Virtual Server Backup
Server virtualization allows for multiple virtual machines to share numerous computing resources on a single physical server, delivering efficiency via improved resource utilization, server hardware consolidation, and lower data center operating costs due to the reduced amount of hardware, power, cooling, and floor space costs.
In a physical server environment, resource utilization per machine is low, but plenty of bandwidth is available for backup. In a virtual server environment, resource utilization is higher, but less bandwidth is available for backups. This creates a real data protection challenge when agent-based, file-level backup strategies are applied to virtual servers. In ESG's estimation, the most significant problem is resource contention—backups demand significant processing power, and the added resources needed to execute a backup may compromise the performance of virtual machines running on the system. It is burdensome on the VMware host server's CPU, memory, disk, and network components — and often makes it impossible to back up within available windows.
The goal? Streamline and simplify backup of data in server virtualization environments to ensure file- or image-level recovery, while reducing costs and improving performance.
 | Be sure to review the ESG Lab Report available here for the results of ESG's testing of EMC Avamar backup and recovery software, the video, in which Lauren Whitehouse discusses the implications of different methods for implementing backup in virtualized environments, and the ESG Research chart, which presents server virtualization usage results, by Midmarket vs. Enterprise Organizations. |