SharePoint Backup with STORServer

The number-one challenge of SharePoint storage is the sheer quantity of stuff people are putting into SharePoint. “The size of files has gotten larger, and everyone is digitizing—there are no hard-copy transactions,” explained John Pearring, Chairman of STORServer.

And retention: “You have to keep things for so long now.” STORServer is in the retention side of the business, and recently Pearring showed off the latest additions to STORServer Agent for Microsoft SharePoint Storage, including a new, enhanced GUI and automatic classification of content based on business importance and how often the content is modified.

Custom backup plans can be defined for each categorization to help optimize storage space and system resources. In addition, a “sandbox matrix” lets admins test the effect of a backup strategy on content before deploying it. Other features include

• An integrated restore timeline view that shows all available recovery points irrespective of
• backup plan or storage location
• An integrated backup plan builder
• A tree view of the entire SharePoint environment
• A dashboard where you can see the status of your backup and recovery logs, view the upcoming plans, and see the percent of plans that have succeeded or failed in the past few days or months
• Support for reusable backup templates
• Full text indexing of backup data

Tivoli Storage Manager is the engine. “We sell the appliance. Our appliance hierarchy is to back up locally and make a remote copy for your baseline. Most backup guys, if they don’t have an appliance, they send it off site—that’s a DR copy, not a backup. The local restore is what’s important,” Pearring said. “Two copies is stewardship of data. If we can automate all that stuff to where you’re being a steward, rather than a robot, managing data retention, that’s our goal.” To learn more, see the STORServer website.