Select and Implement a Backup Solution
Evaluate current and alternative backup software for fit with emerging architectures to meet critical restore requirements.
RETIRED CONTENT
Please note that the content on this page is retired. This content is not maintained and may contain information or links that are out of date.Organizations that do not evaluate their backup solution can suffer from the following:
- Higher maintenance and licensing costs.
- Failed or corrupted backups, leading to file loss and increased downtime.
- Increased recovery times and backup windows.
- Greater business risk due to a lack of data retention policies and monitoring.
- Lack of documented processes that increase the chance of human error and restore failure.
Organizations that have a successful selection and implementation of a backup solution will:
- Improve the quality of backup and restore processes.
- Decrease organizational recovery times and backup windows.
- Optimize their current backup strategy and architecture.
- Decrease license and maintenance costs.
- Reduce business risk related to data retention and data loss.
Book Your Workshop
Onsite Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn’t enough, we offer low-cost onsite delivery of our Project Workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a road map in place to complete your project successfully.
Module 1: Launch Your Backup Software Selection Project
The Purpose
- Identify the scope and objectives of the workshop.
- Understand your current backup strategy and architecture.
- Optimize your backup architecture strategy to discern if now is the time to move forward with a backup solution investment.
- Gain a high-level understanding of the backup market, definitions, and details.
- Outline a project plan and identify the resourcing requirements for the project.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Determine workshop scope.
- Evaluate your current backup architecture: problems, drivers, and opportunities for improvement.
- Map current and ideal infrastructure and architectures.
- Identify the business drivers and benefits behind a backup investment.
- Outline the project plan for the organization’s backup selection project.
- Determine project resourcing.
- Identify and perform the steps to launch the organization’s selection project.
| Activities: | Outputs: | |
|---|---|---|
| 1.1 | Identify business drivers for investing in a backup solution. |
|
| 1.2 | Identify the organization’s backup architecture strategy. |
|
| 1.3 | Create an architecture strategy project plan. |
|
| 1.4 | Identify project resourcing. |
|
| 1.5 | Outline the project’s timeline. |
|
| 1.6 | Determine key metrics. |
|
| 1.7 | Determine project oversight. |
|
| 1.8 | Complete a project charter. |
|
Module 2: Analyze Backup Requirements and Shortlist Vendors
The Purpose
- Identify functional requirements for the organization’s backup solution.
- Determine technical requirements for the organization’s backup solution.
- Identify the organization’s alignment to the Vendor Landscape’s use-case scenarios.
- Shortlist backup vendors.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Documented functional requirements.
- Documented technical requirements.
- Identified use case scenarios for the future backup solution.
| Activities: | Outputs: | |
|---|---|---|
| 2.1 | Interview business stakeholders. |
|
| 2.2 | Interview IT staff. |
|
| 2.3 | Consolidate interview findings. |
|
| 2.4 | Build the solution requirements package. |
|
| 2.5 | Identify use-case scenario alignment. |
|
| 2.6 | Outline RFP contents. |
|
| 2.7 | Review Info-Tech’s Backup Software Vendor Landscape results. |
|
| 2.8 | Create custom shortlist. |
|
Module 3: Plan the Procurement Process
The Purpose
- Identify the steps for the organization’s procurement process.
- Brainstorm contents of the demo script.
- Discuss the organization’s evaluation framework for the backup solution.
- Determine the organization’s best practices around data retention and service levels for end users.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Action plan for performing an evaluation of shortlisted backup vendors and procurement of a single solution.
| Activities: | Outputs: | |
|---|---|---|
| 3.1 | Debrief workshop results. |
|
| 3.2 | Scope procurement process. |
|
| 3.3 | Outline framework for evaluating vendor solutions. |
|
| 3.4 | Discuss the organization’s data retention policies and SLAs. |
|