Trend Reports Critical Tools in Optimizing Data Protection Operation

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., provider of data protection management software and the creator of the Data Protection Service Management (DPSM) model.

                           DPSM Delivery 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:

• Job Trends – shows detailed backup behavior over time, potentially unveiling chronic job failures
• 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
• Backup Duration Trends – addresses the ongoing challenge of
  backup windows, allowing users to compare their static backup window
  with backup duration trends
• Media Usage Trends – allows users to analyze the impact of backup trends on their media volumes over time
• 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
• 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."