From D2D2T to F2F2X: Huawei Proposed a fresh perspective on Backup Storage

[Shenzhen, China, September 23, 2021] At Huawei Connect 2021, Huawei proposed a fresh perspective on backup storage revolution: the change from D2D2T (Disk-to-Disk-to-Tape) to F2F2X (Flash-to-Flash-to-Everything). This trend is already prominent, as evident in the adoption of flash-based primary storage that accelerates various data center scenarios and workloads.

Data is the new gold in the digital age, and now, we are seeing an evolution in primary storage of spindle disks being replaced by flash-based technologies. However, while primary storage has already moved to flash, the whole storage infrastructure, especially the protection technology, remains outdated. The D2D2T form was introduced 15 years ago, making it insufficient to solve new problems:

• Increasing amount of important application data causes longer backup window, which is a big challenge for all organizations
• When customers face a system failure, it’s more important for them to restore the data as fast as they can, but the old-style technology causes long and non-predictable recovery time.
• The workloads are running all-day-long, when the backup job fails during the processing, it might make O&M engineer get up in the mid-night to restart the job, or do it during working hours which would usually have negative performance impact on the production system.

"Now we need the revolution from D2D2T to F2F2X. To facilitate this move, we need to greatly improve the performance of backup storage. For example, to ensure a lower RTO and instant restoration for data re-use, we need to definitely improve the performance of recovery. As the industry develops, we need to consider how data can be safely stored on the third platforms, like public or private cloud of an organization, as well as on a disk-based systems, tape and blu-rays." said Mr. Michael Fan, the Director of Data Storage Solution Sales Dept. of Huawei Enterprise BG.

Huawei is a frontrunner to many industry trends and insights, and aware that F2F2X will redefine the dedicated backup storage as a flash-based system, and facilitate new opportunities to large enterprises. Huawei OceanProtect Backup Storage is built for the future, and offers the following 4 advantages:

• Fast backup and recovery: As an all-flash system, OceanProtect is equipped with industry-fast performance, while also ensuring a predictable backup and recovery time window.
• Integrated algorithms: Inline variable-length deduplication, compression, and compaction provide the highest data reduction in the industry.
• Innovation: Huawei invests in and patents the next-best technologies in all-flash-storage industry, making the systems the most robust on earth.
• Openness: Huawei solutions are designed to adapt new ecosystems, like container, big data, and cloud backup, to grow with our customers together.