Data Backup, Disaster Recovery and Howie

Important question, right?  What are all of the other guys doing, or not doing?  How effective are the data backup systems that are currently out there?  The answer might not please you.

Gartner, the leader in global research, reports that if you’re using tape backup you have less than a 30% chance of recovering your data.  Let’s think about that out loud for a second (I know, doesn’t really make sense but neither does a talking and dancing hard drive).  If you lost your data ten times you would only get it back three times.  Woah!  That, under anyone’s standards, doesn’t sound too acceptable.

You’ve got a duty, whether you’re and IT professional or a business owner or a home user to make sure that your data is safe.  There are some good solutions out there today that can accomplish this for you.  The most important thing is actively monitoring your backup though.  You’ve got to make sure that you’re actively checking in on your backups and ensuring that your data is safe and sound.

One thing is guaranteed in this technological age, you’re going to have to restore data at some point.  Take it from me, be prepared, or else you’re just another statistic, my friend.  Just another statistic.

Backing up Outlook can be a real pain in the butt.  There are so many different work scenarios that it makes it difficult to present one clear best practice.  However, I’m going to focus on the small business shops out there because I think that’s where the most mistakes takes place.

The #1 easist step to back up outlook is:  to make sure that all of your email is forwarded to another account such as a gmail or hotmail account.  That way, you don’t even have to backup Outlook if you don’t want to.  This will ensure that even if that pesky PST file blows up you at least still have all of the history saved somewhere.

If you’re using a desktop computer, it’s always a good idea to store your PST file on the network.  This will ensure that it’s on a more secure, more reliable system, and in most cases, is backed up daily.

You could always use a program like ION, but I would go with the first two first if at all possible and use ION on the server.

That leads me into the #1 you should NOT do when backing up Outlook.  Many backup programs say that they can backup open files.  While it may be true, they’re leaving out the fact that they can’t restore those backed up open files.  Think about it, you are making a copy of a file that is in the process of changing.  You wouldn’t try to jack up a car while it was rolling, would you?  Kinda the same thing.  Now, it doesn’t mean that you won’t successfully jack the car up sometimes, but there’s a good chance you’re going to see a podiatrist.  So, sometimes, you’ll recover the files and sometimes you’ll be on the phone with a support guy screaming in the mist of futility.

The biggest thing to realize is that when you restore these files some or ALL of the file could be corrupt and it is very likely with Outlook files.  One thing that I do like about ION is that it will actually close and re-open Outlook to ensure that you have a proper backup file.

If you want more info on Outlook backups just shoot me an email or post a comment.  I’m happy to go into as much detail as you’d like.

-Howie H. Drive

I’m not going to lie, I’m a hard drive and typing ain’t the easiest thing.  But, it’s time for me to get back on the bus.  So much has been going on and those guys over at Universe Point are working me like a dog.  They’re currently offering their latest version of ION which allows for VAR’s, MSP’s and IT Professionals to be the off-site storage provider for their customers.

I’m not going to go into the sales pitch because they don’t give hard-drives commission.  But you should check it out.

It looks like it could carry whiskey and it can save my data? Sign me up.

The new 250 GB drive from Iomega is by far the sexiest way to backup all those important files. It is the kind of external hard drive you wouldn’t mind being seen in public with. Imagine being prepared for a data disaster without instantly earning the geek moniker. Sounds pretty good doesn’t it.

Thanks to Josh Taylor for pointing out the newest addition to Howie’s “I Want That” list.

That’s right. It finally happened. The hard drive on my hard working little laptop finally succumbed to the strain of working constantly beyond its limits. Fortunately, I have been backing up my data, but it will still be a pain to get the new system (which I’m picking up today) up and running how I like it.

Anyway, just a quick reminder that no one is immune to drive failures. Back up  your data.

In yet another illustration of the dangers of transporting tapes off-site, over 2 million medical records (including Social Security numbers) were stolen from the University of Miami. The theft appears to be random as the tapes were stolen from a van transporting them to an off-site location and the data (encrypted and compressed) does not appear to be vulnerable. Still, this sort of theft is a concern to anyone transporting data to an off-site location.

The University of Miami has temporarily suspended their disaster recovery efforts to investigate other off-site options, but with the Act of God frequency pretty high down there, they will be wanting a solution soon. It will be intersting to see which way they head.

Things have been a bit crazy over here at Universe Point as we prepare to turn some heads at Interop in Las Vegas. If you’re out there for the show, come and find us.

Due to this preoccupation I am going to cheat a little and just point you to an article I read this morning. It reminded me that we producers of backup software are not “making software”, we are “protecting data”.

