EMC Glossary


Replication is the process of copying data within an array to another space within the same array, to a separate local array, or to a distant array. The purpose may be to relocate the data, to safeguard the data at a second location, or to locate the data at a secondary processing site so that operations may resume from there.

Who chooses replication, and why

Organizations use replication to protect data from loss, to implement disaster recovery, to migrate data to new locations, and to repurpose data for other systems, such as for test and development activities or decision-support applications.

How replication works

Data is copied from the source and sent over a network to a target device. The process may be host-based, network-based, or array-based. Bandwidth reduction and data compression may be used to reduce the impact on production resources. Most replication occurs during production activity—either synchronously, in step with production, or asynchronously, closely behind production activity.

Benefits of replication

Without impacting production applications and activity, replication reduces the risk of information loss and enables critical applications to be run from a secondary location in the event of a planned or unplanned outage or disaster. Replication also enables organizations to easily and nondisruptively move data—either to a new location or to other environments and systems.