Press Release (U.K.)

The Importance Of LAN Discovery Tools
Businesses are beginning to realise that data generated at remote sites can be just as important as data generated at the HQ. It is therefore necessary to include remote office data in a company’s backup solution. This increased anxiety for the remote office data has raised questions of how to back up this data safely, retrievably, and cost-effectively.

London– June 6, 2006 – Service Providers (SPs) and multi-site enterprises that can save on storage costs at the remote office/branch office (ROBO) will have a definite market advantage. It is cheaper to store data in long term disk storage than short-term storage, so customers that have the option to analyse and differentiate between data types can control the amount of data stored in short-term storage. This functionality can be delivered with a LAN discovery tool.

A LAN discovery tool benefits both SPs and enterprise level users. SPs can lower their customers’ storage costs by using the LAN discovery tool to help customers prune data before they subscribe. Enterprise users can use it to reduce the volume of ROBO data to be backed up, gleaning a better understanding of the changing frequency of data at remote sites. This is all possible because a LAN discovery tool will uncover information about ROBO data such as size of files, ownership within the company, duplicate information and the rate at which files have been modified.

This knowledge is particularly important for a centrally located storage administrator who is typically less aware of how data behaves at ROBO sites and provides for a more meaningful backup consolidation project that ensures better recovery time objectives (RTOs) and recovery point objectives (RPOs) for ROBO data with cost containment.

SPs that choose to invest in a LAN discovery tool will be able to plan an effective and comprehensive backup strategy tailored to a customer’s remote backup and storage needs. A LAN discovery tool is designed to analyse idiosyncrasies and characteristics of data behaviour at ROBO sites, providing in-depth understanding about the ROBO data before it is protected. By placing a LAN discovery tool at each remote site customers can have their data analysed to differentiate the ‘critical’ data (essential for day-to-day use) from the ‘important’ data (less frequently used but still needed).

This classification allows a company to set RTOs and policies to back up information based on its relevancy, frequency of use and value. The ‘critical’ information will be stored locally and offsite on disk for fast restore and the ‘important’ information - which is older and less frequently accessed - will find itself moved to long-term storage as part of a comprehensive backup lifecycle management (BLM) programme. The capacity for the SP or storage administrator to identify and separate the data to suitable media reduces costs and improves utilisation of existing storage resources.

The discovery process of a LAN discovery tool should allow administrators to configure the extent of their remote LAN that will be analysed. Depending on a company’s needs, this range can include an entire branch office, several machines or a single computer, even a single network share. A list of criteria should be provided for the discovery/scanning process.

The scanning process should be scheduled or start on demand. Scheduled runs over a period of time provide more accurate statistical information on data growth and changes. To speed up the scanning process and reporting, users should have the ability to easily alter the scan to skip files that are smaller than a specific size, preferably from a graphical user interface (GUI). The scan should be agentless, eliminating the need to install software on each desktop, server or laptop targeted for scanning. At the end of the scan process, summary and detailed reports should be provided at a ‘drill-down’ granular level in multiple formats, such as in HTML or Excel.

By using a LAN discovery tool to thoroughly analyse the storage network before investing in a backup management solution, enterprises can implement policies and procedures that will help manage corporate data while controlling costs and optimising storage resources.

About Asigra
Asigra is the award-winning leader in remote office/branch office online backup/recovery with more than three petabytes of data under protection. Since 1986, the company’s agentless Televaulting solution has centralized data management and eliminated the pricing and performance problems created by agent-based tape backup software in multi-site enterprises. Televaulting addresses state, Federal and international regulatory compliance demands by backing up remote/branch office data to the data center. Data is encrypted both “in-flight” over the WAN and “at rest.” Televaulting is offered by leading resellers and service providers worldwide to deliver highly secure data protection. Privately held Asigra is headquartered in Toronto, Canada with partner offices located globally. For more information, visitwww.asigra.com.