A CommVault White Paper. CommVault Simpana Software Modern Data Management and Protection for SAP

Transcription

1 A CommVault White Paper CommVault Simpana Software Modern Data Management and Protection for SAP

2 Contents Executive Summary 3 Simpana Software Covers the Bases of SAP Data Management 4 CommVault s Unified Platform for SAP Backup, Recovery and Archiving Delivers Low TCO 5 Two Types of Deduplication 7 The Benefits of CommVault s Fast Snapshot Technology 8 Simpana: An End-to-End Solution for all Data Management and Protection Needs 9 CommVault Replication and DR for SAP Boosts Business Continuity 10 CommVault Delivers Non-Disruptive, Hardware Agnostic, Snapshot Support 10 Simpana Software Ensures Rapid Deployment for FAST ROI, Easy Manageability 11 CommVault Cost Savings with Additional Capabilities 12

3 Executive Summary The importance of data management, which once was considered strictly an IT issue, has been elevated to the status of major business driver today as a result of a lingering financial crisis and wellpublicized corporate scandals. Today, organizations of all sizes and types now consider the protection and management of their data as a top technology and business priority. Most companies face tough obstacles, however, when it comes to managing heterogeneous IT infrastructures with various business-critical Figure 1: CommVault Simpana Software enterprise applications running in physical, virtual or even cloud environments. The task becomes even more daunting as they try to manage different data stores and databases across multiple operating systems with disparate products. What s typically lacking is the integration and intelligence needed to provide optimal business insight while ensuring the integrity and safety of all vital data and applications, including SAP, which fuels major operations for global businesses. For organizations caught in this swirling data management quagmire, CommVault Simpana software offers a Singular Information Management approach, which enables companies with SAP applications to deploy truly modern data management. Simpana software provides the integration, automation and scalability required to manage and protect SAP systems, including unified backup, archiving, compliance, disaster recovery, replication, virtualization and cloud computing (see Figure 1). 3

4 Simpana Software Covers the Bases of SAP Data Management SAP is the world s leading provider of business software, including enterprise resource planning (ERP), supply chain management (SCM), customer relationship management (CRM), business intelligence (BI) and other major enterprise solutions. One of the top challenges for SAP customers, however, is determining the best way to manage and protect critical enterprise data and information in SAP and non-sap systems to meet stringent Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and overarching business continuity goals. Figure 2: SAP B/R Tools SAP Backup, Restore & Recovery SAP provides various tools and interfaces to help customers safeguard entire SAP systems, including all necessary files and data essential for a complete system restore (see figure 2). The SAP backup tool quiesces the database for data consistency, copies all necessary files to the backup devices, including all database logs, and recovers it when necessary. Even though this interface, called SAP BR-tools, is fully integrated into SAP s NetWeaver application server and management stack, it requires a lot of scripting and customization in to leverage complete and fully functional BR-tool integration. In contrast, CommVault s solution for SAP backup and restore is built on BR tools and uses the entire BR-tool command structure for more efficient and streamlined operation. Scripts are included to seamlessly backup and restore the entire SAP instance to the exact point required while expediting the recovery process for optimized business continuity. As SAP environments grow over time and businesses expand accordingly, data will grow substantially, which clearly impacts database size, storage consideration, costs and overall performance, even though SLAs, Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPO) remain the same or tighten. As a result, greater pressure then typically is placed on the backup/restore team to provide complete SAP data protection and management. Again, CommVault Simpana software delivers a scalable solution that takes advantage of the latest storage snapshot technology to rapidly snap the entire SAP environment no matter the size in a short timeframe. 4

