Can Snapshot Help You With Data Backup?

If you are an enterprise which simply cannot afford any downtime, but have mission critical data that needs backup as any data loss would be catastrophic then perhaps you should consider purchasing the equipment and software that would enable you to make use of a snapshot data backup system, which avoids the potential problems of other data backup systems, some of which can cause data corruption.

The problem with traditional data backup systems is that if they are tasked with backing up data while the system is still being used then there is the potential that files can be written to while the backup is taking place, this is potentially dangerous. Imagine if you will that a file is moved from one directory to another while it is being backed up, in cases like this there is a very real possibility of corruption. Snapshot avoids this by making a read only copy of the data in the system at a single point in time, hence the photographic snapshot analogy.

Problems with traditional backup systems can be avoided by restricting the users’ ability to write information during the backup process. This approach is fine when working on low availability systems where the system is not required to be active in a read / write capacity all the time. However when the system needs to operate 24/7 then disabling the write function may simply not be feasible.

Snapshot is especially useful where large data sets are concerned. The traditional backup of these large volumes of data can take some time and the longer the time period of the backup, the greater the potential for data corruption. Snapshot applications are available for most operating systems, including UNIX, Microsoft and Apple. Snapshot software and system applications can also be specially designed for bespoke applications and software suites.

If you think that your enterprise could benefit from the just in time application of snapshot software then contact us.