Enhancing NetApp SnapVault Performance with F5 BIG-IP WOM

NetApp SnapVault

SnapVault is a disk-to-disk backup tool useful for copying your data from one storage system to another. By using disk-to-disk backup technology, it reduces backup times and improves backup reliability. Given a near-line backup target, you can move from the backup to tape without affecting your primary or secondary storage systems in any way. This transfers the bulk of the backup window out of your system’s run-time and into a standalone process. Because the backup is disk-based and a complete copy, restores are vastly simplified, especially in accidental file deletion scenarios. By providing a backup target that enables you to browse to the impacted files and selectively restore them, there is no delay finding the correct tape, seeking to the correct file, and then beginning the restore.

While SnapVault has some features that help improve performance with remote disk-to-disk targets, the performance of all applications degrades as latency and loss rates on the WAN connection increase. This is a function of what happens to IP connections as distance increases and the quality of the connection decreases.

BIG-IP WAN Optimization Module

BIG-IP WAN Optimization Module provides the necessary extra boost when using SnapVault over the WAN. It improves TCP/IP performance overall, compresses and deduplicates data being transferred over the WAN connection, and encrypts your data while it is in transport over the WAN—all without making any required changes to your SnapVault configuration.

BIG-IP WOM also provides all of these benefits for every application running over the WAN, which means you have a point-to-point secure tunnel that improves your TCP/IP connections, reduces the data being transmitted with deduplication, and compresses what is left. This gives you more room on your WAN connection for growth without necessitating a costly upgrade purchase.