* Off-site backup for disaster recovery. Up to 60% of SMBs do not have a true backup or disaster recovery plan. The most common mistake companies make in their disaster recovery and business continuity planning is not having off-site backup. You should have a system that will not only provide an on-site copy of data for fast restoration, but also an off-site copy if the disaster causes damage to the primary storage location.
* Cloud. As confidence in cloud providers continues to increase, more SMBs are turning to for off-site, online backup. The main benefits of cloud storage are threefold: The cloud provides true disaster recovery and business continuity by adding critical off-site storage to ensure a business' most important asset is accessible in the event of a disaster; the cloud offers pay-as-you-go options, which enable businesses to account for storage as an operational expense, not a capital expense; and cloud storage is infinitely scalable. Adding a cloud element to your existing infrastructure is a simple way of maximizing security and accessibility options.
* Deduplication. takes advantage of the enormous amount of redundancy in data to reduce storage needs. Backups of client systems, file servers, databases and virtual infrastructure are all ripe for data reduction. Eliminating duplicate data can decrease the amount of storage space necessary, depending on the deduplication technology used and the level of data redundancy. By using storage technologies that support data deduplication, you can cut costs, alleviate backup requirements and accelerate data restoration in the event of a disaster.
* Tiered storage. It can seem daunting to overhaul storage infrastructure while restricted by a tight budget. But implementing a strategy is one of the best approaches for cost-effective optimization. A tiered storage infrastructure uses higher-cost disk storage for business-critical data, lower-cost disk storage for near-line access, and tape or cloud storage for low access. Incorporating technology in your infrastructure built with features for scalability, portability, cloud seeding, and security can present tangible business and cost advantages for SMBs. It's one of the reasons why Imation recommends removable hard disk drive media (commonly known as RDX) to SMBs.
RDX is the only media that provides SMBs more storage options to enhance existing infrastructure, data security, and business growth potential. As removable storage, RDX supports off-site storage for disaster recovery and offers a practical way to seed cloud storage. New secure versions of RDX media also feature encryption and cryptographic erase. Because RDX is both forward and backwards compatible, data protection appliances and other storage arrays that are built using RDX can easily scale with business needs.