The more frequent your backups, the less data lost or, in the case of a database with a transaction log, the faster your recovery. Incremental backups reduce the backup time but increase recovery time. For organizations with little or no backup window, off-host backups offer a good solution, particularly as the amount of data to be managed grows.

Because backups take place on another host, the backup window is of less concern, and you can make full backups each day. This speeds recovery time in the event a problem does occur.

FlashSnap simplifies the process of making snapshot volumes available for off-host processing with the Disk Group Split and Join feature. Using this feature, administrators can split one or more volume snapshots into another disk group, then "deport" the disk group. The alternate host, running Storage Foundation, can then import that disk group and its volumes for off-host processing.

When the off-host processing is complete, you can rejoin the snapshot volume and its disk group in a similar manner, deporting it from the secondary host, importing it to the primary host, and rejoining the original disk group.

FlashSnap snapshots can be backed up with NetBackup or Backup Exec.