Disk-To-Disk Solutions Picking Up Steam

End users today are demanding quicker, more inexpensive ways to back up and restore data, which is fueling sales of disk-to-disk backup solutions, say solution providers.

"Backup's great, but if you can't restore, backup means nothing," said Scott Petersen, vice president of North American sales at BakBone Software, a San Diego-based developer of backup and recovery solutions. "If you can't recover in 'X' period of time, that's a cost to your business. As your restore time extends, it can put you out of business."

BakBone expects to report revenue of between $32 million and $35 million this year, compared with $18.6 million last year, from application sales that are part of a data life-cycle management solution. "People are recognizing that you can restore sooner with disk-to-disk," said Petersen. "It has greater accessibility, but it's also a way to reduce your [downtime] by backing up to disk and then streaming that disk-to-tape [in the background]," he said.

Restoring data from a tape can be a lengthy process, especially since today's corporate environments routinely require backup of terabytes of data, said John Conway, storage practice manager at 4Front Systems, a Morrisville, N.C.-based solution provider. Disk-to-disk technology has become a more popular alternative as a backup and recovery solution, he said.

"I'm working on one project right now. We're setting up close to 7 terabytes of raw space, just disk-to-disk," Conway said. "It's a staged backup. First is disk-to-disk, which gives the customer the ability for a quick recovery time objective," he said. "This works also because tape costs and library costs are exceeding what disk costs are, especially up to terabytes."

After backing up to disk, the data can then be streamed to tape for more permanent protection, Conway said. Prices for disk products have dropped enough to make it an affordable addition to the traditional disk-to-tape solution, he said.

Margin opportunities for disk-to-disk are very competitive with disk-to-tape, so it's best to let the customer's particular needs dictate the technology, Conway said. "We're guided by the customer. We have to find out what they need and drive them to that."

Bell Microproducts, a San Jose, Calif.-based distributor, is pushing solution providers to learn more about life-cycle management solutions, including disk-to-disk, said Tony Craythorne, vice president of sales for enterprise solutions.

"A lot of people jumped on the storage bandwagon a few years ago and still sell it as a commodity," said Craythorne. "They should be selling [it] as a data solution, understanding the customer's requirements. What are their storage needs locally? What needs to be moved off-site? With what frequency do you access data? That has not been brought by VARs," he said.

Solution providers should sell assessment services to help end users better understand their storage needs and capabilities, Craythorne said. "That's a basic service to help customers understand, especially in SMB, what they can save," he said.

Solution providers have a variety of disk-to-disk options to choose from, including virtual tape appliances that attach to a client's system as a tape drive and replication products that work on a peer-to-peer network, copying all data to multiple locations, said Jim Montgomery, senior systems engineer at PeakData, a Niwot, Colo.-based solution provider.

"A lot of people are using the life-cycle management phrase. But what it really comes down to is what the customer needs to do," Montgomery said. "There will continue to be a need for high-performance tape. But what the cost of disk has done is allow customers who have to move to tape, it's given them some alternatives."