When it comes to coffee, we know what’s good. When it comes to data, maybe good isn’t enough!
Throughout our lifetimes, there will be occasions when the simple coffee break does the trick. A cup of Joe that eases any angsts we may have about the day. For our friends who find solace in a cup of tea, much the same euphoria can be experienced. There’s no doubt that the combination of warmth, aroma and flavor becomes a welcome break from the routine. Even so, that pick-me-up. whether coffee or something else, has separated many of us because of those very elements; warmth, aroma and flavor are as diverse as there are coffee and tea shops.
When it comes to technology and to our views about data much the same can be said about our preferences. For many IT professionals, the expectation that data will always be available in time and in place is a given so much so panic sets in quickly if those expectations prove wrong. For the HPE NonStop community, data readily accessible gives us the same degree of satisfaction that our much-loved coffee provides us, but unfortunately there are now elements within our society that are laboring at taking that satisfaction away from us giving NonStop community members that very angst we so wish would simply vanish.
Goodness, it has been said, is about character – integrity, honesty, kindness, generosity and more. Most of all, it’s about character. The pursuit of goodness underlies our programming endeavors just as it does to the many ways we deploy and operate applications. However, of late, we may be tempted to look over our shoulder at impending doom. But is there something better than good? Have we missed opportunities to better protect our mission critical infrastructure? It was William Shakespeare who wrote, “Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful.”
ETI-NET Packaged Digital Data Resiliency Solution: Good
Following presentations and subsequent conversations at last year’s NonStop TBC 2023 Conference, the creation of a number of resilient tiers came into being. Long anchored in the rule of 3:2:1 and subsequent extensions creating 3:2:1:x, ETI-NET was at the fore in laying out the options and in so doing, setting the expectations of what can reasonably be expected to be achieved with each tier. Central to the separation between the tiers was the method of deployment of BackBox® with QoreStor®. This combination came about with the licensing of QoreStor from Quest Software when combined with BackBox is proving to be an ideal solution meeting the needs of data protection today. Simply put, it is a good solution and it cannot be ignored.
Deployed as depicted above, it is an extension of the NonStop fundamentals in that it extends fault tolerance deep into the realm of storage. A combination of two BackBoxes complete with redundancy at unit and connection levels, it behaves as would any native NonStop resource. At first glance, this good approach may be all some NonStop customers need but is this solution as good as it looks? We all like our coffee but there is a difference between what is served over the counter and what we may brew at home using darker roasts. For many coffee drinkers, good just happens to be our fallback preference while we wait to taste what we really like.
Coffee is regulated in the US by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) that is ever watchful for the presence of toxins, or worse. We may be satisfied with our good coffee but there have been occasions when we have been advised than it may not be doing all that we thought it would do. As a pick-me-up, perhaps toxins such as Ochratoxin A are to be avoided and the goodness we want can be better served with a brew that is much better. For the NonStop customer on the lookout for intrusions by bad actors, it is this need to consider something better that led to the discussions at NonStop TBC 2023.
ETI-NET Packaged Digital Data Resiliency Solution: Better
With coverage of external bodies going to extraordinary lengths to protect data, the ability to airgap storage and to ensure it supports an immutable presence – storage not connected to any external network and where data cannot be altered in any manner – ETI-NET is capable of providing the best solution sought after by their NonStop customers. It is this enterprise-wide approach on offer today where ETI-NET truly delivers on its promise following the release of BackBox with QoreStor, as together this solution can improve on the rule of 3:2:1 to deliver not only 3:2:1:x but now 3:2:1:3 as it capitalizes on the offerings of a number of cloud service providers.
Also in the mix are the offerings of managed services provider, including HPE with its HPE Managed Services and is this combination of ETI-NET working with HPE where best beats out good and better. Clouds change everything or so the pundits remind us. Their supporters are bullish on all aspects of data protection and resilience. As the scope of what they can support expands, it is now possible to deliver environments detrimental to any attacks from the bad actors being encountered almost daily.
“What might this all mean and what are the implications,” asks Mike Mitsch ETI-NET Director, Business Development. “For the NonStop customer, they now have direct control over the primary backup and visibility of the redundant copies based on their policy. It then gives these NonStop customers the ability to store data externally in a secure format on object storage and provide the ability to recover the data based on security rules.”
Sitting in our local coffee shop, invigorated by our favorite brew, it is not unexpected that we tune into the words of a song from the ‘70s, “clouds in my coffee!” For the songwriter, it was their way to highlight confusing aspects of life that you just cannot see through. When we consider the actions required to deter bad actors from degrading our resilience in any manner, this is something we can all relate to. Fortunately, with where ETI-NET is taking the NonStop community, those clouds are only temporary and as we continue to think of what is best for us, whether its coffee or infrastructure, NonStop customers know that they have the best solution at hand. Perhaps and with that, another coffee is all that we need as our choice for warmth, aroma and flavor is likewise just as readily at hand.