CDP today, as Preston notes, has come a long way. As we wrote back in May, CDP today is a critical part of any comprehensive data protection and disaster recovery strategy. No longer a one-off product created by short-lived companies, continuous data protection today offers the data center real value within the confines of existing infrastructure.
Preston offers several salient points to explain the success of “CDP 2.0.” They include:
• The backing of established and trusted data back-up companies
• Integration with applications such as Microsoft Exchange, Oracle and SQL Server
• Stringent and reliable standards for RTOs and RPOs
• Data loss notification laws, which raise the stakes for DR capabilities
• The rise in server virtualization
All of these factors contribute to the love the industry has for CDP today, despite its skepticism yesterday. But even now, organizations need to look closely at what they’re getting when they seek out CDP. Not all solutions, of course, are created equal.
If CDP is part of your future, look for a solution that integrates with your existing infrastructure; there’s no need to replace investments when you can build on them. In addition, seek out offerings with centralized management and reporting. These features will reduce your management overhead. Compression and data reduction capabilities will minimize your storage requirements, and WAN optimization will minimize your network bandwidth requirements for replication.
Preston notes in his article that early CDP products were not embraced by wary enterprises. Things sure have changed. Today’s data centers are clamoring for a solution to time-consuming, unreliable tape-based backup, and CDP is fulfilling its promise for efficiency and dependability.
