Rare is the government data storage operation that wouldn't benefit from a little improvement-minded attention. Agencies typically have ample opportunity to boost efficiency, cut costs and better protect data. The project vignettes below illustrate storage management improvement plans that can help organizations achieve those worthwhile objectives.

Too much data overwhelming traditional backup routines

Fitness plan: Virtual tape

The virtual tape approach, in which disks emulating a tape drive are used for backup instead of actual tape, attracts organizations that face backup windows pinched by growing data volumes and a need for quicker data recovery time than tape can provide.

For years, the higher cost of disk storage has restricted it to serving as the primary online platform, combined with less expensive but slower tape handling backup and archival tasks. But because the price difference between disk and tape has narrowed, agencies can now incorporate disk-based storage into their backup and recovery strategies. Several vendors provide virtual tape products that use inexpensive Serial Advanced Technology Attachment disks. The disk solutions' main advantage over tape is speed.

The Brookhaven National Laboratory is one agency that has adopted virtual tape. Last year, it deployed a disk-based virtual tape library from Sepaton.

Andrew Ferguson, manager of enterprise operations at Brookhaven, cited the speed of backup and restoration as the main reasons for pursuing virtual tape. The lab now conducts backups in less than seven hours instead of the 12 it took using conventional tape.

In addition, Ferguson said, "restores are very fast, especially if you need to mount more than one tape." The tape-mounting process can add nearly 15 minutes to restoration, he said.

"This has increased backup speed tremendously on the large stuff we back up," Ferguson said. "We haven't had to do a large restore, but the smaller restores have been successful."

Rich Dickson, vice president of channel sales at Sepaton, said the company has encountered a number of government agencies deploying virtual tape or considering an installation. "They...can't keep buying more and more tape devices to try to shrink the windows," he said.