1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to the field of electronic data storage, analysis, and recovery. Specifically, the invention relates to a system used for arranging and organizing data backup, computing system operation data, storing system data, monitoring and analyzing collected historical system data, predicting a future system occurrence, taking the appropriate steps to notify a specified party of a future occurrence, and taking the appropriate steps to correct or prevent a future occurrence.
2. Description of Related Art
Data backup is often recognized as a necessity for nearly all computer-based systems. Businesses and other enterprises that rely heavily on computer systems are often paralyzed in the event of a system failure or a data loss. These failures can lead to lost profits and high repair and recovery costs. Furthermore, many computer systems handle sensitive and valuable data, which holds significant value.
Because of the importance and value of continuous system operation and reliable data storage, a number of methods have been devised for data backup. Many of these methods employ large data storage media (such as tapes, high-capacity hard drives, etc.) that are used to periodically transcribe a system's body of data.
These backup systems, while effective in copying large amounts of data, have a number of shortcomings. Firstly, many systems do not employ a media management system, which tracks the appropriate media for a given backup. Secondly, present day backup systems do not continuously monitor a system's performance. And lastly, these systems are not able to predict when a system may become unstable, so that system failures can be predicted and prevented.
Additionally, the software industry is currently developing within a paradigm of scarcity. There is not enough storage capacity for current needs, so as little as possible is stored. According to Moore's Law:                “. . . computing power per unit cost will continue to grow exponentially.”        “In this form, “Moore's law” has a factual basis and has proven useful for planning purposes. The most rigorous interpretation of Moore's law is that the total number of transistors on the cheapest CPU will grow exponentially at a constant rate and that this constant rate produces a doubling every 12 (or 18, or 24) months. This variant oversimplifies a complex history.”        (Quoted from Wikipedia) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore's law        
Assuming that doubling happens every 18 months, the industry, in all of its sub parts, will move from lack of capacity, to more than twice its current requirements. This shift to a “paradigm of plenty” needs to be recognized and understood in order to effectively capitalize on this increase in capacity. Excess capacity will exist in the form of both computing power and data storage. Two logical questions present themselves. What can be stored that we are not storing, and how can that data be used?
We can only store what we have, but increased storage capacity will allow us to include a certain subset of data that is currently being thrown away because it cannot be effectively or economically stored and retrieved. For some industries, this has changed, and for others it will change in the future. A file stored on any digital system (DVD, CD, Hard Drive, Tape Drive, SAN, WAN, etc.) contains a tremendous amount of associated data (termed ‘meta-data’). In the example of a Hard Drive, such examples include file size, file creation date, last access date, last modification date, file permissions, and much more. A web server captures the number of times data was accessed, pages viewed, number of errors, and what IP address accessed the site. In most current systems, each of these pieces of information are recorded for a short time and then deleted. If not deleted, they are normally retained for liability purposes. In such a system, retained data is not stored in an effective manner. Using the proposed platform as described herein, the data can now be reconfigured to perform predictive analysis.