You’ve heard of server virtualization. You’ve heard of network virtualization. But have you considered virtualizing your data yet? Although they were once concepts that seemed outlandish, server and network virtualization brought about a number of benefits for the users who came around to adopting them, eventually going on to become commonplace in today’s enterprise IT departments. We’ll soon be seeing the same for data virtualization.
While the benefits of adopting copy data virtualization are far ranging, from increased data protection, to instant data access and mobility, perhaps the most attractive one is the amount of money it saves organizations. Enterprises adopting copy data virtualization have been able to save upwards of $3 million in some cases, dramatically transforming their businesses and the way they function.
How much could it save you? Here are 5 ways copy data virtualization could save you millions.
-
Minimized Storage Footprint
A recent study by IDC found that enterprises have an average of 13 physical copies of critical databases and file systems, all taking up precious storage space in data centers. Virtualizing that data eliminates the need to have multiple physical copies, slashing the necessary amount of copies to just two–one set of production data and one “golden master copy” that can be virtually mounted as many times as needed. And that smaller storage footprint translates to a smaller storage bill.
-
Reduced Need for Redundant Technologies
To ensure proper data protection and to maintain compliance standards, IT departments employ a number of overlapping technologies, including software for backups, snapshots, disaster recovery, and others. Data virtualization eradicates backup and restore windows, along with the need for all these redundant technologies, by creating virtual, point-in-time copies of data on demand.
-
Decreased Downtime
According to figures frequently cited by Gartner, businesses can lose an average of $5,600 per minute in an outage, adding up to over $300,000 per hour. And once an outage does occur, the backup and DR systems of yesteryear can take days or even weeks to recover data, not to mention it’s nearly impossible to test the efficacy of these systems before disaster strikes. When data has been virtualized, recovery times can drop to minutes or hours, all while ensuring delivery of aggressive RTOs and RPOs.
-
Less Manpower Needed
Virtualized data by its very nature requires less maintenance–with fewer redundant systems to administer, and less downtime to worry about, the need for as large an IT team might not be necessary anymore. Or better yet, that same team can focus their newly freed-up time on projects that actually move the business forward and improve efficiencies across the organization.
-
Faster time-to-market
In the same way virtualized data drastically cuts recovery time during an outage, it also slashes provisioning time for data used during test and development. In some cases, it can provision a copy in less than a minute, as we’ve seen with a 1.6TB SQL database. With the dev team able to focus more on actually developing applications and less on waiting for ops to produce test data for them, the organization can enjoy faster-time-to-market and less wasted time.
With so much money saved, it doesn’t take organizations long to realize the full benefit of data virtualization: true business transformation. Transformation through greater efficiencies across departments, a nimbler development team, and a more secure store of data in times of disaster.
[hs_action id=”13357″]
//