The Desktop and Laptop Backup project is chartered to review the current University workstation backup alternatives and determine if providing a centralized secure backup solution is a viable IT Services offering. At Stanford today there are a plethora of workstation backup solutions including IBM's Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) workstation backup for all clients, Iron Mountain's "Connected" as an ASP for the Microsoft Windows environment, individualized solutions such as Retrospect, Symantec, Iomega, Microsoft, ARCserve, and many more.
With the rising concern about protecting intellectual property, the increasing regulations dictating how data is to be protected and retained, and the ever-growing efforts to hack and/or exploit information (data), more people are thinking about "backing up" the information on their workstations. And, more people are concluding that they can no longer adequately protect their data with some of the home-grown solutions they have been using.
Researching Backup Solutions
Although we don't think we can make everyone happy with a single solution (there will always be exceptions), we feel that in the future, IT Services can meet most backup needs with either TSM or Iron Mountain's Connected. The preferred solution will need to be able to backup and restore data and workstations on both Windows and Macintosh desktops and laptops. The selected solution must be:
- easy to install and use,
- reliable,
- secure in transport and at rest,
- able to minimize the amount of disk required to store the backup, and
- cost effective.
Summer and Fall Pilots
IT Services completed a pilot in June for both TSM and "Connected at Stanford" for Windows desktops and laptops and have identified both the strengths and weaknesses of each product. We are currently working with Iron Mountain on their beta Macintosh Connected client. Our plan is to execute a TSM and "Connected at Stanford" Macintosh backup/restore pilot in Fall 2007 (Fiscal Year 2008). Each solution has its good and bad qualities, and finding the right combination of cost and convenience is not easy.
For More Information
For more information about IT Services'Desktop and Laptop Backup Project, or if you would like to participate in the Fall pilot, please email desktop-backup-pilot@lists.stanford.edu.
