Asigra DS-Client LAN Storage Discovery Saves Service Providers

Solution Brief
Asigra DS-Client LAN Storage
Discovery Saves Service
Providers and IT Administrators
Time, Money and Productivity
The market trend for unstructured data or
file growth is unmistakable. It is growing
exponentially. Most analysts have that
growth pegged at 62% per year meaning
that file data is doubling every 18 months.
This growth is difficult to manage and
even more difficult to backup especially
when huge amounts of unstructured data
should not be backed up to eliminate
growing storage costs. One of the
trickiest and most frustrating backup
problem is knowing what files need to be
backed up, what files need to be archived,
and what files need to be deleted. It is
frequently a pains-taking manually laborintensive process to identify data types
across the entire LAN. It is simpler to not
figure it out and just back up everything.
However, backing up everything means
backing up other backup software’s
backup files, personal files such as
photos or videos, files that are no longer
relevant to the organization, illegal files
such as the latest celebrity photo mishap,
inappropriate jokes, and more.
Backing up everything has serious
consequences. When there is a major
recovery event ALL of the backed up
files will be recovered as well. This
means there will be more unnecessary
unstructured data to be recovered than
necessary. Recovering the files will
take enormous amounts of time which
will negatively impact Recovery Time
Objectives (RTO) of more relevant
business critical files. In a major recovery
event, time is the enemy. Lengthening
the RTOs will delay the timing of bringing
mission critical files into an operational
state which will cost the organization
lost productivity, revenues, profits, and
potentially reputation.
Then there is the cost of backing up
everything. The backups consume more
storage. Storage can be costly ranging
from $.25 to $8 per GB in CapEx alone.
The backup or data protection software
adds additional cost. Licensing is
commonly tied to the storage capacity of
the files and data being backed up. If a
service provider is capturing the backups,
or the backups are just being sent to a
cloud storage service provider, those
unnecessary files add needlessly to the
monthly bill. The additional costs are
non-trivial. Actual real-world file analysis
of users’ unstructured data has revealed
that 50 to 80% of their files should NOT
be backed up.
So how can organizations identify
and determine the data and files that
must be backed up to ensure business
continuity in the event of a data loss
without spending needless time manually
reviewing files across the LAN? It is much
too difficult to manually determine the right
files to back up and much too expensive
not to determine the right files to back
up. Asigra identified this business need
and developed a software tool called the
Asigra “LAN Storage Discovery” tool.
Automatically Scan
Files to Accelerate
Data Classification and
Cataloguing
The Asigra DS-Client based LAN Storage
Discovery tool enables Managed Service
Providers (MSP) and corporate IT
departments the ability to automatically
scan all of the file shares on a LAN
segment generating a list of files on that
segment. The scan can be scheduled to
maximize performance. It classifies and
catalogs all of the files by extension type,
old backups, media, Email, SQL, OS,
applications, etc.; number of files in that
extension, and file size (MB). Asigra’s
LAN Storage Discovery then takes that
data and makes it useful and actionable
with reports that identify duplicate files as
well as pinpointing the time since each
file was last accessed. The reports can
be exported and used in a “Recoverability
Report” that a Service Provider can use to
provide a prospective or existing customer
with quantitative findings that can be used
to rationalize and optimize backup and
recovery operations to ensure they meet
business objectives.
business savings can be the difference
between winning and losing a client. And
the recovery savings can be the difference
between meeting or missing RTOs.
Summary and detail reports are both
provided with a highly customizable export
feature. This information enables the MSP
or IT administrator to eliminate files from
the backup that should never be backed
up and store less critical files to more
cost effective storage by using Asigra
Backup Lifecycle Management (BLM).
The files stored to BLM typically have not
been accessed in a very long time but
still have some value (e.g. compliance).
The resulting backup cost savings can
be as much as 80% of what they would
have been. For Service Providers, the
■■ One-click generated reports
Report
Available Reports
There are in fact three types of reports
generated by the Asigra LAN Storage
Discovery tool. These reports are:
■■ LAN Files Summary
■■ Other reports.
The one-click generated reports provide
the most requested, important, and useful
information. Windows DS-Clients have
12 one-click generated reports whereas
the UNIX DS-Clients have 8. Each oneclick generated report is saved into HTML
or Excel file formats. One-click generated
reports include:
Description
Share Usage
Reports the total files and size (all and duplicated) for each share.
Largest Files
List top n (default is 100) largest files. Also report the percentage size compared to the entire LAN.
Largest Duplicates
List top n (default is 100) largest duplicate files. Also report the total
duplicate file number and the percentage of this number as well as the total
size of the top n files comparing to the entire LAN.
Ownership (Windows DS-Client only)
Reports the total storage occupied by each owner for each share as well
as the total.
File Type Distribution
Select top n (default is 10) file types, sorted either by space or file number
(default is by space). For each file type, select top m (default is 100) largest
files from the entire LAN.
