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Defrag Study Indicates Increased Backup Performance
Added: (Fri Jun 23 2006)
Ever Increasing Demands on Data Storage and Backup Might Be Alleviated by Reducing Disk Fragmentation
June 23rd 2006 EAST GRINSTEAD -- Aside from accuracy, speed of backing up data has become a critical issue in today's hi-tech environment. With the expansion of organisational storage allocation requirements, the time required for file-based data backup also continues to escalate. Though backup software vendors continue making advancements in technology to speed up the process, disk fragmentation will continue to remain an unresolved issue that must be addressed on the file system level to solve this bottleneck. In other words, a defrag of the disk is essential to increase backup speed.
In business environments, backing up local and network data is commonly done with both tape and disk devices. As data backup involves file access, fragmentation of data files can have a profound impact on the length of time a backup procedure may take. Fragmentation means that the data on the disk is not contiguous. Instead, it is scattered around the disk in bits and pieces. And, while the data can still be accessed, it is obvious that it is going to require additional seek time when the data from a particular file is not all in one location on the disk.
Testing has found that the time required to back up data from a typical hard drive volume to backup devices can be decreased and the backup data transfer rate increased by a defrag job prior to backup. Furthermore, directory consolidation has a direct additional benefit in backup and data transfer rates. The study showed improvements in backup times up to 69% (decrease in total back up time) -- less than one half of the time for the fragmented system. Similarly, backup data transfer rates increased up to 69% over that for the fragmented state -- nearly 1.7 times as fast.
Combining the benefits of directory consolidation with I-FAAST (Intelligent File Access Acceleration Sequencing Technology) improved backup data transfer rates and backup times in the network disk backup trials for ARCServe by a total of 70%.
Diskeeper Corporation Europe (www.DiskeeperEurope.com), an industry-leading developer of systems management tools, performed these series of rigorous tests to determine the effects of fragmentation on backup operations and the benefits of defragmentation (defrag) on various systems. The results showed that in addition to defragmenting this test case, consolidating directories had a further benefit on backup performance. Backup times for ARCServe were improved by an additional 3% for the local disk backup, and an additional 41% for the network disk backup.
Diskeeper Corporation Europe
Diskeeper Corporation (formerly Executive Software®) is the undisputed leader in automatic defragmentation technology. From its origins as the first defragmenter for Windows NT, Diskeeper has grown to become the Number One Automatic Defragmenter™ with over 20 million licenses sold. Corporations around the world rely on Diskeeper to provide daily automatic defragmentation, giving their systems unparalleled speed and stability. Diskeeper Corporation also provides up-to-the-minute data protection and instant file recovery with Undelete® and easy-to-use automated patch and systems management with Sitekeeper®. Diskeeper’s European headquarters can be reached by calling +44 (0)1342 327477. A variety of system management tools, trialware and free utilities are available at www.DiskeeperEurope.com.
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