IBM Storage Protect is a good fit for heterogenous backup needs
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
Storage Protect is used as a generic backup solution for all the platforms we are running, including virtual machines with Windows, Linux and AIX, databases that include Oracle, Db2 and SAP HANA and virtualisation platforms like VMware.
We backup to several Storage Protect servers, which are replicated to another set of SP servers to maintain access to data that was backed-up in case the primary site becomes unavailable.
The second set of Storage Protect servers is connected to a tape library, allowing all data to be offloaded to tape. These tapes are exchanged daily, to be used in case of malware/ransomware attacks etc.
Pros
- Continuing a failed backup/restore session, even if the Storage Protect server is temporarily unavailable.
- The incremental-forever approach for regular files, just back them up once and only create a new backup when a file has changed.
- Subfile backups, to only backup the changed portion of a (very) large file.
- Deduplication and compression, both causing backed-up data to use a small portion of the original file size in space-consumption on disk or tape.
- Extensive settings, policy-based, to govern how many copies of data to keep, for how long, where to store them etc.
Cons
- Some administrators are trying to mimic daily, weekly and monthly backups. Or come from an environment where that schedule is the norm. It is hard to explain/understand that SP works completely different.
- People fail to understand that policies govern the 'lifetime' of a backup, regardless whether on tape or on disk. Administrators of other backup tools feel that it should be possible to put a tape back into the tape library and restore from it, no matter how old the backups are. In reality SP 'expires' the data from its database, making the tape useless if it is too old. Massive deduplication and compression makes data on tape unusable if the corresponding data is no longer in the SP database.
- New versions usually introduce new features, but often also new bugs. Things that used to work perfectly might go wrong after you install a new version. Also the new features do not always work as promised. Better beta-release testing seems appropriate.
- Initial setup can be a hassle and requires good detailed knowledge about all the product options. It can do a lot, but you can/must tweak a lot. Also, when serious problems do occur, you need a skilled administrator (or call IBM) to fix it.
Likelihood to Recommend
IBM Storage Protect is well-suited for large heterogenous environments, with skilled IT staff on-hand. You need a person (or group of people) to monitor day-to-day operations, tweak schedules where needed and be mindful of things that might go wrong.
It is also well-suited if you have other IBM products that integrate well with Storage Protect, like Storage Protect Plus or IBM Defender.
It is less suited for small companies, with only one person responsible for IT. Employing Storage Protect would be overkill and use too much time of the administrator.
