The Business Case

Better Backup, Better Disaster RecoveryWho should read this paperWho should read this paper

Business Owners / Operators, IT Decision Makers, IT Managers, NetworkAdministrators

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ITE PAPER

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Content

Introduction: Getting Backup Up to Speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Business on the Brink. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

The Backup Trap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

A Single, Simple Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Your Business – Fit for 2012 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Better Backup, Better Disaster RecoveryThe Business Case

Introduction: Getting Backup Up to Speed

FACTS FOR THOUGHT...1

• 59% of SMBs' customers have

switched vendors due to an unreliable

computing system

But...

• 52% of SMBs lack a disaster

preparedness plan.

Smooth-running companies need smooth-running IT. Data, applications, systems – they’re the

bedrock of good business and maintaining their integrity, security and availability is vital to

business continuity, operational efficiency, staff morale, competitive edge and customer

satisfaction. But it’s surprising just how many organisations:

• Do not backup data, applications and systems to insure against loss or downtime; or

• Think they’re protected, when they are not adequately protected at all; or

• Rely on unnecessarily costly, complicated and often chaotic backup and recovery ‘solutions’.

Above all, many backup and recovery strategies are not keeping pace with rampant data growth

and increasing migration from physical to virtual IT environments, leaving businesses at risk and in-house IT staff and budgets stretched to

breaking point. And while the goals may seem obvious – cut the risks to your business, cut the complexity of backup and recovery and cut

unnecessary costs – the route to achieving all three simultaneously may seem much less clear.

This White Paper outlines an on-premise solution that can ensure your business gets its backup and disaster recovery strategy up to speed

efficiently, effectively and affordably.

Business on the Brink

FACTS FOR THOUGHT…

• IT downtime costs SMBs, on

average, around AU$14k per day

And….

• 51% of SMB customers say their

vendors have temporarily shut down

due to an IT disaster.

Think of all the reasons why data, applications and systems that your business relies on might be

put beyond use. The following are just small sample from a disturbingly long list:

• Viruses and other forms of cyber-attack.

• Effects of severe weather and natural disasters.

• Hardware crashes.

• Employee error (e.g. data overwritten).

• Power outages.

Even a minor hiatus in availability can be costly in operational, financial and reputational terms.

So the big question is, can you insure your business against the unacceptable disruption that

incidents like these can lead to?

Making copies – to tapes, disks or virtual servers, for instance – and using these to restore everything that has been lost may seem the

obvious solution. But consider these two initial questions:

1. Is it easy and affordable to backup everything using conventional methods?

No, it is not.2with unstructured data (i.e. not held in databases) accounting for most of this growth – creating crushing pressure on

businesses’ IT resources.

1-

2-Facts for Thought’ statistics taken from Symantec’s 2011 SMB Disaster Preparedness Survey Report (https://scm.symantec.com/2011-preparedness-survey/en/?mt=symccombanner&loc=SG)E.g. http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9194283/Data_growth_remains_IT_s_biggest_challenge_Gartner_says

Better Backup, Better Disaster RecoveryThe Business Case

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2. Is it possible to be selective about what you backup?

Again, no. It’s not just a question of ensuring you have a fall-back if business-critical data, applications and systems go down. Legislation and

regulation (e.g. on e-discovery and data protection) have continued to raise the bar not just in terms of how much is backed up but how

securely it’s backed up too.

In an age of 24/7 operations, business continuity and regulatory compliance require comprehensive, secure backup of data, applications and

systems, minimisation of backup windows and instant recovery of backed-up material as and when disaster strikes. Backup failure can leave

your business on the brink of both short and long-term damage.

The Backup Trap

FACTS FOR THOUGHT…

• Only 21% of SMBs perform a daily

backup

And….

• 45% of SMBs would lose at least

40% of their data in the event of a

disaster.

When framing and implementing a backup and disaster recovery strategy, there are three

classic, interlinked traps that many businesses fall into – ineffectiveness, excessive complexity

and runaway costs:

• Ineffectiveness

Many backup practices simply are not up to safeguarding businesses from potentially

catastrophic losses. For instance:

• They may be applied inconsistently or irregularly, or not fully meet the needs of

both physical and virtual IT environments.

• Traditional backup media (tapes, disks) may not be stored safely, compounding their inherent inability to ensure seamless

business continuity if a disaster happens.

• As well as soaking up precious bandwidth, data sent via networks (e.g. as part of deduping procedures) may not be secure and

tamper-proof while in transit and/or at rest.

