What Is HCDP?
Data is among the most important assets of any enterprise, and keeping that data safe is paramount. This is especially the case with the transition to the cloud, which radically changes where data is created and consumed even as organizations content with evolving business and regulatory needs. HCDP enforces better protection and security policies, enables compliance, and opens the door to compelling new data management strategies.
What Are the Benefits of HCDP
A holistic data protection strategy is vital to face the challenges imposed by hybrid-cloud scenarios. Data is created in huge quantities and in silos, making it difficult to understand what is stored where and how, and to grasp the actual costs and security associated with the data.
- Consolidating backups through a single solution creates a single physical or virtual repository and allows full visibility over data.
- Most users that adopt modern HCDP solutions report a dramatic reduction in time spent managing data protection, lower data protection infrastructure costs, and improved recovery times.
- The same platform is used to simplify critical processes and functions, including ransomware protection, compliance, and data management for both infrastructure and business applications.
What Are the Scenarios of Use?
The HCDP approach is mandatory for organizations working with infrastructure and applications. Choosing point solutions for every environment creates opaque silos that are difficult to manage and expose users to security threats. The potential of this technology is immediately visible, but the real value comes from the insights gained from a single data view, leading to better security, cost reductions, and improved compliance.
HCDP resources are easy to find, including traditional backup system administrators. Migrating to modern data protection solutions is straightforward and infrastructure resources are similar to those available in the cloud and on-premises for point solutions. All the value added aspects of HCDP can be quickly assimilated by security and data executives and their teams.
What Are the Alternatives?
The alternative to a complete HCDP solution is a series of point solutions. They are cheaper and do the job well for the individual environment (a single cloud provider or an on-premises infrastructure), but it is hard to operate them at scale, difficult to automate, and tougher still to get a full picture of all the data.
Backup solutions designed for a single environment are usually faster and take advantage of deeper integrations, even if the ownership cost for the entire data protection infrastructure can quickly outstrip the benefits.
What Are the Costs and Risks?
- Changing a backup solution is not difficult, but the migration of long retention archives can pose a significant challenge. Considerations for migration should include risk analysis of restoring old backup archives and the cost of keeping the previous backup system active for a long period.
- Delaying implementation of a HCDP strategy could lead to additional costs at both the infrastructure and business levels. Data will continue to grow in many locations, creating more cost, security and data management challenges.
- The solutions that support on-premises, public cloud, and SaaS simultaneously are increasing. It is important to evaluate the level of integration and how these solutions support the organization’s business needs.
30/60/90 Plan
30 Days: Start with a Data Blueprint
Create a map of all the data in your organization and across different environments. Identify data sources and potential stakeholders.
60 Days: Pinpoint Data Needs
Identify scenarios where HCDP can bring value. Evaluate the organization’s needs in terms of security, compliance, data governance, productivity, and so on.
90 Days: Build a Migration Plan
Test solutions that focus on the value of HCDP, not just data protection. Look at the migration path alongside the learning curve for your IT team. Build a migration plan that begins from the most critical data assets and the simplest to migrate. Demonstrate the value of integrated data management with practical applications as soon as the system is in production. Measure backup and recovery time, and time spent in data protection operation before and after the solution’s adoption.