Storage and Backup
What We Do
The IT Services Storage and Backup Group performs three services:
- Data Storage — through the management of the Shared Central Storage Arrays (both SAN and NAS) in Forsythe Data Center. (Soon the group will also manage systems in the Livermore Auxiliary Data Center.)
- Data Protection and Disaster Recovery — through the administration of BaRS (Backup and Recovery Services, an enterprise tape backup service for servers), data replication, and versioning of data on the storage arrays.
- Storage System Operation and Maintenance — for storage arrays purchased by departments and groups.
In providing these services, the Storage and Backup Group delivers added value for clients via a secure "Stanford controlled environment" that leverages
- economies of scale in the equipment and labor of a larger shared environment;
- synergy of a small group focused on these services (as opposed to the capabilities of an individual); and,
- knowledge of Stanford needs, requirements, and policies.
Multiple tiers of storage service provide flexibility to support business requirements. (Tiers refer to class of service and consist of three components: performance, reliability, and resilience.) This multi-tiered approach balances high throughput and highly-available storage for production databases, as well as low-cost storage for backups to support departmental and group file sharing services.
The Storage and Backup Group is primarily responsible for the operational efficiency of the multiple Arrays, totaling over 700 TB of storage. The group implements and configures storage arrays and the storage area network, including performance monitoring, optimization, and upgrades. The group also performs connection and allocation of storage to various UNIX, Linux, and Windows servers that support the University's Administrative Applications, and to various departments and schools.
In addition, the group supports the BaRS service. This service backs up about 5 TB of data daily from servers across the campus, and stores over 300 TB of backups locally for quick access, with an off-site copy in our remote vaulting facility in the event of a disaster. The group's support role includes making sure that the backup servers run efficiently and are available to receive data from the client machines.
The Storage and Backup Group uses the following products and technologies to supporting the storage and backup infrastructure:
- EMC, NetApp, and Nexsan Storage Arrays;
- IBM and StorageTek Tape Libraries, Sepaton Virtual Tape Libraries;
- Storage Network devices from McData, Cisco, Allied Telesyn, and Qlogic.
More Information
For additional details about Storage and Backup, contact Shirley Hodges.