Partition Size (Windows DS-Client only)
For each partition, report the total, free, and used space.
Access Report / Dormant Files
For each share, and each interval (5 intervals are provided: <1 Day, >1
Day, >1 Week, >1 Month, >1 Year), report the top n (default is 100) largest
files whose last access time is within the specified interval.
There is also a summary report of the total size and files for each interval of
each share.
Growth and Modified Files
Reports how many files and size created/modified for each share, each day
over the specified period (default is 14 days).
SQL Server Size (Windows DS-Client
only)
For each computer, how much space (total, free, used) are for SQL Server.
Exchange Server Size (Windows
DS-Client only)
Report all .edb and .pst files.
Index of Generated Reports
An index of all generated reports.
All Duplicate File
A list of all duplicate files. By default this report will not be generated.
The LAN File Summary report provides both a synopsis and detailed scanned file information. The report is easily modified with several
filters allowing a group of files to be specifically analyzed.
Report
Global View
Description
An overview of the total files and size for the following categories:
■■ All files
■■ Duplicate files
■■ Duplicate groups
■■ Changed and new files
■■ Unchanged files
■■ Not accessed files
the changed / unchanged, new, not accessed are determined by the
parameter ‘last n days’. The default is last 30 days.
Filtered view
This is similar to the global view. However, it is for each share based on the specified condition,
which is a combination of the following:
■■ “Last n days’: To determine changed/unchanged, new, not accessed.
■■ Filter: Like’*.c*’ on file name.
■■ Duplication: Only files with duplicates equal or greater than the specified number will be
counted.
■■ Share: Specify a group of shares to be considered.
Show Details
Show detailed information of files corresponding to selected row from the global/filtered view.
Charts
Show pie charts for selected row from the global/filtered view. Charts can be based on size or file
numbers for all categories (duplicated, unchanged, etc.).
Show Duplicates
Show all files that are duplicated with the selected file.
Other reports are highly customizable one-click generated reports. For example:
Report
Description
Large Files Report
List top n (default is 100) large files whose duplicate count is at least equal to the given value
(default is all files) for the specified share or all shares.
Extension report
The 2 extension reports are the “Top Report” showing the top n extensions ordered either by size
or file numbers for the specified range (a share or all shares) and the “Customize Report” that asks
for a list of specific extension and range (specific shares). Total size and files numbers are also
reported.
Access report
Reports files and size for given intervals, set within given range (specific shares). An interval can
be number of days, weeks, months, or years.
Growth report
User provides period for analysis: intervals (in days), range (specific shares), and type (total or
new). Report shows files and size for each interval falling within the specified period.
Share usage report
Reports the files and size grouped by owner for the specified shares.
No Additional Costs
The Asigra LAN Storage Discovery tool is included with all Asigra
Cloud Backup™ software at no additional fees, licensing, or costs
of any kind.
Request a Demo of Asigra
Cloud Backup today at
http://www.asigra.com/request-demo.
For more information on Asigra DS-Client LAN Storage Discovery, please contact an Asigra Recoverability
Specialist at 416-736-8111 ext. 1455 or to find out how you can lower your total cost of ownership visit
http://www.asigra.com/resource-center
About Asigra Cloud Backup
Award-winning Asigra Cloud Backup is an agentless, multi-tenant hardware and software platform agnostic cloud backup and recovery
software solution that supports servers, virtual machines, desktops, laptops, tablets, smartphones, cloud-based applications, enterprise
applications and databases enabling organizations to resume business operations quickly while reducing costs and achieving peace of mind.
About Asigra
Trusted since 1986, Asigra provides organizations around the world the ability to recover their data now from anywhere through a global network
of partners who deliver cloud backup and recovery services as public, private and/or hybrid deployments. As the industry’s first enterprise-class
agentless cloud-based recovery software to provide data backup and recovery of servers, virtual machines, endpoint devices, databases and
applications, SaaS and IaaS based applications, Asigra lowers the total cost of ownership, reduces recovery time objectives, eliminates silos
of backup data by providing a single consolidated repository, and provides 100% recovery assurance. Asigra’s revolutionary patent-pending
Recovery License Model provides organizations with a cost effective data recovery business model unlike any other offered in the storage
market. Asigra has been recognized as a Gartner Cool Vendor and has been included in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Backup and
Recovery Software since 2010. In 2015, Asigra Cloud Backup was also named the Top Enterprise Backup Solution and Product of the Year
by Storage Magazine.
More information on Asigra can be found at www.asigra.com
© 2014 Asigra Inc. Asigra, the Asigra logo, Asigra Cloud Backup, Recovery is Everything, and Recovery Tracker are all trademarks of Asigra Inc.
Recovery License Model is a registered trademark of Asigra Inc. All other brand and product names are trademarks of their respective owners. [11/14]