USE CASE
BACKUP, RECOVERY AND ARCHIVE
Transforming the Data Center
with Unified Cloud-scale Data
Protection and Management
Challenges
•High data volumes make it difficult to keep
up with backup and replication windows
•Operational overhead managing multiple
backup copies across multiple data
centers
•Long restore times from tape impact
business productivity; only most recent
backups are kept on disk
•Data is difficult to access in silos making it
challenging to unlock value and monetize
older data
Solution
GST Active Archive System and
H
Commvault® Simpana® software deliver
a backup solution that solves data
management and protection at petabytescale and provides instant access to data
anytime, anywhere.
Massive data growth and tight budgets are forcing IT to find more effective
storage strategies to meet capacity, performance and data protection
requirements. Data is the life-blood of organizations, and it’s expected to
grow at 40% per year well into the next decade.* Companies are using data
to drive faster decision-making, accelerate product innovation and develop
new revenue streams. The workforce is global and mobile, requiring access
to data anytime, anywhere.
Today’s large data sets and shrinking backup and recovery windows are
creating a huge challenge for storage administrators. It is becoming nearly
impossible to meet service levels using legacy storage systems and backup
methods in today’s complex data center environment. IT organizations
facing these and similar challenges are anxious to get on with modernizing
their backup and recovery capabilities. As they work through the process
towards choosing a solution, there are important considerations when
selecting the right underlying storage infrastructure, and backup and
recovery application.
HGST and Commvault® deliver a unified cloud-scale storage and data
management and storage solution that addresses these challenges. As a
certified partner, Simpana® software seamlessly integrates with the HGST
Active Archive System for petabyte-scale data protection and management.
Storage Infrastructure Considerations
There are several storage infrastructure options to consider, including the
role of the Cloud.
•• Tape’s low acquisition cost on the surface sounds great, the accessibility
at scale is impacting restore performance and subsequently business
operations. Data recovery is slow and sometimes inconsistent. Not good
for more active use. Better for long-term passive retention and disaster
recovery (DR) insurance.
1
USE CASE
Benefits
•Significantly lower operational complexity
and cost with a unified backup, recovery
and archive solution
•“Cloud-scale economics” on premise
­— fully integrated geo-dispersed object
storage backend for backups
•Eliminates the need for replication by
consolidating multiple copies to a single
geo-dispersed copy
•Data center disaster recovery protection
with a single copy of data — uses less
capacity than two full copies
•Seamless disaster recovery process with
global accessibility; eliminates legacy
active-passive model
•Manage 20X data volume with same
resources and consistently achieve
backup and restore SLAs
BACKUP, RECOVERY AND ARCHIVE
•• Traditional nearline disk-based arrays offer capacity, performance and
scalability, but are expensive and complex to manage. Good for aggressive
backup windows and recovery point and time objectives. At petabytescale, RAID is no longer viable and replication adds to overall cost and
complexity.
•• Cloud storage technology offers limitless capacity scalability and global
accessibility at low cost. Public cloud latency is not good for short
backup windows. I/O transactions can get expensive, and compliance
requirements may prohibit. Good for longest-term archive and DR.
Object Storage – Petabytes and Beyond
Object storage is cloud storage technology used by most of the world’s
largest service providers. It’s being used for public and private clouds,
across industry verticals to store a variety of unstructured data types
including documents, big data files, sensor data, photos, medical images,
and videos. Based on a scale-out architecture, object storage offers high
availability with massive scalability and the flexibility to support a variety
of use cases. A single pool of storage is created, whether deployed in one
or multiple data centers, with all data easily accessible in a single global
namespace.
There are no RAID, volumes, or LUNs, making object storage easier to
manage than traditional storage. Erasure coding or replication is used to
provide data protection and resiliency in case of node or drive failures.
As a result, object storage is the ideal foundation for petabyte-scale data,
although not all object storage is created equal.
HGST Active Archive and Commvault®
Simpana® Software
The HGST Active Archive System is a massively scalable and efficient
object store that removes the challenges of architecting, and operating an
integrated backup, recovery and archive solution. As a rack-level system,
it’s up and running quickly. Put it in place, connect the power, configure the
network and it’s online, presenting an S3-compliant object interface for the
Commvault® Simpana® data management platform.
The heart of the HGST system is its innovative EasiScale™ object storage
software that delivers the highest levels of scalability, durability and
efficiency. Patented BitSpread® technology delivers 15 nines durability with
a single copy of data. With GeoSpread, data is spread across three sites
keeping data protected and available during a full data center outage. The
HGST Active Archive System offers the highest density and lowest power
footprint, ideal for consolidating multiple backup and archive storage
2
USE CASE
BACKUP, RECOVERY AND ARCHIVE
targets. HGST Ultrastar® He8 8TB second-generation HelioSeal® hard drives consume 23% less power than air-based
alternatives, enabling industry-leading storage density and power efficiency. A single rack holds 4.7 petabytes of raw
capacity and delivers up to 3.5GB/s aggregate throughput. Performance scales linearly with added capacity to meet
future backup and recovery needs.
