Making Snapshots Easy To Use In Operating Systems

Storage-based snapshots improve performance and flexibility and simplify a number of IT tasks, but their most common use is to improve backup operations. Data consistency is critical in backups to ensure reliable restores when needed. Snapshot-based backups provide the best data consistency with running applications – and minimize application disruptions during backups. Snapshot backups also allow for offloading backup operations from application servers, improving application processing. Using snapshots with backup has been a difficult challenge for IT organizations. Each administrator has had to manually integrate the various components in order to create snapshot data in the format required for backups.

But there is good news. An emerging industry trend is shifting this integration burden back to the vendors – with "snapshot-aware" operating systems. A good example is Windows Server™ 2003, in which Microsoft® included a technology called Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS). By integrating and coordinating all the components involved in snapshots, IT administrators can deploy turnkey backup solutions that use application-consistent snapshots to dramatically improve backup operations.