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Hi all,

I’ve taken on two networks in my new sysadmin role and have just finished switching over to a leased-line service and am therefore looking into Cloud backup.

I’d like to know how this works with server backups - i.e. I am currently backing up SQL databases, Exchange 2003, AD and a bunch of files and system states (using Backup Exec and LTO2/3/4).

Also I’m looking for something with a heavy level of encryption and a trustworthy company - I’m a little nervous about the thought of having all of our data stored in someone else’s datacentre if I’m honest!

Anyway, just looking for a few tips really - also if anyone knows of any services which allow a free trial then I’d be very interested. Seems that most don’t offer such a facility and this is something which I’m going to have to demo to the stakeholders before I can spend any money on it if that makes sense!

Thanks in advance for your assistance

Kind regards,

Adam

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I’d look at some of the Bigger people in the UK market, Securidata and Databarracks spring to mind. they are UK local and use proven technology. Your biggest issues technically are going to be volume, can you push the changes out fast enough in the time window and restores.

Next comes things like data security - what can you send remotely based on a risk approach. How sensitive is the data, but then currently do you backup off-site for a DR situtation.

Cloud backup has it’s positives and negatives and shouldn’t be seen as a MUST DO, its a good alternative/additions to onsite backups.

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Hi Martin,

Thanks, that’s very good advice - I was planning on doing a monthly full backup and then perhaps incrementals in-between.

I’m happy with our current on-site tape solution (we do have off-site storage), but I like the idea of having a plan B as it were.
This would really be an interim DR solution until such time as we have the infrastructure to have a second site with replication etc. (currently stuck with SBS 2003 and no budget for an upgrade).

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Most cloud backups do an initial full backup (which can take ages depending on bandwidth) then purely incrementals after to preserve bandwidth and have data retention at 30 days or whatever, ie you have current minus 30 days.

Talk to Securidata or Databarracks or their web site for more info on how their ASigra based backups work.

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Will do - thanks for the advice.

This may be a silly question but how does the data retention work? i.e., you mention that there’s an initial full and then purely incrementals but retention is only for 30-days - do they combine the initial full with these incrementals and clean-up accordingly?

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yes, so they keep the initial if no changes. all quite clever and works nice. have a deeper look into how the asigra stuff works

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That’s brilliant! I will do, have a great day

Adam

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Here’s a thought; if the two networks are linked, you could do a cross site backup. This means that the backups are offsite and protected.

I used Microsoft Data Protection Manager (I know some people don’t like it as it is Micro$oft) and found that it worked really well. I used it to protect several sites. It works by disk to disk backups and the agent has a very light footprint compared to other products.

It “synchonises” data throughout the day; think of that as the “incremental” backup. Then it creates a “recovery point” in the evening (the full backup). You can create other recovery points as required; it works with Exchange, SQL and SharePoint.

Recovery of data is very simple. It also provides a disk to tape backup of the recovery points.

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Adam,

Here are a couple of points I believe you should take into consideration when looking for a solid backup solution:

  1. Determine the RTO, RPO and RSL for each of your systems. By determining what your company requires will help you in selecting the right backup solution. This should be your first step.
  2. Look for a solution that can provide not only a local copy of your data but also a copy either in a public cloud, a site of your chosing (for example - a remote branch) or relationship with a private SSAE16 data center.
  3. Look for a backup that can support the archive history your organization might require. Determine if this archive history is required not only locally but needs to be held remotely as well.
  4. Make sure that the backup solution has the ability to properly get the data off site in a secure and reliable mode. Bandwidth to get the data off site is going to be your single biggest challenge. This will be determined by your current rate of change of data.

I hope this helps you get started.

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@Bottman - unfortunately the two sites are two separate SBS boxes which I’ve inherited, otherwise I’d definitely be going down that route!

Will definitely look into Data Protection Manager though, didn’t know MS had such a product, thanks for the tip :slight_smile:

@Richard - that’s some great advice; you’re right - I need to go back to the drawing board and work out those factors. Fortunately our data changes slowly - watching the current daily differentials on a weekly backup shows a very slow rate of change. It’s getting that initial full backup done which is going to be our biggest challenge - ~600GB over a 6Mb/s connection…!
Fortunately our offices close for the whole Christmas period so if my calculations are correct we can do 696GB over the 11 days so we may have to hold off until then - unless you can give an LTO tape over for the initial full?

Adam

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What is it about cloud backup that has you looking at it vs. colocation?

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Hi John,

Well, colocation is my long-term goal but unfortunately SBS is prohibitive in this case - therefore Cloud backup is going to be the best interim measure as far as I can see

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SFP_AdamSharif wrote:

Hi John,

Well, colocation is my long-term goal but unfortunately SBS is prohibitive in this case - therefore Cloud backup is going to be the best interim measure as far as I can see

I’m wondering what would cause you to backup to a NAS target that someone else owns instead of one that you own? Is it the acquisition cost?

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Hi John,

Do you mean buying some rackspace and deploying our own NAS box? I’d imagine that’d be more expensive than using a Cloud service, I may be wrong though!

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Maybe. Or maybe not.

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I’d like to offer up a different approach borrowing from the Data Protection Manager idea and it is something we use internally to backup our systems. Basically it is a virtual software appliance that provides an iSCSI volume. That volume is essentially a cache for the cloud. Initially data is copied from cache to the cloud and remains in both places. Then as the data on cache ages it is removed from cache and is only available on the cloud. For backups, I size the cache so it can hold the latest DPM image. Basically 100% of the data is on-site and 100% is in the cloud. We also use this for archives of old data. That cache is set so that only the most active 10% is in on local storage and the rest is in the cloud. Accessing old data is seamless other than the obvious latency of the cloud connection. Lastly you can use it, when you are ready, for primary stores.

You can see a complete review of the solution here: http://www.storage-switzerland.com/Blog/Entries/2012/5/30_Tuning_The_Cloud_For_Primary_Storage.html

Hope that helps,

George

George Crump
Chief Steward, Storage Switzerland

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George Crump wrote:

I’d like to offer up a different approach borrowing from the Data Protection Manager idea and it is something we use internally to backup our systems. Basically it is a virtual software appliance that provides an iSCSI volume. That volume is essentially a cache for the cloud. Initially data is copied from cache to the cloud and remains in both places.

Egnyte does something similar for NAS.

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Good point John, We’ve looked at that too, very impressed but have not had a chance to bring into the lab yet…We did an inital write up on the latest version of Egnyte about two weeks ago.

" Hybrid File Sync and Share May be the Next Big Thing in the Cloud "

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You could get a Unitrends appliance and subscribe to their Vault 2 Cloud service and send all of your backups to the cloud or only the ones you want on a recurring schedule. You pay for the service based on how much data you will backup per month / year. Then you would have a great backup onsite (say goodbye, tapes) and could get a new appliance onsite with all of your backups loaded on in the next day if disaster strikes.

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Hey Adam,

Just wanted to check in and put in our $.02. Have you checked out Mozy yet? They do all kinds of cloud backup for SMB’s all the way up to large scale enterprises.

Check out this site. It does a good job explaining it, and if you want you can either live chat with them, send me a DM, or you can just email EMCSocialSalesTeam@emc.com and we can get you started there. If you need help getting looped in with an Account Rep who can have the tech talk with you, feel free to reach out.

Best of luck with the project!

Dan