I also really liked this quote . . .

“We need, I think, profoundly new data moving software to transfer data from servers’ storage arrays to target data protection devices and profoundly new software to provide a reporting and management environment on that protected data.”

But, let me get back to work and you can read about how backup software is broken yourself.

Those of you looking to get into the data center business are in luck if you happen to own a bit of land 50-100 miles outside of Washington DC. Computer World reports a trend toward data center outsourcing for the federal government with an eye on facilities outside the instant-death-and-destruction radius of a nuclear weapon. So, if you have the land start building. If not, there is still a lesson here I think.

Now, your business might not be particularly concerned about the destruction range of a nuke, at least not in terms of business continuity, but there is probably still a “blast zone” outside of which it would be wise to store some data. For instance, if your business is located in Tornado Alley, you might want to store some data in a place that doesn’t have a natural disaster in its name (Tranquil Springs, or Safe Town for instance). You really don’t want to have to explain the embarrassing phenomenon of having all your data locations wiped out by one catastrophe. That would be like locking all your spare keys in one car. Shameful.

That said, you should still have some versions of your data on-site and/or nearby in case you need a non-disaster related recovery. After all, most data restores are not prompted by disaster.

Well, it has been busy lately and that has certainly kept my blog posting to a minimum. I would be very concerned about that if I had a bunch of anxious readers. Fortunately (or unfortunately), that is not currently an issue.

Anyway, this one is a little something for all the tree-huggers out there. I can call them that because I have been known to cuddle with a tree or two myself. I particularly enjoy birch hugging as the bark is pleasantly smooth . . . but I digress.

Data backup is, by its nature, not a very “green” undertaking. Computers and data storage require a great deal of energy to run, and while large data centers have some alternative energy options, it is difficult for the average user to make their backup environmentally responsible. However, there are a few things you can do to decrease the carbon footprint of your backup, and one of these involves taking advantage of power options.

If you have a business and are backing up a substantial amount of data, you are probably scheduling that backup to run overnight. This way the backup processing doesn’t interfere with any day to day functions. In order to run this overnight backup, your computer has to remain on throughout the night. Even if the backup only takes an hour or two, your computer will sit there sucking electricity until you return.  Then, more work, another overnight backup and more work again. The computer is always on except for a brief restart when Windows sends one of its annoying updates.

This is where power options come in handy. If your backup software provides power options, you can set your computer to “Shut Down”, “Sleep” or “Hibernate” automatically after your backup completes. That way, instead of running all night and steadily sipping at our dwindling oil reserves, your computer will slip into pleasant and ecologically beneficially dreams. It might also save you a few pennies on your electric bill.

As a side note, I’m not sure exactly what the difference between “Sleep” and “Hibernate” is, but I’d stick with “Sleep” on the off chance “Hibernate” will make you wait until spring to boot up.

For talking about:
Does everyone out there have power options on their backup software? Do you use them? Does someone want to tell me the difference between “Sleep” and “Hibernate” before I am forced to actually look it up?

While skimming through Wikipedia looking for a bit more info on Conway polyhedron notation (not as interesting as it sounds), I came across an article on molecular memory. Apparently nanotech, the future savior of humanity (according to an influential member of the nanotech community), is taking a break from making my pants stain-proof to bring us a super-speedy new type of memory. It probably goes without saying since we are talking nanotech, but this is also, potentially, a pretty compact memory option.

Now my nano-physics education stopped right after second grade, so I don’t really understand a great deal about the details of this idea. Apparently, the goal is to store bits of data on molecules only a few nanometers wide. Eventually, the hope is to have a byte per molecule, but for now it is more likely that a group of molecules would contain each byte. There were also some things about photochromism and capacitance which make for an interesting read, but are a dull in the retelling (especially from a blogger who’s topic already ranks pretty high on the bored o’ meter). Suffice it to say, should they pull this off we would be looking at memory that makes flash drives look like my 80 year old grandmother in an Olympic sprint event.

Most of the research going into this is attempting to create a replacement for RAM. This, of course, isn’t exactly our area of interest in the backup world. We tend to be more concerned with non-volatile memory (memory that doesn’t forget when turned off). But, don’t worry. A quick Google search for ” non-volatile molecular memories” brings up quite a few results, some with promising names like Harvard in their URLs.

This may not be the very next step in data storage, but its probably not that far off. With the demands for space growing as rapidly as they are and the concerns of storage capacity, speed and environmental impact growing with them, we should expect plenty of innovative thought in the area.  I, for one, will be waiting anxiously to ask a molecule for my missing files.