Backup is the process of making a copy of your data for the purpose of restoring that data in the event it is lost.
In addition backup usually keeps multiple copies of backup data, known as backup retention. This ensures that you can recover back to data from much earlier times, possibly years or decades earlier.
Over the years the preferred methods of Backup have changed. Tape used to be the preferred media on which to store backups, however in recent years secondary disk has become the primary target on which backup data is stored.
Backup software had become increasingly advanced incorporating the ability to run backups whilst system remain live and to have application awareness.
The idea of Modernising Backup is the process by which the backup process itself keeps pace with the demands of the underlying IT infrastructure it is protecting.
The recent move to Sofwtare Defined Computing, Virtualisation and Cloud Computing has meant that traditional backup methods simply don't leverage these new architectures. The old way of backing up was built on the premise of physical servers running single applications, but that is not how IT is structured today. Applications run across multiple virtual machines with some running entirley in private or public cloud. Backup needs to be able to cater for this. Most importantly in this new paradigm backup must be non disruptive and adapt quickly to changes in underlying infrastructure.
Modernising backup requires changing technology from traditional backup solutions to new approaches that have been written from the ground up to support virtual infrastructures.
Veeam is one such company that has established itself as a new player that specialises in modernising comapnies approach to backup. They commsisioned a white paper by ESG group which explained this modernisation process very well, you can download it here.
