This Solution Report describes a disk-to-disk backup and restore configuration that combines the Adaptec FS4500 Fibre-SATA storage array with Computer Associates' BrightStor ARCserve 11 for Windows. The tested solution provides a practical, cost-effective and easily deployed solution for handling day-to-day backup/restore operations in a Fibre Channel SAN environment.

Introduction

The Challenge
As companies become increasingly reliant on their information resources, IT managers face a daunting challenge in protecting business-critical data. They must be able to:

• Provide rapid near-term recovery of data and applications to assure business continuity.
• Back up a growing volume of data, without interrupting normal business activities.
• Meet expanding data protection needs within existing budget constraints.

Increasingly, IT managers are finding traditional tape media backup systems inadequate to meet their near-term backup/restore requirements. This is due to some inherent disadvantages of tape libraries:

• Long Backup Windows, requiring hours per terabyte, preventing access to applications and data.
• Slow Restore Times, particularly when data is stored on multiple tapes that must be loaded and unloaded.
• Lack of Scalability, requiring purchase of additional, costly tape libraries to accommodate growth.
• Cost and Complexity, including high initial cost and expensive, time-consuming maintenance and management.

While the longevity and low cost of tape media make it attractive for long-term data archiving, enterprises need a better solution for their short-term backup/restore requirements. This need is especially apparent when one considers that 90% of the data required for recovery has been backed up within the previous 7 days. Keeping these files on disk, ready for rapid recovery, is critical to business continuity.

The Solution: Adaptec FS4500 Fibre Channel-to-Serial ATA Storage Array
The Adaptec FS4500 is a high-performance, high-density, disk-to-disk Fibre Channel storage solution that delivers the performance, price and availability to meet today's real-world enterprise requirements. Based on Serial ATA disk technology, RAID disk array technology, and Fibre Channel interface technology, the Adaptec FS4500 Storage Array offers exceptional price/performance and flexibility.

Used with industry-leading backup/restore software applications, the Adaptec FS4500 offers the full benefits of an advanced, disk-to-disk solution:

• Faster Restore Times, performing data recovery up to 15 times faster than tape systems. Accelerate restore times by 80%.
• Shorter Backup Windows, dramatically reducing the time that data and applications are unavailable. Slash backup times by 33%.
• Scalability, permitting rapid, cost-effective scaling of both capacity and performance.
• Decreased Downtime, ensuring data availability with RAID storage arrays and highly reliable Serial ATA disks.
• Reduced Management Cost and Complexity with simple, centralized management of all storage resources.

Test Configuration

The combination of the Adaptec FS4500 Fibre-to-SATA Storage Array and Computer Associates' ARCserve 11 software provide a practical, cost-effective and easily deployed solution for handling day-to-day backup/restore operations in a FC SAN environment. In our tests, the Adaptec FS4500 and ARCserve 11 configuration proved an effective way for companies to satisfy their data protection strategies of today…and those of tomorrow.

To read the complete report, view the pdf.