Businesses worldwide recognize the commercial value of their data and seek reliable, cost-effective ways to protect the information stored on their computer networks while minimizing impact on productivity. A company might back up critical computing systems such as databases, file servers, web servers, virtual machines, and so on as part of a daily, weekly, or monthly maintenance schedule. The company may similarly protect computing systems used by each of its employees, such as those used by an accounting department, marketing department, engineering department, and so forth.
Given the rapidly expanding amounts of data to be protected, companies also continue to seek innovative techniques for managing data growth and the costs associated with storing the data. For example, reducing the complexity of a storage management system and the expenses of maintaining it remains an ever-present need.