Continuous Data Protection Solutions Should Feature Both Continuous Protection and Availability, Especially for Branch Offices Environments

In the IT universe, continuous data protection (CDP), sometimes also called real-time backup, refers to the ability to automatically detect file changes made on a source system and automatically replicate (back up) these changes to a centralized target system each time they occur.

Traditional backup solutions differ from CDP solutions as they only create a backup copy at the time a backup was made or scheduled. Backup schedules are typically determined by backup windows – time slots that have the least amount of impact on day-to-day operations, which naturally places a certain amount of data at risk between backups. Continuous data protection solves this age old problem because it has no backup schedule, it is always on.

Most backup solutions are adequate in a data center environment, or in a single office location where backups are made over a high speed local area network (LAN), but when it comes to a branch office environment connected by a WAN, these same solutions will struggle. This is caused by the following challenges:

• Copying files and file changes creates overhead that saturates WAN connections and impacts operations in branch offices

• Backup functionality is unreliable over below average WAN connections with high latency and low throughput

• Delayed recovery and restore process – users at an affected branch office will have to wait for a restore process to complete before they can resume working on their files

One solution that solves the challenge of continuous data protection and availability for branch office environments is PeerSync® by Peer Software. Powered by DFSR+® technology, PeerSync is a proven CDP solution for multi-vendor systems.

Key features include:

• Real-time sync for fast operation that prevents data loss in case of catastrophic failure

• Byte-level delta replication minimizes bandwidth utilization and works in concert with NetApp dedupe functionality to reduce storage requirements

• supports multi-vendor platforms

• Centralized configuration and management

• Continuous availability – PeerSync creates file/directory replicas users can be redirected to if their local server is not available… no waiting for a restore procedure to complete!

Ready to learn more? Please click here to access additional information on PeerSync and fully functional evaluation software to try in your environment.