In today's data-driven enterprise landscape, protecting workloads from disruptions, data loss, or attacks is non-negotiable. IBM Storage Insights makes it simpler for storage administrators to gain visibility and control over their data protection strategies through its Workload Protection Widget - a powerful component of the Overview Dashboard and Device Level Dashboard.
What Is the Workload Protection Widget?
The Workload Protection Widget in IBM Storage Insights provides a centralised view of data protection across IBM storage systems. It enables storage administrators to quickly assess how well their workloads are safeguarded through High Availability (HA), Disaster Recovery (DR), snapshots, and safeguarded backups. By surfacing protection gaps and utilisation insights in real time, the widget supports faster decision-making, improves operational readiness, and strengthens overall workload resilience. It is a key tool for aligning storage infrastructure with business continuity and data protection objectives.
What Does the Workload Protection Widget Show?
The Workload Protection Widget provides a concise yet comprehensive view of data protection posture. An information icon next to the widget subtitle offers quick guidance on applicability ( device eligible for consideration ), so users know exactly which systems are included in the analysis.
Let’s break down the individual components:
Volumes Mapped to Hosts :
- What it shows: The ratio of volumes that are actively mapped to hosts.
- How it’s calculated: Volumes mapped to host / Total volumes in the tenant
- Why it matters: Volumes not mapped to any host are essentially idle or unused. This metric helps identify underutilized resources or provisioning gaps.
- Example: 51654 volumes are present across all the SpecV and DS8k devices. Out of 51654, 32716 volumes has host volume mapping.
Covered By HA ( High Availability) :
- What is HA - High Availability (HA) in storage systems refers to an architecture designed to ensure continuous access to data and services by eliminating single points of failure. It typically involves synchronous data replication between systems or sites, automated failover mechanisms, and redundancy at various levels—ensuring that storage remains accessible with minimal or no downtime during hardware failures or localized outages.
- What it shows: Percentage of mapped volumes (online or offline) that are part of HA relationships.
- How it’s calculated: # of volumes with status online, and mapped to HA policy / # of volumes mapped to host * 100
- Why it matters: HA mechanisms like Metro Mirror or Hyperswap protects data access during hardware failures or outages. This indicator reflects your readiness to maintain operations without disruption.
- Example :
- 2931 indicates volumes mapped to host with status as online and HA policy enabled
- Say 200 indicates volumes mapped to host with status as offline HA policy disabled - will be shown with amber icon
- (2931 / 32716) * 100 = 8.9 % indicates percentage of online volumes covered under HA
Covered By DR ( Disaster Recovery ) :
- What is DR - Disaster Recovery refers to the use of remote data replication techniques in storage systems to protect against major outages, such as data center failures, natural disasters, or cyber incidents. In this setup, data is typically copied asynchronously from the primary site to a secondary, geographically distant location. This ensures that, in the event of a critical failure, storage workloads can be restored and resumed from the remote site, minimising downtime and data loss.