Entries Tagged 'Data Backup' ↓

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.

Alright, I admit it. This blog’s fascination with disaster is beginning to seem a bit obsessive. I apologize, but there is just so much of it. Its hard to resist.

Today’s story, from the AP,  is the tale of Charter Communication and the accidental erasure of the contents of 14,000 email accounts. That’s right . . . 14,000 accounts. The event, which was apparently a simple mistake in routine maintenance, erased every email, every attachment . . . everything. In 14,000 accounts.

Ouch.

It gets worse. According to a spokeswoman for the company, there is no way to retrieve any of the information that was inadvertently deleted. This enormous communication company, with accounts across the country, does not have a backup policy to protect its users from itself.

The company claims it is taking steps to assure that this never happens again. I would suggest a less optimistic approach wherein they take steps to make sure that when it does happen again (which it will in some form) they can retrieve the lost data.

I feel badly for those who lost important data in this event.  No doubt countless, irreplaceable communications boiled into the ether. I urge everyone using a free email account to take a lesson from this and find a way to save and archive those emails. This sort of accident occurs regularly. While the scale of this particular incident makes it a rarity, the events themselves are not uncommon.

I will do a little research on the topic, so look for some tips on how to backup your free email account in the near future.

Ask the Admin, a newly discovered (and newly subscribed to) blog, presented us with a pleasantly absurd new backup idea . . . paper. Yes, that’s right, cellulose pulp, the descendant of papyrus. Apparently, a new piece of software called PaperBack (obviously) will allow you to back up your data to that most basic of mediums.

I know, some of you are saying you already have a device for this purpose. You call it a printer. There is even a specialized storage unit for all that backup material, referred to, I believe, as a file cabinet. But wait. This is different.

PaperBack, instead of rolling out sheet after sheet of tedious words and spreadsheets, will print a bitmap image of your data that can be restored using an ordinary scanner. Sure, its ridiculous, but still, you have to admit, it is also just a little bit cool.

Would I use it as part of a backup strategy? No. Would I recommend you use it? Not unless I had something against you. But, I will try it out because it sounds entertaining. Just don’t tell my green friends about it . . . there is definitely a danger to trees in this backup solution. Though, it may be some consultation if I recycled my unneeded backups into delicate origami swans.

In an apparent effort to help me make yesterday’s point about the importance of on-site backup, Data Center Knowledge reports that two of Joyent’s online backup centers have been down for the last three days . If one of these is your only backup location than you are without access to your data for at least three days. Cross your fingers, knock on a hard drive (lightly) and hope you don’t need it.
As I said before, these things happen. Joyent got hit by a major bug. They have been upfront about the issue and are apparently making every effort to correct it. While such occurrences may be relatively rare, it is your responsibility to prepare for contingencies. The best way to do this is through a multi-site backup plan including an on-site location.

If you have a story of downtime at your online or off-site storage center let me know in the comments.

You can’t go anywhere these days without hearing about off-site backup, remote backup and online backup. Ok, that’s not actually true. You can probably make it through a movie, a trip to the grocery store or a game of bowling without hearing about it. In fact, you can probably go pretty much anywhere without listening to anything about data safety, but, that said, these are still pretty prevalent topics among the IT community. Nearly every mention of data backup includes something about getting your vital information off-site and most of it lately seems focused on it.

The buzz around off-site backup is deserved. Moving data to a location far from your main computer system prevents it from burning in the same fire, getting wet in the same flood or getting picked up, torn to pieces and deposited somewhere over the rainbow by the same tornado. Remote backup is a key element of any disaster recovery scheme, but it is not the only important part of a backup plan.

What tends to get overlooked in all this off-site excitement is the importance of on-site backup. “On-site,” you say, “How quaint. How gauche. How 90’s.” With all this ability to compress, dedupe and ship off, why would anyone want something as archaic as a hard drive on their desk or an extra rack in the server room? Why, when I can send my backup to Kansas, would I want it sitting at my elbow?

In the tradition of blogs everywhere, I will answer those questions in the form of a numbered list. Here are five reasons to have and maintain an on-site backup:

1. Cost
Hard drive space is cheap and getting cheaper. Space which used to cost a small fortune can now be had for the price of Gigli DVD (which do you think is the better value?), and previously unattainable storage in the Terabyte plus realm can cost as little as $350. Data center space on the other hand, while cheap for the first few gigs, can quickly spiral toward a high monthly cost. Keeping an on-site copy of all data allows you to manage the amount archived off-site and keep those per-gig prices down.

2. Bandwidth
Depending on the amount of data that needs to be shipped off-site, the state of bandwidth, particularly for smaller organizations can be a significant concern. The time it takes to ship data off-site is directly related to the amount of bandwidth on both ends of the send equation. Companies with growing backup needs, particularly those relying strictly on online backup, may need to invest pretty heavily in bandwidth upgrades. Backing up on-site can lessen the strain on bandwidth and keep you out of trouble with your ISP’s creditors.

3. File Structure
Online backup requires the compression of backup files prior to sending. This amounts to squeezing all of your data into one little box and sending it off to storage. Normally that data is neatly organized, like items in a closet, onto shelves and hangers. If you need a file, prior to backup, you simply go to the shelf where it belongs and retrieve it. However, due to the compression and deduping that often takes place in online backup, finding a file is more like pulling a box out of the attic, unpacking the whole thing onto the shelves and then retrieving the file you need. Not only is it time consuming, but there is some room for error in the process. On-site backup, combined with the affordability of storage space allows you to maintain the structure of your files (presuming your software allows this). So, finding a file is as easy as going to another similar closet and picking it off the shelf. Single file recovery is much easier from an on-site backup location.

4. Recovery
The vast majority, over 90%, of recoveries made from backup are not due to a disaster. Your off-site copy is a backup fail-safe. It is the net below the tightrope. It should only be relied on in the event of a major catastrophe. Most of the time recovery can be made more quickly and easily from an on-site drive location. The main reason for this is download speed. At best most offices will have a T1 Internet connection which allows for the download of 1.5MB per second (on average). This means that recovering a single gigabyte of data will take, in a perfect world, about an hour and a half. However, this is not a perfect world. If it were I would be receiving a massage as I wrote this and all the worlds bombs would turn into delicious ice-cream sundaes. In reality, you will actually be more likely to spend 2 to 4 hours per gig. Can you afford to be without your 5 GB sales database for twenty hours just because a blundering sales person turned the thing inside out through some, still-mysterious process only blundering sales people seem to be able to duplicate? Probably not. So you had better have an on-site copy which will provide you access in minutes.

5. Security
Most off-site storage companies are legitimate, stable businesses. Most online backup companies will take very good care of your data. This is not intended to disparage off-site, remote storage solutions. However, things happen. Companies go out of business and if superonlinebackupforyou.com goes out of business, what happens to your data? What if, despite the array of protections your third-party storage location has in place, a disaster occurs for which they were unprepared . . . a flood in Arizona, a hurricane in Michigan or a prehistoric monster attack in . . . well anywhere? How will you recover? An on-site copy protects against contingencies out there just as an off-site copy protects against disasters at home. A good backup solution makes use of both.

Off-site backup is important, whether you do it online, site-to-site, or though some other transport method. It does not, however, eliminate the need for on-site data storage. The best practice in backup is multi-site, using on-site and off-site storage to protect your critical data.

Can you think of any other benefits of having a copy on-site? What other multi-site strategies do you incorporate in your backup plan?