|
Secure Data
Solution®
|
Secure Data Solution® for Mainframe Systems
Overview & Benefits
As a data backup and recovery suite, the
Secure Data Solution (SDS) works with virtually every system in your
data center. This overview is intended to describe how the SDS is used
in the backup, off-site archiving, and recovery of mainframe systems.
The traditional method of backing up and archiving mainframe data is to
run backup jobs to create 3480, 3490, and 3590 tape cartridges. Once
created, these backup cartridges are then shipped off-site and stored at
a facility such as Iron Mountain or Vital Records.
While a widely accepted practice, this approach has come under increased
scrutiny in recent years for a number of reasons. From a security
standpoint, the data on the cartridges is rarely protected with
encryption techniques, and is consequently vulnerable to inspection by
motivated insiders and data thieves. Misplacement or loss of tape
cartridges
has come to the attention of the news media and federal regulatory
agencies and brings with it the potential for fines, lost revenue, and
loss of reputation.
From an efficiency standpoint, the cartridges and their method of
creation are not state-of-the-art data storage. From the point of view
of transportation and eventual recovery, the practice is slow,
cumbersome, and of questionable practicality. This is especially true in
a regional disaster where multiple companies—all with differing
priorities—compete with one another for scarce resources.
The Secure Data Solution (SDS) for mainframes addresses these issues by
replacing old-style tape drives and physical tape libraries with
state-of-the-art disk storage, data encryption, data compression, and
electronic transfer of backup data. The SDS connects to the mainframe
via either ESCON or FICON. When brought online, the SDS for mainframes
emulates tape drive control units such as the A60 and J70 control units,
as well as associated tape drives types that include 3480, 3490, 3590,
3592, etc.
When a particular mainframe job issues a tape mount request, the SDS
satisfies the request and data sets are then written to the virtual
tape. When the tape dismount occurs, the SDS compresses the data and
then encrypts it using 128-bit AES encryption. Once the data sets or
VOLSERs are compressed and encrypted, they can then be stored locally on
fibre channel-attached disks, and/or be moved across a network to a
remote location for storage and archiving. The data can also be restored
at the remote location if ESCON or FICON connections are available.
The Secure Data Solution for Tapes - A high-volume, networked
configuration
|
|
|
In addition to replacing physical tape
by storing data sets on disk, the SDS can also accommodate the creation
of physical tape with encrypted data. This reduces the impact in the
event the tapes are lost or stolen.
The Secure Data Solution approach to data backup and recovery offers the
following immediate customer benefits:
-
Increases probability of successful rapid recovery
-
Reduces or eliminates the cost of physical tape cartridges
-
Reduces backup window due to increased speed of disc storage
-
Reduces tape handling and associated costs
-
Provides a homogeneous method of managing backups
-
Provides ultra-high availability, real-time data backup
-
Decreases reliance on scarce DR resources
-
Decreases the possibility of lost tapes
-
Reduces or eliminates the cost of physical tape transport
-
Utilizes low-cost TCP/IP for transporting data
-
Utilizes high availability redundant disks
In addition to these measurable customer benefits, the Secure Data
Solution also offers an array of unique system design benefits that
provide the customer with a revolutionary tape management system that:
-
Provides a comprehensive disaster recovery solution
-
Covers all major platforms
-
Utilizes a simple-to-use homogeneous approach for all data
-
Provides patented role-based access control for different types of data
-
Provides a non-intrusive, patented key management strategy
-
Includes an integrated alert manager to ensure the integrity of each
backup
-
Provides self-healing data recovery that checks and repairs damaged data
-
Offers total scalability dependant only on the number of host channels
available
-
Provides three levels of data protection: encryption, geographic
dispersion, mirroring
-
Provides common remote control through a redundant outboard catalog
|