5 SAP Archiving SAP environments are expected to grow significantly over time, especially as companies expand globally, acquire businesses, enter new markets or simply transition more functionality into SAP. The more vital the business data and information stored in SAP s databases, the more impact there is on overall SAP performance, storage requirements, costs and resources. Therefore, a poorly performing SAP system can have a significantly negative impact on crucial business drivers, such as revenue and compliance, while increasing overall corporate risks. In order to keep a SAP deployment in top shape and therefore the entire business competitive without losing the flexibility, critical steps must be made taken. Unnecessary and obsolete data and information must be deleted from the database to keep it slim for higher and better performance. For this purpose, SAP provides an interface to manage data and information efficiently as well as to retire SAP data in a compliant way. Called ArchiveLink, this interface is the direct connection for SAP content, data, transactions and documents stored in a SAP database. Initiated within SAP, decisions can be made regarding which data and documents can be retired. SAP then sends all the chosen data via ArchiveLink to the SAP archive system of choice. This attached archive can be hardware- or softwarebased and be combined with an entire information lifecycle system. CommVault s solution for SAP archiving is built on ArchiveLink to move data directly from SAP to attached storage or tape systems Figure 3: SAP Archiving or even into the cloud. CommVault s solution takes full advantage of hardware systems by adding more functionality and features to manage data and content more efficiently. CommVault Simpana software receives the data and documents from SAP, indexes the material for later content management or compliance and then archives it on any device even 5

6 into the cloud for cost and reduced complexity reasons. In addition, the archive process is fast and efficient; all necessary archive scripts are included and CommVault makes the most of its hardware-agnostic architecture. Another aspect and huge advantage of CommVault s archiving solution for SAP is the unified platform. There is a single user interface for all aspects of data management for SAP, including backup, restore, archiving and even replication. CommVault s Unified Platform for SAP Backup, Recovery and Archiving Delivers Low TCO CommVault Simpana software s unified data management platform is ideally suited for SAP environments as it integrates seamlessly with all SAP ERP, finance and other modules as well as non-sap systems. Simpana software also includes full protection for all virtual infrastructures, which is a rising consideration as more and more organizations are reaping the tangible benefits of consolidating and virtualizing their datacenters and deploying SAP in virtual or cloud environments. Another certainty: organizations are moving away from point products that solve only one particular SAP problem. Realizing the additional costs and complexity associated with solutions that treat information in separate silos, they are demanding more comprehensive, integrated data management and protection solutions that increase enterprise-wide effectiveness and efficiency. At the same time, a singular data management solution for SAP must address the challenges associated with compliance and risk management. Information extracted from SAP systems must be securely stored, backed up and archived, so the content can be reviewed in proper context for compliance and risk mitigation. Faced with more and more regulations worldwide, it is essential that corporate data can be searched quickly and thoroughly. To accomplish this, a solution needs to have full indexing capability of all extracted data, spanning both SAP and non--sap systems so all relevant and related information can be identified. Additionally, the solution must be able to extract this data from any device, including storage Figure 4: Unified Data Management Platform or tape systems, as well as from cloud storage. 6

7 CommVault software provides all functionality necessary to rapidly, securely and effectively backup and recover SAP systems and its scalability makes it well tailored for small, medium and large environments. Built on SAP s BR tools, CommVault Simpana software enables customers to initiate and manage backup and recovery tasks conveniently and directly from SAP. In order to meet SLA criteria, tight RPOs or stringent RTOs as well as overcome network bottlenecks, the throughput for backups and recoveries can be configured to multi-stream. This permits multiplying the amount of data streamed from and to storage, tape or cloud systems. In addition, CommVault Simpana software enables a very granular recovery process with point-in-time selection to recover SAP precisely to the desired recovery point. All necessary database or SAP scripts to recover the SAP database, including all log file replay, are performed automatically, meaning there is no intervention required from administrators. With one click, the entire AP system is recovered, no matter whether the backup data is residing on storage, tape or cloud systems. Furthermore, the backup can be routed to any location and doesn t necessarily need to be recovered to the exact hardware configuration or backup location, which gives customers added flexibility when recovering an SAP system. CommVault supports all major database vendors, such as Oracle, MaxDB, Microsoft SQL Server and Sybase, and is storage, tape and cloud agnostic for full flexibility and easy adaption to any SAP IT environment. Two Types of Deduplication As companies must keep an eye on their IT budgets and SAP costs, CommVault software s built-in source or target-side deduplication can help reduce overall storage-related costs by lowering the data and information footprint. Therefore, SAP costs of backups and archives can be reduced by more than 90 percent, so customers can take full advantage of deduplication for storage, tape and cloud systems. Even though SAP s BR tools are the officially supported and recommended way of backing up and recovering entire SAP systems, some organizations require faster and more efficient ways to handle the bottlenecks introduced by BR tools, such as network latency, single backup/recovery streams, performance hits on production system during backup or missing functionality. In any of these scenarios, CommVault provides a welcome choice, when it comes to having more influence and impact on data management and protection for SAP environments. In addition to having agents specifically for SAP systems that integrate seamlessly with BR tools, CommVault Simpana software permits usage of database agents, such as Oracle or Microsoft SQL Server, to deliver more functionality and features when backing up or recovering SAP databases. Multiple database streams and support for clustered environments are just a few additional features that a database agent would provide. The more feature-rich solution when using database agents is based on the integration into database interfaces that are optimized for the database, such as RMAN for Oracle. 7

