Application consolidation generally takes two forms. The first type of consolidation is the merging of two instances of the same system into a single instance. The second type of consolidation is to merge two different systems with similar functionality into a single system. The second type of application consolidation is generally more difficult than the [...]

Application Protection is a catchall term, applied generically to all security measures that protect application services. URL-based attacks, script exploits, malicious data injection to SQL, ORACLE, IBM DB2 and other databases, mail server attacks and DNS poisoning are all examples of application level attacks.

E-mail archiving is a systematic approach to saving and protecting the data contained in e-mail messages so it can be accessed quickly at a later date.
E-mail archiving is the process of systematically recording and saving copies of e-mail correspondence for records keeping and documentation purposes.

Array-based memory is an evolving solid-state storage technology similar to flash memory but with potentially greater storage capacity. The increased capacity results from the fact that array-based memory is three-dimensional (3D) while most traditional memory and storage media are two-dimensional (2D).

In information technology, a term backup refers to making copies of data so that these additional copies may be used to restore the original after a data loss event. These additional copies are typically called “backups.” Backups are useful primarily for two purposes – to restore a state following a disaster (called disaster recovery) and [...]

Database backup is process that involves making a copy of a database in case of a hardware failure, program bug or system copy.

Backup software is a computer program used to perform a complete back up of a file, data, database, system or server. The backup software enables a user to make an exact duplicate of everything contained on the original source. This software must also be used to perform a recovery of the data or system [...]

Bare-metal restore is a technique in the field of data recovery and restoration where the backed up data is available in a form which allows one to restore a computer system from “bare metal”, i.e. without any requirements as to previously installed software or operating system.
In most cases, the backed up data includes the necessary [...]

Business Continuity is the activity performed by an organization to ensure that critical business functions will be available to customers, suppliers, regulators, and other entities that must have access to those functions. These activities include many daily chores such as project management, system backups, change control, and help desk. Business Continuity is not something implemented [...]

Capacity planning is the process of determining the production capacity needed by an organization to meet changing demands for its products. In the context of capacity planning, “capacity” is the maximum amount of work that an organization is capable of completing in a given period of time.

Continuous data protection (CDP), also called continuous backup or real-time backup, refers to backup of computer data by automatically saving a copy of every change made to that data, essentially capturing every version of the data that the user saves. It allows the user or administrator to restore data to any point in time. CDP [...]

In general, disaster recovery is a plan for duplicating computer operations after a catastrophe occurs, such as fire or earthquake. It includes routine off-site backup as well as a procedure for activating vital information systems in a new location. One method of off-site backup is often referred to as backing up to the cloud.
Cloud computing [...]

In computers, clustering is the use of multiple computers, typically PCs or UNIX workstations, multiple storage devices, and redundant interconnections, to form what appears to users as a single highly available system. Cluster computing can be used for load balancing as well as for high availability. One of the main ideas of cluster computing is [...]

Clustering is a proven technique to support scale-out of performance, capacity, reliability and availability of servers and storage resources beyond the limits of a single device. Traditional storage systems are bound by their physical components (number of disk drives, attached servers, cache size and controller performance) along with functionality and logical constraints (number of file [...]

A contingency plan is a plan devised for a specific situation when things could go wrong. Contingency plans are often devised by governments or businesses who want to be prepared for anything that could happen. Contingency plans include specific strategies and actions to deal with specific variances to assumptions resulting in a particular problem, emergency [...]

Continuous data protection (CDP), also known as continuous backup or real-time backup, refers to backup of computer data by automatically saving a copy of every change made to that data, essentially capturing every version of the data that the user saves. It allows the user or administrator to restore data to any point in time.
CDP [...]

Data deduplication (often called “intelligent compression” or “single-instance storage”) is a method of reducing storage needs by eliminating redundant data. Only one unique instance of the data is actually retained on storage media, such as disk or tape. Redundant data is replaced with a pointer to the unique data copy.
Data deduplication using Replay 4 backup [...]

Data Management is a broad field of study, but essentially is the process of managing data as a resource that is valuable to an organization or business. One of the largest organizations that deal with data management, DAMA (Data Management Association), states that data management is the process of developing data architectures, practices and procedures [...]

