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Bandwidth Optimization (WAFS, WDS, WAAS)

Bandwidth optimization appliances have grown to support direct application access from small remote sites, in addition to their historic work in optimizing bandwidth for things like storage or transaction replication between servers. In small remote offices, this presents a great opportunity: replace the local server with a network device, and keep data 'truth' at a managed hub datacenter, thus removing the need for administration at the remote office. But it has limits:

• Scale of recovery. Bandwidth optimization does not help as much if data has not been sent recently. This matters most during a recovery, when all data needs to come back to the remote office. If a T3 can send about 10 GB per hour, or about 240 GB per day, and a site has a goal to be down for no longer than a day, more data than that would mean it would need to be returned by overnight hardware shipment. The network didn't do its job.
• What about servers that stay in place? Separately, it is not always possible to pull all of the servers out of their current use. They still need to be backed up.

For sites with a couple hundred gigabytes or more to protect, it is more appropriate to keep the server, and restore locally. Using Data Domain for data protection, bandwidth can still be kept to a minimum in replication of the backup data to a hub, at which point it can be retained on disk or archived to tape independently.