CIO — Backup isn't exactly the sexiest area within an IT organization. In many cases, it's perennially understaffed and under-resourced. But as data becomes an increasingly valuable commodity in the enterprise, and the volumes of data generated by the enterprise expand exponentially, backup is buckling under the strain. A new way of thinking about protection storage architecture may be required.
"Imagine a dam with a single, small sluice gate near the bottom, and there's water just gushing over the top," says Guy Churchward, president of Backup and Recovery Systems at EMC. That sluice gate represents your backup platform and the water represents your data. "Backup can't handle the load."
And worse is coming, Churchward says. If you were to pan the camera back from your little dam with water spilling over the top, you'd see 15 other raging rivers rushing toward you.