Data recovery is the process of salvaging data from damaged, failed, corrupted, or inaccessible secondary storage media when it cannot be accessed normally. Often the data are being salvaged from storage media such as hard disk drives, storage tapes, CDs, DVDs, RAID, and other electronics. Data recovery may be required due to physical damage to [...]

Data vaulting is the process of sending data off-site, where it can be protected from hardware failures, theft, and other threats. Several companies now provide Web backup services that will compress, encrypt, and periodically transmit a customer’s data to a remote vault. In most cases the vaults will feature auxiliary power supplies, powerful computers, and [...]

Data deduplication essentially refers to the elimination of redundant data. In the deduplication process, duplicate data is deleted, leaving only one copy of the data to be stored. However, indexing of all data is still retained should that data ever be required. Data deduplication is able to reduce the required storage capacity since only the [...]

Disaster recovery contains the process, policies and procedures related to preparing for recovery or continuation of technology infrastructure critical to an organization after a natural or human-induced disaster.
Disaster recovery planning is a subset of a larger process known as business continuity planning and should include planning for renewal of applications, data, hardware, communications (such as [...]

Disk imaging refers to copying the contents of a data storage device or medium, and transferring this to another, similar medium or device. In its original context, disk imaging implies the creation of an exact duplicate of a computer’s hard disk drive – including its programs, setup and data then storing this in a special, [...]

Electronic discovery (also called e-discovery or ediscovery) refers to any process in which electronic data is sought, located, secured, and searched with the intent of using it as evidence in a civil or criminal legal case. E-discovery can be carried out offline on a particular computer or it can be done in a network. Court-ordered [...]

Electronic data needs to be archived in such a way that makes it traceable and retrievable, should there be any question of noncompliance from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Companies are subject to fines if their data is subpoenaed but can’t be located, and simply creating backups isn’t always enough. All companies should [...]

E-mail archiving is a systematic approach to saving and protecting the data contained in e-mail messages so it can be accessed quickly at a later date. By using File Archiving, when a file is overwritten or removed during a run, the old file is first moved to an archive location, locally or over the [...]

Email Recovery is basically a process to restore your corrupted or deleted emails using email recovery software. The most popular platforms for saving emails are Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, and Microsoft Exchange.
Learn more about email recovery software.

Microsoft Exchange is a popular Microsoft messaging system and collaborative software product widely used by businesses using Microsoft infrastructure solutions.
Exchange’s major features include a mail server, e-mail client, and multiple groupware applications. It is part of the Microsoft Servers line of products and often used in conjunction with Microsoft Outlook. The server supports web-based as [...]

Failover is a backup operational mode in which the functions of a system component (such as a processor, server, network, or database, for example) are assumed by secondary system components when the primary component becomes unavailable through either failure or scheduled down time.
Failover is a backup operation that automatically switches to a standby database, [...]

High availability is a system design protocol and associated implementation that ensures a certain absolute degree of operational continuity during a given measurement period.
Users want their systems, for example computers, to be ready to serve them at all times. Availability refers to the ability of the user community to access the system, whether to submit [...]

Short for information lifecycle management, the creation and management of a storage infrastructure and the data that it maintains. All information, or data, in a storage network has a specific lifecycle, from the time the information enters an organization’s system to the time it is archived or removed from the system. The information may have [...]

In telecommunications, in-band signaling is the sending of metadata and control information in the same band, on the same channel, as used for data.

After a full backup, the application will only backup data that has changed. This is called an ‘incremental forever paradigm’.

Information Lifecycle Management (sometimes abbreviated ILM) is the practice of applying certain policies to the effective management of information throughout its useful life. This practice has been used by Records and Information Management (RIM) Professionals for over three decades and had its basis in the management of information in paper or other physical forms (microfilm, [...]

E-mail is the most widely used communications tool for many companies, and consequently any lost or corrupted emails can negatively affect any business.
The Message Level Restore (MLR) module, a multi-site backup and recovery software, protects and restores individual or group emails without interrupting email server and offers selective filtering in order to restore only specific [...]

Data migration is the process of making a copy of data and moving it from one device or system to another, preferably without disrupting or disabling active business processing. After data is transferred, processing uses the new device or system.

Mirroring is the automated process of writing data to two drives simultaneously. Mirroring is used to provide redundancy. If one drive fails, the redundant drive will continue the data storage providing access to it. The failed drive can then be replaced and the drive set can be re-mirrored.