Unified Backup, Archive and Recovery Architecture
Commvault® Simpana® software is a long-term data retention and management platform. Combined with the HGST
Active Archive System, the overall solution can dramatically simplify data management operations while lowering
overall storage infrastructure costs. See Figure 1. Automated data tiering, deduplication, backup and archive features help reduce the complexity of managing multiple point products and associated storage capacity. The HGST
Active Archive System is certified by Commvault® and integrates easily with Simpana® software as a cloud storage
target using an S3 interface. No extra gateway is required. Backup and archive processes can be easily redirected
to the HGST Active Archive System.
The embedded data deduplication capability can save up to 3-5X, while the Active Archive System’s 15 nines data
durability and site-level fault tolerance can eliminate the need for replication and tape for long-term retention. This
Commvault®
Simpana®
Data Management
Application
•
•
•
•
Lower operating costs with simplified solution
Auto tiering of data optimizes resources
Up to 3-5X dedupe/WAN savings
Built in automated retention/deletion
GeoSpread
•
•
•
•
Elimination of replica copies
50% less capacity overhead
Full disaster recovery
Site level fault tolerance
HelioSeal®
HDDs
•
•
•
•
Elimination of tape
Highest density footprint
23% less power consumption
2.5M hours MTBF
HGST
Active Archive
System
Figure 1: Benefits from each component of the HGST/Commvault® solution
simplicity at scale enables organizations to migrate from active-passive protection to continuous DR with a single
copy of data. In addition, there can be significant WAN traffic savings as a result of reducing the amount of data
and how often it moves throughout its lifecycle.
There is a lot of diversity in the types of data enterprises need to protect, the data protection products and
infrastructure, and in the required backup and recovery service levels. Commvault® software’s integrated
automated data management enables a single, complete view of all stored data no matter where it is — on premise
or in the cloud. Figure 2 shows what a typical high-level enterprise multi-site deployment can look like.
3
USE CASE
BACKUP, RECOVERY AND ARCHIVE
Enterprise Backup, Recovery and Archive Solution
SIMPANA®
CLIENT
LAYER
SIMPANA®
MEDIA AGENT
LAYER
OPTIONAL DISK
ARCHIVE/DEDUPE
LAYER
CommCell® Databases
Server
Physical
Applications
Remote
Office
Desktop &
Mobile
Media
Agents
Email
Virtual
Optional Disk For Deduplication
HGST
STORAGE &
PROTECTION
LAYER
DC1
DC2
DC3
HGST Active Archive System
Figure 2. HGST Active Archive System and Commvault® Simpana® multi-site deployment example
HGST Active Archive System and Commvault® Simpana® software help organizations more effectively manage data
and unlock its value to enhance decision-making, improve employee productivity, and to make IT more strategic to
the business.
To learn more about this use case, visit:
http://www.hgst.com/solutions/by-use-case/backup-recovery-and-archive
* This use case contains forward-looking statements, including statements regarding the future growth in the generation of data. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and
uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements, including uncertainties related to the development, introduction, and
timing of products and/solutions based on new technologies and architectures, and other risks and uncertainties listed in Western Digital’s recent SEC filings to which your attention is directed.
Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak on as of the date hereof, and HGST undertakes no obligation to update these forwardlooking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.
© 2015 HGST, Inc. 3403 Yerba Buena Road, San Jose, CA 95135 USA. Produced in the United
States 9/15. Rev. 10/15. All rights reserved.
Helioseal, Ultrastar and BitSpread are registered trademarks and EasiScale is a trademark of HGST,
Inc. and its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. The Commvault logo, Commvault,
CommCell and Simpana are trademarks of Commvault Systems, Inc. Other trademarks are the
property of their respective companies.
HGST trademarks are intended and authorized for use only in countries and jurisdictions in
which HGST has obtained the rights to use, market and advertise the brand. Contact HGST
for additional information. HGST shall not be liable to third parties for unauthorized use of this
document or unauthorized use of its trademarks. References in this publication to HGST’s
products, programs, or services do not imply that HGST intends to make these available in all
countries in which it operates.
Please visit the Support section of our website, www.hgst.com/support, for additional information on product specifications. Photographs may show design models
References in this publication to HGST’s products, programs, or services do not imply that HGST
intends to make these available in all countries in which it operates.
Product specifications provided are sample specifications and do not constitute a warranty.
Information is true as of the date of publication and is subject to change. Actual specifications for
unique part numbers may vary.
UC04-Backup-Recovery-EN-US-0915-02
4