And here’s another killer fact: only around 20% of backup jobs actually succeed,3

whether due to the limitations of the technologies relied on

or lack of staff resources to manage the processes effectively.

• Excessive complexity:

Many businesses choose to supplement traditional backup options with additional bolt-on quick-fixes, such as deduping, snapshot recovery,

backup for virtual machines and so on. But such piecemeal, incremental approaches can have big downsides. For example:

• Fragmented ‘solutions’ (often provided by multiple vendors) may be incompatible or fail to lock together seamlessly.

• Failure to keep all elements up-to-date can result in old backups no longer being retrievable due to changes in software,

hardware and IT infrastructure in general.

• While virtualisation of data, applications and systems can make backup and disaster recovery easier in some respects, it also

adds another layer of complexity to manage as physical and virtual environments interlock and a decreasing number of physical

resources act as a bottleneck for data flowing out to and in from virtual servers

3- http://www.krollontrack.com/data-recovery/complexity-storage-systems

Better Backup, Better Disaster RecoveryThe Business Case

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Additionally, the need to factor-in mobile workers and remote offices only adds to the headache.

• Runaway costs:

One consequence of complexity is higher IT management costs. In terms of capex, opex and staff costs – and in a business climate where

more has to be achieved with less – the more fragmented and complex your business’s backup culture and procedures, the harder it is to

keep costs rationalised. Overall, cost calculations need to take into account:

• The ramifications of the data explosion in terms of time and effort involved in managing backups and recovery.

• The cost of building, retaining or buying-in the expertise needed to implement and update backup and disaster recovery

strategies.

• The potential cost of mistakes, ranging from the need to re-enter lost data that hasn’t been adequately backed up to the scope

for lost business due to a backup lapse or sluggish disaster recovery.

All of which boils down to a question of productivity and profitability, not just within your IT team but across your whole business

A Single, Simple Solution

FACTS FOR THOUGHT…

• SMBs experience an average of five

IT outages per year.

But….

• Only 28% of those with a disaster

recovery plan have tested it.

Backup and disaster recovery pose countless challenges. But there’s one solution to all of them –

a solution that’s:

• Secure and reliable.

• Comprehensive and all-inclusive.

• Simple to set up and easy to use.

• Affordable, with completely predictable costs.

• Automated yet customisable.

Symantec Backup Exec 2012 is a unique, integrated on-premise solution comprising backup and recovery software for both physical and

virtual IT environments that harnesses cutting-edge innovation in data protection. All features are run from a single admin console, a suite of

agents and options can be added and a choice of Basic (business hour only) or Essential (24x7) support packages is available. The Small

Business Edition, meanwhile, delivers total protection for smaller businesses in a single license, capable of supporting up to three servers.

Better Backup, Better Disaster RecoveryThe Business Case

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Your Business – Fit for 2012

Symantec Backup Exec is renowned for delivering effective, transparent backup and recovery across entire IT environments. But the 2012

Edition goes even further in simplifying what’s involved, providing more options, and delivering even greater speed and ease of use that save

you more time and money than ever. New value-adding features include:

• A more streamlined admin console that is intuitive, highly graphic and easier to use for effortless, stage-based creation of storage and

backup jobs, even by the non-expert.

• More disaster recovery options (e.g. rapid recovery of failed servers to a virtual environment or dissimilar physical hardware).

• Greater searchability of data to restore, right down to single files.

Cutting business risks. Cutting needless complexity. Cutting unnecessary costs. Backup Exec 2012 is the smart solution for smart companies

– replacing chaos with confidence.

Better Backup, Better Disaster RecoveryThe Business Case

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About Symantec

Symantec is a global leader in providing security,

storage and systems management solutions to help

consumers and organizations secure and manage

their information-driven world. Our software and

services protect against more risks at more points,

more completely and efficiently, enabling

confidence wherever information is used or stored.

Symantec Australia

Level 14, 207 Kent Street

Sydney NSW 2000

AUSTRALIA

General Enquries: 1800 080 759

Main: +61 2 8220 7000

www.symantec.com.au

Symantec helps organizations secure and manage theirinformation-driven world with data backup andrecovery software.

Copyright © 2012 Symantec Corporation. All rightsreserved. Symantec, the Symantec Logo, and theCheckmark Logo are trademarks or registeredtrademarks of Symantec Corporation or its affiliates inthe U.S. and other countries. Other names may betrademarks of their respective owners.9/2012

Better Backup, Better Disaster RecoveryThe Business Case