Disk-based regulatory compliance solutions for unstructured data.
The growing body of regulatory mandates and the accompanying non-compliance risks have moved regulatory compliance to the forefront of the IT organization's priorities. Thus far, many of these initial compliance efforts have focused solely on securing data associated with messaging environments, or ERP data. However, the compliance problem, as companies are starting to realize, is actually much broader. Regulatory rules may not distinguish among data types. Given the current regulatory environment, it is a strong possibility that regulators may require recovery of your company's presentation, spreadsheet, or file documents. Therefore, compliance departments at many institutions have begun to address the need to retain additional types of data (unstructured data) such as spreadsheets, presentations, files created by in-house applications, and other data normally stored in a file system.
The Challenge: Complying with Strict Records Retention Rules for Unstructured Data
Given the size of potential fines and the resultant potential reputational damage, it doesn't pay to ignore the unstructured data compliance challenge. But compliantly archiving large amounts of unstructured data could be very costly. Imagine having to duplicate and store every full and incremental tape backup on WORM storage for a specified retention period (e.g., three years). The resource burden would be immense. To illustrate, a typical enterprise with 12TB of unstructured data might store 20,000 tape cartridges at a cost of well over $2 million in media, tape drives, and libraries in order to comply.(1) This example, of course, assumes that it is even feasible to duplicate the unstructured data, which likely resides in multiple locations. Many IT departments have discovered that duplicating tape backups is a significant challenge, to say nothing of the storage capacity involved. Looking at the scale of backup another way, the same organization would consume a total of 907TB of backup media just to back up one year's worth of information to tape using traditional backup software. Without the right solution, the challenge presented to IT departments is that these critical compliance data types require a vast amount of compliance archival storage and complex policy management.
The Solution: NetApp LockVault
Rule 17a-4 requires that unstructured data be made compliant with duplicate copies. NetApp LockVault compliance software is an extremely elegant solution to a seemingly intractable problem. LockVault solves the regulatory compliance problem associated with unstructured data in a comprehensive and manageable fashion. LockVault integrates NetApp SnapLock™ and NetApp SnapVault™ technologies to create the only solution specifically designed to address regulatory compliance requirements for unstructured data.
Mitigates Risk
With a NetApp solution, one can make unalterable copies of all file servers on a regular basis as well as mirrored copies of all compliant data as often as desired. LockVault eliminates the need to rely on manual or policy based methods of identifying and isolating records subject to regulatory compliance rules.
Unifies Backup and Compliance
LockVault unifies compliance with backup and disaster recovery, delivering comprehensive, integrated compliance and data protection for unstructured data. A NetApp solution eliminates the need to continuously identify and classify each file that might fall under regulatory jurisdiction. LockVault allows customers to make permanent WORM backups of their unstructured data, by simply copying and storing only the unique blocks that have been written since the most recent incremental backup. Every block variation is protected, so no data falls through the cracks. LockVault also automatically provides online compliant backups of unstructured data at multiple points in time, giving you a nightly compliant picture of the enterprise, for example. As a result, any backup can be searched, indexed, or instantaneously recovered. Each backup is immutable until its specified expiration date. In addition, NetApp SnapMirror® fully supports WORM-to-WORM remote replication to easily provide the required duplicate copy of the compliant data. This ground-breaking technology is fully compatible with Windows®, UNIX®, or Linux® data residing on any NetApp system.
Delivers Fast Access for Search/Discovery
Unlike other compliant media (including tape), LockVault permits block-level incremental backup, provides rapid discovery and retrieval capabilities, combines compliance and data protection, and improves data management across the enterprise.
Minimizes Storage Capacity Consumption
Using the 12TB example cited earlier, with NetApp, the same company would be able to store one year's worth of information online and consume only 41TB of disk storage, compared to 907TB with tape. NetApp LockVault technology creates compliant online backups of unstructured data that dramatically reduce the amount of storage required while optimizing data retrieval.
Simplifies Infrastructure Deployment and Management
NetApp provides a complete, easy-to-manage, cost-effective solution to meet all 17a-4 compliance requirements. The NetApp LockVault solution is easy to deploy and requires no change in business processes.
