Top 10 Evaluation Criteria for Copy Data Management & Data Virtualization

Why are CDM and data virtualisation so important to businesses? CDM and data virtualization solutions drastically reduce the data sprawl created by copies of data. The average enterprise creates 8-10 copies of every production data source, for app development, testing, user acceptance, production support, reporting, business intelligence, etc. Thus, a 5 TB production database leads to 40-50 TB of downstream copies, and a F500 firm might have more than 1,000 databases.

The amount of storage required to effectively manage copy data is stunning. Data virtualisation eliminates all the redundant copies of data while at the same time and more importantly reducing the time required to make copies. The result is accelerated IT projects at reduced costs. Today there are only a few vendors offering products focused on copy data management, but it’s already becoming difficult to navigate through vendor marketing and uncover the true capabilities and benefits of each vendor’s products and this challenge will only grow as more vendors enter the space.

This becomes even more challenging still when you attempt to map a vendor’s unique features to your specific use cases (such as application development, disaster recovery, or test data management). Savvy IT execs also realize that “virtualising” data or simply managing copies of data will soon be the baseline functionality required in IT departments.