The SMB Has The Same Data Challenges as The Large Enterprise Today

Although the SMB is nimble, the SMB also has the challenge of a limited IT staff while data is becoming increasingly more complex.

There are trends impacting the perspective of business, while they prioritize their data backup and resilience programs.

Big Data

Customers using Data Backup and Recovery Solutions are evaluating their present backup and recovery strategies. This is being motivated due to the increase in data complexity because of data variety, velocity and volume.

The Internet of Things

Businesses are integrating specialized devices and applications with core business processes for analytics and advanced business processing. This data from these specialized devices in cars, water meters, etc., has now become corporate data.

Data ManagementThere is a need for the data from all types of devices and social media sources. The result is more complex data types within the SMB business data environment. Businesses are integrating specialized devices and applications with core business processes for analytics and advanced business processing. This data has now become corporate data. SMBs must ensure that critical data is available when needed, even as environments become more complex. Data must also be resilient in the face of regulations, hackers and natural disasters. If disaster does strike, recovery must be fast so there is a minimal impact to the bottom line.

This provides an additional burden on the IT staff in understanding the implications of developing backup procedures for these diverse data types. Central backup procedures must be reviewed by IT for proper governance and assurance of data resiliency. The old method of passing the responsibility of Backup and Recovery to the newest and most junior IT staff person is no longer an option when mission-critical data is now in a combination of structured and unstructured complex formats. The need for a comprehensive data backup strategy becomes more critical to the business, while the implementation of that strategy becomes more complex.

The solution is a Data Backup/Recovery Managed Service Providers (DB/R MSP) that provides remote management of the Backup process, along with professional Disaster Backup and Recovery consultation. Contracting a data backup consultant with the model of remote DB/R management allows the business to maintain their data locally without the need to hire new staff or train existing staff in sophisticated data backup and recovery processes.

The IoT is Rendering Your Old Data Back and Recovery Plan Obsolete

The Internet of Things is creating more complex data types within the corporate business data environment. This is making the stalworth Disaster Backup and Recovery plan that corporate management is relying on to protect their company obsolete.

IoTBusinesses are integrating the IoT with their mission critical applications at an accelerated rate. There is a need for data from specialized devices and applications to be made available to business applications. The data being generated from devices in trucks, shipping docks, and house water meters are being integrated with core business processes for analytics and advanced business processing. So, this data has now become corporate data.

So, what is the Internet of Things? First, let’s understand that there is a growing trend in the use of sensors in cars, traffic lights, water meters, and much more. When these devices connect to the Internet to transfer their data to monitoring applications, business applications, or to other devices, this environment becomes the Internet of Things. It is important to understand that it is the data being transferred over the Internet that makes the Internet of Things (IoT). If these devices or applications remained in communication with only their own platform, they would not be part of IoT.

Irregardless of data changes from the increased impact of the IoT, Sungard states in their post Are Your Backup and Disaster Recovery Procedures More Than A Year Old? Throw Them Out!. “In other words,  people kept using their old disaster recovery blueprints, backup and recovery procedures, run books, and disaster recovery binders. Some of these items are brought out only once a year and, even then, only a cursory glance is paid to them.”

Adding the issue of more complex data types, there should be no hesitation to prioritize the review and update of the corporate data disaster recovery plan. Central backup procedures must be reviewed for proper governance and assurance of data resiliency. This data is now mission critical and must be treated as legacy business data, just like Accounting, Payroll, etc. This provides an additional burden on the IT staff in understanding the implications of developing backup procedures for these diverse data types.

A business needs to ensure data integrity across the enterprise. A data backup and recovery Managed Service Provider (MSP) is an excellent solution to the new challenges of diverse data types. An MSP can remotely execute business critical backup strategies. Salvus Data, a data backup and recovery MSP, centrally monitors and manages your backup environments cost-effectively. Salvus does this while the corporate data remains within the cpntrol of the company. This improves backup success rates and data recovery. Contact a Tivoli Storage Manager AAA certified MSP; Salvus Data Consultants

The Third Platform Will Impact Data Backup and Recovery Procedures

The Third Platform is having an impact on Information Technology department processes and procedures at an accelerated rate. This is while there is still not a clear distinction of the elements of the Third Platform. The Open Group is identifying a set of new platform capabilities, and architecting and standardizing an IT platform by which enterprises can reap the business benefits of Open Platform 3.0. While the elements of the Third Platform are still being clarified, there is little doubt that the platform is here now.Third Platform

The trends of the Third Platform are generally known to be;

  • Mobility
  • Social networks and social enterprise
  • Big data analytics
  • Cloud computing
  • The Internet of Things

The post The Emergence of the Third Platform states “The emergence of the third generation of enterprise platforms is manifested at the crossroads of four distinct, almost simultaneous, disruptive technology shifts; cloud computing, mobile computing, big data-based analytics and the IoT. The use of applications based on these technologies, such as social media and business-driven insight systems, have contributed to both the convergence and rate of adoption.”

SAP may be further blurring the lines of these trends as they role out SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud. Where Big Data was considered to be the platform for Analytics, SAP is implementing HANA for Big Data mission-critical transactional applications as well as analytics delivered from the Cloud. In concert with technology trends and market needs, IBM Continues T0 Expand Its Cloud Offering. IBM announced that it is bringing a greater level of control, security and flexibility to cloud-based application development and delivery with a single-tenant version of Bluemix, IBM’s platform-as-a-service.

Data Backup and Recovery is just one of the IT processes that will need to be reviewed as the Third Platform further develops. Advanced considerations must be incorporated in strategic plans and day-to-day procedures. However, if an organization is not staffed or tooled to design and execute a backup strategy of this level of complexity, there are Data Backup/Recovery Managed Service Providers (DB/R MSP) that provide remote management of the Backup process, along with professional Disaster Backup and Recovery consultation. A company should look to a service provider that specializes in complex backup strategies while leaving the IT staff time to manage their daily and long-term strategic activities.