IBM is Addressing the Increased Complexity of Corporate Data – Shouldn’t You?

As we have stated several times in different posts on this blog, the complexity of data is increasing. Business data is no longer the traditional structured type that comes from ERP and CRM applications. To remain competitive, the business must include unstructured data from POS systems, Social Media, specialized devices and other sources.

The Internet of Things (IOT) is creating more complex data types within the corporate business data environment. Businesses are integrating the IoT with their mission critical applications at an accelerated rate. 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 adding to the data complexity issue.Salvus Data remote backup

IBM addressed this point in their announcement “IBM Redefines Storage Economics with New Software“. This announcement unveiled IBM Spectrum Storage, a new storage software portfolio designed to address data storage inefficiencies by changing the economics of storage with a layer of intelligent software. From that announcement:

“A new approach is needed to help clients address the cost and complexity driven by tremendous data growth.  Traditional storage is inefficient in today’s world where the value of each piece of data is changing all the time,” said Tom Rosamilia, Senior Vice President, IBM Systems. “IBM is revolutionizing storage with our Spectrum Storage software that helps clients to more efficiently leverage their hardware investments to extract the full business value of data.”

In a previous post, we highlight the issue that this increased complexity and the general evolution of what we now recognize as mission-critical data. These increasingly complex data types are rendering your old data backup and recovery plan obsolete. 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 remote data backup and recovery model, such as that from Salvus Data, is a direction that should be considered. Salvus Data develops and remotely executes the business critical backup strategy. With the Salvus Cloud Management Data Backup/Recovery solution, the client has the most up to date data backup processes without the overhead and time to maintain it. In addition, the client has:

  • access to a team that spends their time doing backups 7×24 365 days a year.
  • the option to have Data Backup/Recovery efforts in-house or at the location of their choice.
  • an American partner who understands business needs within the United States.

The Salvus Data Consultants centrally monitors and manages the backup environments more cost-effectively and with increased service levels. For more information contact Salvus Data at 903-201-7233.

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.