Over the past year, TSO has examined the volume and frequency of data being backed up on CoC research servers. Our findings have shown that we backed up 20TB of research data when performing a full backup last Spring semester. The projected growth rate of our full backups for Fall semester should exceed 25TB. This calculation is done based on the growth in incremental backup sizes we have seen over the year.

We have also investigated the upgrade and replacement costs to our existing backup infrastructure, that is already at its end of life cycle support. Our preliminary talks with some major backup vendors have given us estimated costs for a CoC managed solution. The next step will be a dialogue with OIT this Spring semester to determine if they offer a solution that is comparable or better to our service and of course more cost effective.

Due to the current budget situation, some immediate action was required and TSO has had to further examine the labor and media costs demanded by this volume of data being backed up. In an effort to control our expenditures for media and limited time on behalf of the support staff, TSO has reduced the data retention policy from one year to six months. Please note this is an interim solution for this fiscal year. The backup policy will be reevaluated after we have collected additional information over the Spring semester and see the budget for next fiscal year.

I also ask that you contact me with any recommendations that you have on how we can continue to best meet the backup needs for research data. We have a few months to work out a plan for next year and ideas are always welcome.

For detailed information on backup services and policy, please visit our Backup & Restores Services page.