Trend Reports Are a Critical Tool in Optimizing the Data Protection Operation
Kirkland, Wash. - August 25, 2010 - Trend reports aid problem management, help facilitate policy optimization for better performance and resource management, and can help ensure accurate capacity planning, according to experts at Bocada Inc., the world's leading provider of data protection management software and the creator of the Data Protection Service Management (DPSM) model.
While effective problem management requires being able to view errors as they occur for quick troubleshooting, the ability to view trends in the backup environment is essential for effective data protection service management. Long-term trends help reveal chronic problems with individual servers, networks, tape or disk arrays. Trending can also reveal a number of issues not initially apparent from hourly or daily errors, such as drive contention, problems with scheduling causing backup window issues or if there are underlying infrastructure or hardware problems.
Developed in partnership with leading enterprise customers and service providers, the Bocada DPSM model is an ITSM-like actionable methodology targeted at enhancing the delivery of data protection services. Trending backup results over time is an essential aspect of both an overall Health Check and effective Policy Management. Trending will reveal what policies should be modified to ensure operational success. Publishing reports promotes better communication results with customers thereby increasing satisfaction rates.
Some of the trending reports found in the Bocada Prism, the first and only data protection service management solution purpose-built to intuitively drive users through the multi-phased DPSM process, include:
o Job Trends - shows detailed backup behavior over time, potentially unveiling chronic job failures
o Backup Trends - viewing the amount of data being backed up during a given time period is instrumental for both storage planning and optimization, and identifying trends
o Backup Duration Trends - addresses the ongoing challenge of backup windows, allowing users to compare their static backup window with backup duration trends
o Media Usage Trends - allows users to analyze the impact of backup trends on their media volumes over time
o Occupancy Trends - shows how overall storage changes over time, thus enabling users to predict future storage needs and measure the impact of changes to backup policy
o Error Trends - enables backup administrators to see error count trending and quickly identify which error types are the biggest offenders
"Being able to deliver on SLAs is critical for operational excellence and customer satisfaction," said Nancy Hurley, CEO of Bocada. "An effective DPSM solution must provide the ability to see both what is occurring now as well as provide the ability to historically track multiple dimensions of backup activity in order to enable users to optimize their data protection operations. Armed with this knowledge, administrators can modify policies accordingly in order to optimize backup performance and resource use."
Bocada customers include Fortune 500 companies in diverse industries including financial services, technology, consumer goods, and telecommunications. To read more about how Bocada customers benefit from SLA management, see the online tutorials located on the Bocada support site and partner portal for additional information on monitoring performance and publishing trend reports for customers.
About Bocada
Bocada provides market leading data protection service management solutions to transform the way companies deliver data protection services to achieve greater business and IT alignment, maximize operational efficiency, minimize risk and increase customer satisfaction. Based on patented, agent-less technology, Bocada solutions deploy rapidly and scale to meet the demands of the largest multi-vendor data protection environments. Over 500 enterprise organizations more effectively manage over 300,000 backup clients and servers with Bocada solutions. Headquartered in Kirkland, Washington, Bocada is privately held and funded by leading venture investors. For more information visit: www.bocada.com.