Network backup is any backup system where the data to be backed up traverses the network to reach the backup media. Network backup typically requires client-server software architecture. The backup server resides on a centralized server and the backup clients reside on every system to be backed up. Advanced network backup systems can manage backup [...]

Out-of-Band (OOB) is a technical term with different uses in communications and telecommunication. It refers to communications which occur outside of a previously established communications method or channel. The use of the word “band” in “out-of-band” originates from the term as used in radio and other electronic communications.

A remote, online, or managed backup service is a service that provides users with an online system for backing up and storing computer files. Managed backup providers are companies that provide this type of service.

Replication is the process of sharing information in order to ensure consistency between redundant resources, such as software or hardware components, so as to improve accessibility, fault-tolerance, or reliability. It could be computation replication if the same computing task is executed many times or data replication if the same data is stored on multiple storage [...]

A storage area network (SAN) is an architecture to attach remote computer storage devices (such as disk arrays, tape libraries, and optical jukeboxes) to servers in such a way that the devices appear as locally attached to the operating system. Although the cost and complexity of SANs are dropping, they are uncommon outside larger enterprises. [...]

A server is a computer or device on a network that manages network resources. Servers are often dedicated, meaning that they perform no other tasks besides their server tasks. On multiprocessing operating systems, however, a single computer can execute several programs at once. A server in this case could refer to the program that is [...]

Disk imaging refers to copying the contents of a data storage device or medium, and transferring this to another, similar medium or device. In its original context, disk imaging implies the creation of an exact duplicate of a computer’s hard disk drive – including its programs, setup and data, then storing this in a special, [...]

Server Operating Systems (Server OSes) are designed from the ground up to provide platforms for multi-user, frequently business-critical, networked applications. As such, the focus of such operating systems tends to be security, stability and collaboration, rather than user interface. Server OSes provide a platform for multi-user applications, and most come bundled with a batch of [...]

There are several methods you can use to perform data backup and restore for Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services. Each of these methods allows you to back up and restore data, but each method acts at a different level of granularity and may require different permissions. You can perform data backup and restore for Windows SharePoint [...]

Microsoft SQL Server is a relational model database server produced by Microsoft. Its primary query languages are T-SQL and ANSI SQL.
Microsoft SQL Server enables users to back up and restore their databases. The SQL Server backup and restore component provides an important safeguard for protecting critical data stored in SQL Server databases. A well-planned backup [...]

In computers, tape backup is the ability to periodically copy the contents of all or a designated amount of data from its usual storage device to a tape cartridge device so that, in the event of a hard disk crash or comparable failure, the data will not be lost. Tape backup can be done manually [...]

A tape drive, which is also known as a streamer, is a data storage device that reads and writes data stored on a magnetic tape. It is typically used for archival storage of data stored on hard drives. Tape media generally has a favorable unit cost and long archival stability.
Magnetic tape has long been the [...]

In computer storage, a tape library, sometimes called a tape silo, tape robot or tape jukebox, is a storage device which contains one or more tape drives, a number of slots to hold tape cartridges, a barcode reader to identify tape cartridges and an automated method for loading tapes (a robot). One of the earliest [...]

Tiered storage is the assignment of different categories of data to different types of storage media in order to reduce total storage cost. Categories may be based on levels of protection needed, performance requirements, frequency of use, and other considerations. Since assigning data to particular media may be an ongoing and complex activity, some vendors [...]

A virtual tape library (VTL) is a data storage virtualization technology used typically for backup and recovery purposes. A VTL presents a storage component (usually hard disk storage) as tape libraries or tape drives for use with existing backup software.

Server virtualization is the masking of server resources, including the number and identity of individual physical servers, processors, and operating systems, from server users. The server administrator uses a software application to divide one physical server into multiple isolated virtual environments. The virtual environments are sometimes called virtual private servers, but they are also known [...]

WAN optimization products seek to accelerate a broad range of applications accessed by distributed enterprise users via eliminating redundant transmissions, staging data in local caches, compressing and prioritizing data, and streamlining chatty protocols (e.g., CIFS). WAN optimization also helps avoid packet delivery issues common in shared WAN environments, like MPLS and Internet VPNs. Component techniques [...]