8 As a result of not using SAP BR tools and rather taking advantage of direct database data management, the SAP system is not aware of any backup activity and why additional steps are necessary to synch backup and recovery activities between systems. For customers with strict and tight SLAs, RTOs and RPOs, backing up large SAP environments take too long, thus causing lost business opportunities or disrupted revenue streams. In these situations, the standard BR tools approach cannot be relied upon and even directly backing up the database would not solve the time issue when managing backups and recoveries. What s needed is very fast snapshot technology, provided by storage system vendors. Unfortunately, using snapshot technology without successfully completing full backups from time to time makes the entire backup environment unmanageable, resulting many times in companies losing control and reliability of their SAP backups. Often this is why recoveries fail, which leads to data and business loss. The Benefits of CommVault s Fast Snapshot Technology CommVault provides full support for fast snapshot technology along with the added advantage of making the snapshots manageable without performing full backups. CommVault s SnapProtect technology takes full advantage of snapshot technology by initiating and managing the snapshots. When recovering SAP systems from a snapshot, CommVault Simpana software is fully aware of the location of the snapshot and has all necessary features, functions and scripts to fully recover SAP granular to any point in time. Many customers are asking about innovative architectures and flexibility without additional costs or complexity due to integration of various solutions. SAP virtualization and cloud computing can help customers stay on the leading edge to provide their SAP users with more functionality and quicker time to production. In addition, these customers can expect faster response time due to enhanced performance as well as easier and more intuitive new SAP features without losing sight of security, compliance, cost or data protection. CommVault software has the ability to replicate SAP systems in real-time to rapidly build new test or development environments based on existing deployments. Fast replication in and from cloud environments can provide a cost efficient way to protect SAP systems as part of a disaster recovery solution or streamlined development, test and production process for rapid deployment of new SAP features and functions. Furthermore, CommVault Simpana software s optimized and flexible architecture helps perform migrations between SAP systems, reducing time and resources when updating or upgrading SAP systems. 8

