into your existing infrastructure. You don’t need any specialized hardware. All you need is a Windows machine for the policy server and some disk space for the data vault. You can download a 60-day trial version from hp.com. It's a full-featured version, and you can work with that.

If you have a highly complex multi-site organization, then you might want to employ the services of HP’s Backup and Recovery Fast Track Services for Data Protector. They can help get a more complex solution up and running quickly and reduce the impact on your IT staff just that much sooner.

Gardner: We've been looking at a use case for HP Data Protector Notebook Extension software and at how backup and recovery software have evolved. And, we have a better understanding of this transparency and reliability. I particularly liked that integration with the backend policies and governance across the lifecycle of data. I think that's really going to be the big cost saver over time.

I want to thank our guests who are joining us in our discussion. We are here with Shari Cravens, Product Marketing Manager for HP Data Protection. Thank you so much, Shari.

Cravens: Thank you.

Gardner: And John Ferguson. I appreciate your input. He is the Network Systems Specialist at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo. Thank you, sir.

Ferguson: Thank you. It's been a pleasure.

Gardner: This is Dana Gardner principal analyst at Interarbor Solutions. You’ve been listening to a sponsored BriefingsDirect podcast. Thanks for listening, and come back next time.

Transcript of a sponsored BriefingsDirect podcast on how data protection products and services can protect against costly data loss with less hassle for users. Copyright Interarbor Solutions, LLC, 2005-2010. All rights reserved.

Listen to the podcast. Find it on iTunes/iPod and Podcast.com. Download the transcript. Sponsor: HP.

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