Tag Archives: TSM

10.01.14
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Tivoli Storage Manager V7.1 Supports VMware Full Virtual Machine Instant Access and Recovery

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) is an enterprise class backup and archiving application. These types of products protect against data loss and enable the ability to recover data for adherence to industry compliance standards and court orders.

TSM is continuing to improve in its capabilities. As stated in the IBM announcement letter for TSM V7.1:  “With the new release of TSM V7.1,  A single Tivoli Storage Manager server improves scalability with up to ten timesenterpise data improvement for daily ingest of deduplicated and replicated data over previously published rates, and new reference architectures optimized for data deduplication.”

That announcement letter goes on to say Tivoli Storage Manager for Virtual Environments V7.1 helps to improve backup and recovery management for VMware environments with the following new features:

  • VMware full virtual machine instant access and recovery for improved recovery time objectives, including restore verification.
  • Item level recovery for Microsoft Exchange Server from a virtual machine backup, database-level recovery for Microsoft SQL Server from a virtual machine backup, and recovery of VMware virtual machines domain controllers hosting Active Directory.
  • Data protection for VMware vCloud Director Tenant vApps.
  • Additional status and application coverage reporting of VMware environments in the VMware management GUI.
  • Simplified installation and configuration consolidates various components into one package and optionally enables configuration of the data mover.

Tivoli Storage Manager can be configured to meet an organization’s specific requirements. For those organizations that have IT staff dedicated to mission-critical enterprise applications and are not heavily trained in the complex discipline of enterprise data backup and recovery, the administration of TSM can be remotely managed by data backup and recovery consultants. Salvus Data Consultants is one of the leading TSM integrators offering a range of backup solutions and services to store & protect your valuable information.

Salvus Data Consultants manages their customer’s TSM environment remotely while the customer maintains total control of their data. For more information about the new release of TSM and its capabilities, contact Salvus Data.

Note: All copyright and registered trademarks mentioned in this post are owned by their respective organizations, such as, but not limited to, IBM and VMware.

09.11.14
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Cloud Data Backup Does Not Have to be All or Nothing

Adoption of the cloud for mission critical business applications is accelerating. But, does it have to be “all or nothing”.

As stated in the post How to Evaluate Moving Legacy Mission-Critical Apps to the Cloud “A recently released survey conducted by Stratus, North Bridge Venture Partners and GigaOM Research found that 75 percent of firms are now reporting the use of some sort of cloud platform, and the worldwide addressable market for cloud computing will reach $158.8 billion by 2013, an increase of 126.5 percent from 2011.”

cloud data backupKevin Parker of Rackspace says “But the real unspoken advantage of cloud adoption—and something not enough people talk about—is that it lets companies adopt modern development techniques, allowing businesses to innovate and reduce time to market. The ability to speed up development lifecycles and to deliver value to market on short intervals—this is how businesses are going to maintain their competitive advantage in this new era of cloud IT.

When the term “cloud” is mentioned, we visualize an “all or nothing” scenario. An example would be data backup and recovery where all the data and the processes are expected to be deployed in the cloud. But, this is not the only model that is possible. A hybrid model may be the preferred in certain cases.

In the case of data backup and recovery, for instance, the data can alternatively remain within the customer’s network and deployed off site at the customer’s choice location. The processes can be managed in the cloud. The data does not have to be in the cloud with the data backup administration. They can be separate. The benefit gained by deploying the data backup processes in the cloud is having the management of the data backup and recovery performed and scheduled remotely by specialists in this field. An additional benefit is to remove the burden of understanding and managing data backup processes from the already stretched IT staff.

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. Contracting a DB/R MSP with the model of remote DB/R management allows the enterprise to maintain their data locally without the need to hire new staff or train existing staff in sophisticated data backup and recovery processes.

For more information on the subject of cloud data backup and recovery management, contact Salvus Data Consultants.

05.25.14
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Essential Core Data is Better Managed Through Master Data Management Strategies

Master Data is the core data that is essential to all businesses, regardless of size or industry. Recognizing how important master data is to operations, many businesses are moving towards Master Data Management (MDM) models to ensure their master data is persistently healthy. These models include content consolidation, master data harmonization, policies, standards, tools, and more.  Examples of the more commonly governed master data include customers, materials, and vendors.

Master Data Management SupportComputer Weekly states that choosing master data management (MDM) software differs from selecting other technologies for managing enterprise data. “Technology choice in MDM should be governed by a well-structured process.” Andy Hayler, CEO of London-based analyst firm said. Buyers need to look at the technical constraints of their own IT environment and identify their MDM requirements in some depth. “Maybe for your company certain features are really important,” he said. “Maybe you have got very high volumes of data, or maybe hierarchy management is more complex for you.”

IBM, with its InfoSphere MDM, for example, manages master data for single or multiple domains – customers, patients, citizens, suppliers, locations, products, services offerings, accounts & more. However, Microsoft’s entry into the MDM market, though it is likely to take a number of years, could put pricing pressure on its competitors as Microsoft targets mid-sized companies with lower-cost MDM products.

John Radcliffe, an analyst with Gartner said “Most MDM vendors are also more focused on supporting operational and transactional environments – think call centers and warehouse floors – but some are optimized to support business intelligence (BI) and other analytical use cases”. After identifying a clear vision for the master data program, organizations need to create a strategy. This means considering the available resources and understanding the amount of time and money involved in executing an MDM plan. 

Data within your company is critical, as shown by the development of more sophisticated technologies, such as MDM, to manage the second most critical asset in any company – second only to the employees themselves. Backup and Recovery of that Data is also critical to protect this important asset. As the data and its management becomes more sophisticated, so do the backup and recovery procedures.

The IT staff is stretched thin with the design, management and support of data models within the organization. The requirements of the sophisticated data backup design and execution can be outsourced to take that pressure off the IT staff and allow them to focus on internal critical initiatives. Consider Managed Service Providers, such as Salvus Data Consultants, that specialize in all modern Data Backup/Recovery methods for this very critical need.