Details

Highly Cost-Effective so You Can Protect More Data

Unlike other disaster recovery (DR) storage solutions, which are based on expensive and proprietary parts, the underlying storage of the Pillar DR solution is the Pillar Axiom™ 600 storage system, which is manufactured using standard components and SATA disk drives. This design helps ensure that the solution is cost-effective at initial acquisition. Another cost advantage is the Axiom one-time licensing fee, which ensures that the Pillar DR solution remains affordable as it scales.

Another cost advantage of Pillar DR is that it can act as a replication target for many different arrays—including expensive, high-end arrays. Using an Axiom for DR in a remote site instead of purchasing a second high-end array for remote replication can result in significant savings for IT managers.

Saving money upon acquisition translates into the ability to protect more data and applications from unforeseen disasters than is feasible with expensive solutions. This means broader data center coverage and more complete recoverability.

While many DR plans begin with the protection of a limited number of applications and limited recovery point (RPO) objectives, these initial parameters often expand quickly. Disaster recovery coverage can rapidly move beyond the protection of mission-critical database applications to business-critical applications such as e-mail and file sharing. When coupled with shrinking RPOs, capacity requirements for DR systems can grow at an accelerated pace.

Because the Pillar DR solution can grow to 832 TBs in relatively small capacity increments, it can provide IT staff with the growth potential they need to accommodate dynamic DR capacity needs.

Minimizes Disaster Recovery Asset Requirements

Most data centers today feature a wide variety of storage systems, including DAS, NAS, and SAN systems. If each storage system requires a separate DR infrastructure, then the resulting number of DR assets becomes very challenging for IT staffs to manage.

Because the Pillar DR solution is heterogeneous and supports SAN and NAS systems, it can take the place of multiple DR assets both at the primary and remote sites. This can reduce both the number and management complexity of DR assets across the enterprise.

Ensures Optimal Usage of Your Disaster Recovery Assets

In remote site locations, DR systems are frequently underutilized. System resources are used only during occasional incremental backups or replication processes, and the rest of the time the system sits idle. In addition, the DR system frequently sits in a remote office or development center where there are significant storage needs and an idle system seems wasteful.

Unlike other DR systems whose functionality is static in nature, the storage underlying the Pillar DR solution is designed to be flexible, so that it can support the DR requirements of the primary data center and can also support applications for the site where it sits—including file-based applications such as file serving and block-based applications such as data warehousing.