9 Simpana: An End-to-End Solution for All Data Management and Protection Needs CommVault s Simpana software provides SAP customers with an end-to-end solution for all data management and protection needs, including backup, recovery and restore as well as archiving. Simpana software is SAP ArchiveLink-certified, therefore the software is proven to fully support SAP s interface to archive transactional data as well as documents and attachments. If needed, Simpana software also can retrieve data for compliance or legal holds. Simpana software makes possible more efficient archiving before the data is stored on an archiving device, such as secondary storage systems, tape or even cloud environments. The data can be indexed and catalogued, which makes it easier to find later during retrieval. Thanks to an easy-to-use search engine, customers can quickly search and find archived data. This can be a critical advantage because many organizations hesitate to archive SAP data frequently due to the fact that the traditional searching and retrieving takes too long. With Simpana software, this is an issue of the past as several customer performance tests have proven that search and find tasks, which previously took days, now can be done in minutes. While many technology vendors are SAP ArchiveLink-certified and claim to provide an archiving solution for SAP, CommVault s solution is unique because Simpana software provides a platform approach, which makes many of the most important features and functions, including deduplication, compression and encryption (see figure 4), available out-of-the-box for archiving SAP environments or heterogeneous environments with SAP and non-sap components. Another CommVault plus: Simpana software s archiving target system. While many vendors provide a solution for one particular storage system or tape technology, Simpana software can move data onto any storage or tape system, because it is fully agnostic when it comes to storage and tape technology. Furthermore, Simpana software can move data to public and private cloud environments for additional cost savings and complexity reduction. Managed by data policies archiving SAP environments is mostly automated and depending on retention policies the data can moved automatically without any administrators intervention, what reduces resources and costs. CommVault Simpana software provides all this functionality in one completely unified platform. All data that has been backed up or archived by CommVault is indexed and searchable, regardless of whether it resides on storage disks, tape or cloud-based systems. A comprehensive, end-to-end data management and protection solution that provides full coverage, flexibility and cost efficiency, CommVault Simpana software also delivers integrated content management for more in-depth data analysis or compliance purposes. In addition, CommVault Simpana software lowers total cost of ownership (TCO), because neither expansion nor extension requires any additional integration or causes any disruption to ongoing business processes. Functionality can be switched on and off simply by applying license keys, not through technology integration. As figure 4 shows, CommVault Simpana software contains all the modern data management and protection functionality and features required for any size of SAP environment. 9

10 CommVault Replication and DR for SAP Boosts Business Continuity As SAP environments contain business-critical information, data protection is essential to business momentum, increasing revenue and staying competitive while being flexible enough to leverage new innovation and business expansion. CommVault Simpana software helps SAP customers boost business continuity by adding an extra layer of data protection with state-of-the-art encryption technology. This capability, combined with integrated backup, restore and archiving, provides an elevated level of business continuity and recovery from any business disruption. Figure 5: SAP Interface Integration As today s business world is moving fast with lots of new innovations, it s imperative that any trusted solution performs in a fast, orderly process from development and test to production. CommVault Simpana software can easily replicate entire, fully functional SAP systems for multiple purposes, including executable files and databases. CommVault Delivers Non-Disruptive, Hardware Agnostic, Snapshot Support The snapshot technology provided by many storage system vendors can quickly snap an entire SAP environment within seconds, with minimal impact on the production system, resources or performance. Snapshot management puts the SAP system into a quiescence mode, so the data in the database is consistent and not corrupted. This guarantees a successful restore and database recovery in case of a planned or unplanned business disruption or disaster. Hardware snapshots, however, have a very significant disadvantage; they are neither data nor content aware. The SAP system is snapped, but the data inside the snapshot is not indexed for compliance or search purposes. The results are very time-intensive trial-anderror tasks when conducting restores. In addition, databases can be restored, but only after many timeintensive and disruptive manual steps, such as replaying log files and other tasks to get the database back to a production state. This is time that many companies cannot afford to waste to get back to business after any kind of planned or unplanned event. 10

11 CommVault Simpana software automates the complete recovery process and reinstates the entire SAP database by using snapshot technology in conjunction with task automation. All leading hardware snapshot technologies are supported. In addition, snapshot content can be indexed for searchability, content management and compliance. In a restore scenario, data can be searched and found easily as well as recovered as needed. As well, the data can be analyzed or retained in a content store for collaboration. With all the aforementioned features and capabilities, it is clear to SAP customers that CommVault provides an end-to-end information and data lifecycle management solution that will integrate seamlessly with their environment. Simpana Software Ensures Rapid Deployment for Fast ROI, Easy Manageability CommVault Simpana software s singular platform can be deployed rapidly without disruption or lengthy and costly integration. Managing small, medium or large environments from one central console and user interface is the key to keeping costs low and return on investments high. CommVault provides RBAC user access, so access to content and capabilities are granted according to user type. The entire environment is multi-tenant based, so numerous users can access the same environment. Administrators or SAP end-users can execute individual tasks by taking advantage of CommVault s easy and intuitive, wizard-based user interface. Based on the experiences of more than 12,000 customers, CommVault Simpana software s average deployment time, including customization and setup, is less than one week. This means that customers can protect and manage their SAP and non-sap environments quickly with minimal impact to ongoing business. Deployment, configuration and customization are non-disruptive and retrofits of existing environments are performed efficiently and effectively. CommVault Simpana software leverages its hardware-agnostic functionality to fit seamlessly into any storage, tape or cloud environment. CommVault customers can save up to 50 percent in storage related costs and some customers have reported a savings of approximately 60 percent in licensing and maintenance costs compared to their prior data management solution. 11

