Backup reporting tools are solutions that monitor and report on the backup process. These tools usually take some time to gather information and then allow administrators to report on various workings. This enables administrators to understand what is working and what is not working in their environment so they can get that under control. This way, an administrator can spend less time troubleshooting and more time managing errors and infrastructure issues.
One example that might be useful for people to understand is if they have very timely information about the success or failure of a backup job. They can then ensure that the data is actually recoverable. It would be better for that to happen closer to when the backup job kicks off.
Media reports that detail what was written to the media, when the media expires, when the media will be overwritten and the media's location are helpful for any backup administrator, especially those who have regulatory requirements.
How do these solutions work? They basically collect information on the backup process, the systems, platforms and devices in the backup infrastructure. All of that information is aggregated and stored in a relational database. The vendors then package dozens or more out-of-the-box reports and some type of facility to extract and manipulate the data to have custom reports.
There are some basic tools that are built into backup applications. But what we're really talking about with this set of vendors is purpose-built software that reports on more than one vendor's backup solution and provides a higher level of reporting and analytics to really drive backup process optimization.
Checkout the entire Backup reporting FAQ
