The CIO’s Guide to Data Protection in the Virtual + Physical Data Center

Your data center is constantly becoming more and more complicated. Today, the proliferation of virtualization—both for virtual servers as well as virtual desktop projects—has added an all-new layer of complexity to the picture. What used to be well-understood processes and technologies—such as data protection—have become bifurcated and chaotic. Now, on top of the tools and techniques you use to protect your physical data assets, you’re being forced to adopt an entirely new set of solutions to protect your virtual data assets. Making the situation worse is that data protection techniques have never done a superior job of actually meeting your organization’s business goals. Unreliable backup media, awkward backup management processes, difficult-to–test disaster recovery techniques, and time-consuming recovery workflows have always presented business risks. Toss in the new challenges presented by virtualization, and you’re looking at a recipe for business disaster. This guide will examine major business risks associated with traditional data protection approaches, particularly with regard to their applicability for a hybrid, virtual + physical data center. It will redefine the business goals and drivers for data protection, and consider alternative approaches that better meet those goals.