* Disk-based backup can be an attractive alternative to tape-based backup
Performance key for disk-based backup
By Bill Andrews
Disk-based backup systems that support compression and data deduplication can be an attractive alternative to tape-based backup, but the architecture and design will greatly affect how these systems perform and scale.
When reviewing performance, keep in mind that performing compression and data deduplication on the fly will significantly slow the backup process.Some approaches avoid this problem by providing enough disk space to receive the backup job without processing, and simply apply compression and data deduplication after the backup is complete. This ensures jobs run at the speed of disk while gaining the benefit of storage efficiency.
Equally important to backup performance is restore performance. It’s important to keep the backup window manageable, but not at the cost of increased file-restore times or the ability to recover quickly in the case of a disaster. Data-reduction algorithms work in different ways. Some approaches break up data into small chunks to identify redundancy; however, with the data in millions of chunks scattered on the disk, it takes a long time to reassemble.
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