12 CommVault Cost Savings with Additional Capabilities According to Gartner s compilation of the top 10 business and technology priorities for 2010 (see figure 5), reducing enterprise costs ranks No. 2, only trailing business process improvement. In these challenging times, implementing cost savings is likely to stay a top priority for years to come. In IT matters, optimizing infrastructure, prioritizing enterprise projects and spending money wisely are a must. It s no wonder that large enterprise IT projects, Figure 6: Gartner Report such as SAP or Business Objects, often are put on hold when costs must be kept down. Companies are demanding more holistic approaches, not solutions based on product silos, when solving IT issues and challenges. CommVault can help reduce IT-related costs, such as resources, software, maintenance and hardware. CommVault Simpana software s unified technology and common platform are ideal for modern IT environments and integrates transparently into many facets of SAP s data management, including backup, recovery, archiving, compliance, data protection and more. Simpana software provides one data management solution with multiple built-in features and functions that are directly accessible without any integration or additional software. For instance, CommVault software s built-in deduplication capability can reduce the amount of data sent to backup or archiving devices by up to 90 percent. This results directly in significantly less disk space or tape usage without losing flexibility or overall data protection. According to customer experiences, on average, Simpana software produced savings of up to 50 percent in storage related costs for CommVault customers. One large, multinational customer that utilizes both 12

13 SAP and CommVault software reported an immediate projected savings in hard storage costs of 66 percent by consolidating from three backup servers to one backup server. If we estimate that the cost of each backup server is at minimum $1MM, by consolidating down to one server, a company can save more than $600k. This customer also predicts a reduction in the time of its backup window by at least half, a savings in IT people hours that can be re-deployed on other projects. Depending on the size of the company and IT environment, if we hypothesize annual storage (e.g. hardware, software, license, resources and maintenance etc.) related costs of $2MM the potential 50 percent savings n overall storage related costs can add up to more than $1MM. Such savings will enable customers to reinvest in new or updated SAP software. The reality is that a vast number of all SAP customers are still running SAP versions of 4.6c or older. With these savings, this segment can start upgrade projects to the latest NetWeaver versions. This, in turn, permits taking advantage of all the newest features and functions that will make businesses more agile and flexible. For example, perhaps then constrained IT resources can be used more efficiently and for important SAP projects. By using CommVault s functionality that enables customers to automate most data management processes, these resources can handle various new or additional tasks. With CommVault, SAP customers have access to all the features and functionality needed to lower data management costs and complexity, including the ability to automatically resume failed backups, auto-discover virtual machines and automatically assign backup policies. n n info@commvault.com CommVault Worldwide Headquarters n 2 Crescent Place n Oceanport, NJ n n Fax: CommVault Regional Offices: United States n Europe n Middle East & Africa n Asia-Pacific n Latin America & Caribbean n Canada n India n Oceania CommVault Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. CommVault, CommVault and logo, the CV logo, CommVault Systems, Solving Forward, SIM, Singular Information Management, Simpana, CommVault Galaxy, Unified Data Management, QiNetix, Quick Recovery, QR, CommNet, GridStor, Vault Tracker, InnerVault, QuickSnap, QSnap, Recovery Director, CommServe, CommCell, SnapProtect, ROMS, and CommValue, are trademarks or registered trademarks of CommVault Systems, Inc. All other third party brands, products, service names, trademarks, or registered service marks are the property of and used to identify the products or services of their respective owners. All specifications are subject to change without notice. 13