by Priscila Ferrari from Drivesys, Brazil
Since the 2000s, the technology sector and digital market have undergone prominent changes. These have greatly affected all users, businesses, and industry professionals.
With the advent of high-performance computers, digital equipment and digital media, users have accumulated large amounts of media and content. This raises the question of how to store them without slowing down and clogging up the production infrastructure.
It’s very common for people to confuse archive and backup. For this reason, they frequently opt for the more familiar and simpler solution or the one that comes to mind first. However, the correct way to choose a system is to select the one that complements your requirements. Therefore, let us better understand how each concept works.
Backup
A backup system creates a security replica of projects, which are currently being edited and not yet finalized, delivered and ready for long-term safekeeping.
The time available for backup is often scarce and the need for speedy restore in case of failure is increasing. Hence, many companies adopt both tape and disk backup strategies. This improves the throughput and reliability of the infrastructure for a possible restoration at reasonable cost.
Archive
An archive is a migration, which deletes a file from an edit seat or the production storage after it is finalized in order to free up space for a new project. This system also locates and returns files according to their content, including author, date and other custom tags (metadata). Thus, it can be easily redeemed. Ideally, previews help the user verify that he has found the right media, thereby avoiding unnecessary restore jobs.
Two-Tier Data Protection
In an ideal world, users apply backup and archive together to optimize costs and improve the overall effectiveness of their storage infrastructure. Organizations that have introduced a two-tier data protection environment report significant benefits to their business. Some advantages backup and archiving include accelerated product development, global expansion efforts and improvements in defining customer profiles. All of these generate revenue. Today, the technology market has greater opportunities for products and services than it did a few years ago. On one hand, this is beneficial. On the other hand, as end users become more experienced, their demand for fast and easy solutions increases at practically the same speed as the development itself.
These new requirements for immediate service and the appearance of new technologies has generated behavioral changes in the technology sector. “IT departments are spending 73 percent of their budgets to keep existing applications and legacy infrastructure, but they want most of that to be rolled back into the future – to generate new business” (EMC2, 2016). Backup and archive solutions provide greater security for your users and data. While backup protects against user error, technical flaws or disasters, an archive facilitates the search for legacy and re-usable content, which can then be monetized. So choose the best solution according to your needs and remember: backup and archive are two fundamentally different concepts, but you will benefit from both.
