Sometimes called Recovery In Place, this is a function that allows for a snapshot of the data to be made and run on temporary basis in another storage device. This means that if some type of disaster occurs from accidental deletion, breakdown of hard drive, or cyber-attack that compromises the computer or device, an instant recovery in place occurs in which the backed-up data is used on another device.
Instant recovery addresses one of the biggest concerns when data is lost, the time and effort to recover what was on the computer or device. By having all the data readily available on another device or computer, the workloads can be redirected to the backup while the original unit is being addressed. Once the work of data recovery is over and everything has been restored to normal, then the workload can go back to the original device.
You’ll find recovery in place systems mostly used in virtualized environments. However, there are some backup systems like bare metal servers that use this method as well. The time it takes for the backed-up information to kick in will depend on the servers and overall system of data storage that is being used.
The advantage of this system is that those using the information that is temporarily lost will never know that anything has happened since the backup kicked in immediately. The snapshot storage means that whatever they were viewing or working on is still there and they can continue with what they were doing. Once the original has been restored, it goes back and again, the user is unaware that anything has happened.
For this to work properly, the backup hardware will have to be tested and be ready to go. The good news about this form of data recovery is that it does not require identical systems for primary and secondary hardware to work. This makes instant recovery a less expensive form of backup that is perfect when the business or organization uses a cloud-storage appliance which is inexpensive and readily available.
There are other types of data recovery systems available and some may be better suited to your needs compared to instant recovery.
Deduplication: Perfect for backing up a disk, but there are performance problems associated with this method. To make it run faster, additional disk processors or spindles will need to be employed so the transfer is seamless.
Frequent Backups: Recovery in place works best when the data has been backed up within the past half-hour. If the normal backup is less frequent, such as the night before for example, then instant recovery will simply not work.
Expectations: If your customers use all-flash arrays for example and run it on a compressed, deduplicated system, then having a hard drive backup like instant recovery may not be applicable.
A professional evaluation by a data recovery company may provide you with the answers needed in what backup system will work best. However, it should be noted that for many systems, instant recovery offers solid benefits.