Best Backup Solution: Moving away from tapes with full disaster recovery II

Part II: Backup and Disaster Recovery
Originally Posted By Joshua Shackelford on Successful Thinkers Meetup

What do you need?
In Part I, we discussed the 3 types of scenarios we are trying to meet.  We are looking to archive our data, recover from the occasional oops, and then of course the ever so important, disaster recovery.  While archival needs vary from holding data for a couple of weeks, a few years, 10 years or even forever, everyone needs to be able to recover from the occasional oops and, the heaven forbid, disaster.  Through out all three of these cases we are looking to maintain business continuity.  Enter Verve’s Backup and Disaster Recovery solution, or BDR.

Archival
Archival dictates how much storage you need. If you are looking to store your data for a few months, or even years, your requirements will be a lot less than someone who needs to hold data for 10 years or in the case of banking, forever.  The solution that I’m going to propose will be able to securely store your data for any length of time.  You don’t have to worry about cycling tapes.

Our solution comprises of:

1. Disk-based BDR device to be deployed onsite at client location.
2. Built-in virtualization software that provides a Standby Server if a server fails.
3. Features that enable recovering a single email, mailbox, file OR database.
4. Redundant datacenters replicate data offsite coupled with services to recover data in case of site failure.
5. 24x7 monitoring and maintenance of NAS device through Network Operations Center (NOC) on select models with various service plans.
6. Comprehensive 3 year warranty standard with each BDR.

Oops! I deleted a file 
With our BDR, you can quickly load up a secure interface that will present you with your files.  Simply select a file and choose a destination to restore the file to, and your done.  You have just recovered a deleted file, without hunting through tapes, hoping that the one that you need is one site, and not at the owners house.

Oh No!  We lost the entire server!
Maybe you had a fire, a flood, or simply lost power to your air-conditioning unit, causing your servers to over heat.  A more common occurrence is the random filed hardware, from mother boards to hard drives.  In this case, our BDR can act as a temporary server, spinning up the last backup of your data from just 15 minutes ago.  And if you the whole building went down, you could spin up your last online backup from our servers, to put you back in business within hours.

The best setup with our BDR is to do regular backups through out the day to the local BDR, and then to push a nightly back up to our servers, offsite.  Giving you quick local backups, and quick data restoration, while still being able to send your data offsite in case of a major disaster.

Our Backup and Disaster Recovery solution is powered by the tried and true, enterprise backup software, ShadowProtect by StorageCraft.

Tape	BDR
Could take up to 48-72 hours to restore a failed server*	Built-in virtualization provides a Standby Server in less than 30 minutes
Often takes hours to days to restore based on where tapes are located	Recover a single file or a single mailbox item in minutes
Offsite storage can be expensive and tapes are often taken to an employee's home as an alternative	Utilize our datacenter or replicate to another BDR at your own site
Recovering data from tape takes many steps and replacement hardware isn’t always available	Next day delivery services are provided with the Standby Server ready to host servers

This solution is available by Verve Networks.

Originally Posted By Joshua Shackelford on Successful Thinkers Meetup

Best Backup Solution: Moving away from tapes with full disaster recovery

Part I: Identifying the need
Originally Posted By Joshua Shackelford on Successful Thinkers Meetup

What do you need?
When looking at backup systems, there are 3 types of scenarios we are trying to meet.  We are looking to archive our data, recover from the occasional oops, and then of course the ever so important, disaster recovery.  While archival needs vary from holding data for a couple of weeks, a few years, 10 years or even forever, everyone needs to be able to recover from the occasional oops and, the heaven forbid, disaster.  Through out all three of these cases we are looking to maintain business continuity.

Archival
I won’t go into much depth here as most people understand what their needs are for archiving data, and tend to just throw a bunch of hard drives at the situation.  Often archival needs are dictated by governing policies, and you are most likely already doing something about this.  After I go into more detail about file recovery, and disaster recovery, you’ll get a better idea of how archival fits into this whole scheme.

 

Oops! I deleted a file
We’ve all accidentally deleted a file and needed to recover it, or had users that have deleted files and needed to get them back.  A solid backup system will enable you to locate and recover a deleted file quickly.  If you’ve ever worked with a tape backup system, then you know that this isn’t quick.  First you have to locate the file in the backup application, then find the correct tape (which hopefully the tape’s physical label matches the system label) so that you can finally reload the original file.  This can be a pain in the butt.  Wouldn’t it be nicer if you could just click on it to restore it?

Oh No!  We lost the entire server!
In a major disaster, your whole business is at risk.  Whether it was a fire, a flood, or something more likely to occur, such as failing hardware, possibly from over heating or just wearing out, you are in a position that you need to recover your entire server.  What most people don’t realize is that even if you have a full back up of every file on your server, and all of the configurations, you will still be down for at least a day.  You see, before you can restore the files, you must first rebuild the server.  Reinstall the operating system, reinstall every single program on the server, and then begin reloading configurations and files.  If all of these backups are on tape, you are looking at 48-72 hours until you are fully running.

Finding a solution
There are many different backup options out there today.  If you are just starting this research process, you will be reading about hardware, software, virtualization, recovery… on… and on… and on…  Trying to sort out which software you need, which hardware it goes with, and then how do you recover if something goes wrong.  Finally you will settle on a solution.  Mostly likely either a tape solution paired with Backup Exex or ArcServe, an online backup like Mozy or Carbonite, or possibly a cloning application such as Acronis or Shadow Protect.  The best backup solution is somewhere in this mix allowing for a full recover in just moments, quick and simple file recovery, and the ability to take your backups offsite.

Please continue to part II, where the best backup solution is described.

Originally Posted By Joshua Shackelford on Successful Thinkers Meetup