Okay, another acronym

You will soon hear a lot about a new concept ESG has coined (if you haven't already).  It's called 3DR. Yes, it's another acronym, but this one makes a lot of sense. It's not just hype. I believe all organizations – big and small – should be thinking in these terms going forward.

3DR requires organizations to think of data in two basic terms: primary and protected. How the data is protected and what is done to it during the DPLM process (or "protection continuum") is up to you. Data moves, or is copied, from the "Primary" store to the "Protected" store via traditional backup and recovery software or emerging methods enabled by Intelligent Information Management (IIM) tools.

What is 3DR exactly? 3DR is the concept of having three levels of protected data: 1DR (or 1st Tier Data Recovery), 2DR (or 2nd Tier Disaster Recovery), and 3DR (or 3rd Tier Doomsday Recovery).

1DR is disk-based (i.e., D2D), and it is local. Ninety-nine percent of all recoveries should originate here. 2DR, the disaster recovery tier, is an exact replica of the 1DR data that is stored in a separate geographical locale from the 1DR data. It is to be used in the event of a total outage at the primary data center(s). 3DR is the end of the line – where you write copies of unique data to tape. These copies are shipped into deep, deep archives for the worst-case (or doomsday) scenario. 3DR is not intended for day-to-day recovery. (Note:  3DR should be the area where you challenge your current tape backup assumptions – and choose to keep a finite number of copies of unique data on a finite amount of tapes, instead of the same data on thousands of tapes).

Optimally, an organization would implement all three DR levels, but considering most are starting at level 3, adding 1DR would still be a welcome step.

A tiered data recovery infrastructure emphasizes recoverability. The premise is that all local recoveries are from tier-1 disk. How the data is protected in this tier is up to the organization. However, data in this tier should be protected according to it value, which is reflected in its RPO and RTO objectives. Inexpensive "dumb" block arrays, NAS systems, and VTL are typical choices for tier-1 disk, though intelligent "content-aware" devices, such as CAS systems, could also be used. I personally like VTL because it integrates easily into the existing data protection environment: no rip-and-replace necessary.  Features such as CDP should also be implemented at this level based on the value/time, etc., of the data.

Data de-duplication , though not specific to any particular DR tier, is critical in this type of environment. It keeps data capacity demands down by making sure that only unique data is saved to disk, which, in turn, makes it financially feasible to keep everything you ever created on some type of 1DR. It enables 2DR for the same reasons.

Look also for search and security features to make their way into these levels, if they haven't already, because there is no reason that archives can't exist within a 3DR construct as well.

This is just a taste of what's ahead. Keep reading this blog, as well as my ESG blog for more info.