Productive Corporation

Download

P-Guide Is Hosted DR and Backup Right for You.pdf (91.58 KB)

New hosted backup and disaster recovery products and services are offering mid-market IT departments unprecedented flexibility, reliability, and effectiveness. 
Date published: December 31, 2008
Length: 2,274 words

Executive Summary
The value of your company's data has never been higher, and yet many businesses rely on long-used backup practices that are at best, inefficient and at worst, often ineffective. Thanks to a new generation of hosted solutions, however, solid and effective backup and DR practices are now within reach for mid-market companies. This P-guide explores what you need to know to find a solution that works for you.

Introduction
When it comes to unanticipated data loss and business interruptions, terrorist attacks, natural disasters, and high-profile cybercriminals get all the headlines. The mundane, but no less disturbing truth, however, is that you're far more likely to lose data thanks to a hardware failure than to a tornado, flood, or chemical weapons attack.

No matter what the cause, the results can be disastrous. That's why it's surprising to learn about the current state of data backup and disaster recovery practices in this country. According to a 2008 AT&T study, one in five U.S. businesses doesn't have a DR/business continuity plan in place. In a similar vein, a 2007 Forrester Research study notes that 40 percent of all companies only test their data backup plans once each year. And a SearchSecurity.com survey of 500 IT departments offers even more eye-opening numbers: Up to 20 percent of routine nightly backups fail to capture all data, and 40 percent of IT managers are unable to capture data from tape when needed.

While those are dangerous practices, they're not that hard to understand. For starters, inertia when it comes to disaster planning and data backup (and other time-consuming initiatives that don't provide immediate payback, for that matter) is a common fact of life with small and large businesses alike. On top of that, the most common backup practices and technologies-i.e. ones that center around tape-based solutions-have a range of built-in challenges, including cost, questionable effectiveness, and drains on staff time, to name only a few.

With the importance and amount of data both increasing each year and already-slim budgets getting squeezed, what options does a mid-market IT department have? As it turns out, plenty. In the last few years, a round of new hosted backup and DR products have emerged as legitimate solutions. It's not hard to see why: At one end of the spectrum, online backup services offer secure protection, quick access to archived data, the ability to schedule backups at your convenience, and a way to cut costs and keep IT staffers focused on core-competency tasks. At the other, more sophisticated end, hosted DR not only allows for continuous availability to your data but also to your company's applications and systems as well.

What's more, the perception has long been that hosted backup and DR were options primarily reserved for larger enterprises and their comparatively robust IT budgets. That's changing, however.

The Challenges with Tape
To understand why hosted backup and DR are becoming more attractive, it helps to first examine the alternatives. For decades, tape-based systems have been the most common option. While tape has proven itself over the years, it's not without drawbacks. The tapes themselves can be surprisingly fragile and vulnerable to highs and lows in temperature and humidity. There's also the physical movement factor-because tapes need to be transported to off-site storage locations, there's always the risk they can be damaged or even lost in the process. At the same, handling and managing tapes requires staff time-someone who knows what he or she is doing has to be assigned the tasks of completing the nightly backup process and possibly even moving the tapes off-site. Finally, there's the problem of immediacy. If you suffer a power outage and lose data in the middle of the afternoon, you're out of luck-the latest information you have access to sits on the previous evening's backup tape.

The Rise of Hosted DR and Backup
Those sorts of downsides have helped boost the popularity of hosted backup and DR. At the fundamental level, the services work by first backing up your data-either on a set schedule or after changes are made to files-and then zipping it via the Internet to a secure, off-site data center managed by the provider. In the event of a business interruption or data loss, your information is available for quick retrieval. The programs typically offer a Web-based management portal, don't require special hardware or complex installations, and can eliminate the need to perform time-consuming manual backups.

For years, the biggest obstacle for smaller and mid-sized companies was cost. To do it right, you needed expensive hardware and generous amounts of bandwidth. Not anymore, thanks to a new generation of reasonably priced, software-based systems that use real-time data replication technology combined with file encryption and data compression to ensure secure, rapid data backup and retrieval.

Replicating data in real-time is the key to the process. Real-time replication copies data from a user's primary server to a provider's high-availability server and allows for automatic failover (shifting data from a primary location to a secondary DR location). In the process, companies can get nearly instant data synchronization along with access to up-to-the-minute revisions to the open files on their network. And that means all of a firm's employees-including remote workers (at least the ones working on the company network)-can recover quickly from data corruption, viruses, and other downtime events and keep data loss to a minimum.

The Cost Factor
The net result: Hosted DR and online backup have become realistic options for small or mid-market firms. Consider the following:

• Hosted DR and backup free up staff time and reduce possibilities for human error by reducing the need for employees to manage backups manually. They also lower security risks by taking sensitive backup data out of employee hands. (According to a survey by Ontrack Data Recovery, 26 percent of all lost data is the result of human error.)
• The cost of tape drives typically starts around $300 and quickly goes up from there. The tapes themselves aren't cheap either and they wear out over time. You also have to factor in the cost of software installation and support. Transporting the tapes to secure, off-site locations (or not-so-secure locations-one recent study found that nearly 70 percent of all small businesses store backup tapes at their employees' homes) requires dedicated resources.
• Recovery time is another cost factor. Hosted backup and DR systems allow for rapid data restoration. With tapes, you'll need to recover the media from the off-site location and sift through volumes of tapes to find the necessary data-a process that can take hours and pad the amount of your downtime.

With all of that in mind, it's easy to see how the savings can quickly add up-and easy to see why the market for hosted backup and DR has been growing. In fact, the IDC market intelligence firm is forecasting double-digit growth in the sector for the next several years. Per IDC, the ever-increasing growth of digital data will help the online backup market reach $715 million by 2011.

Points to Consider
Positive attributes aside, there can be potential drawbacks to hosted backup and DR services. Price is still a consideration, but costs have come down dramatically in recent years, particularly since there is often no need to purchase hardware. Even with the advanced data compression approaches employed by backup providers, bandwidth usage can also be an issue. And security is always a concern-while the best providers will encrypt data on-site before transmitting it to their off-site storage facilities, you'll want to fully understand how your stored data will be kept private.

The top questions to ask before selecting a hosted backup or DR provider.

1. Does the product or service require us to purchase any hardware or make any changes to our network?
2. Does the provider have its own data center(s), or use a third-party provider? How secure are the data centers? Are they in areas prone to natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, or floods?
3. How detailed are the product's/service's reporting capabilities?
4. What data encryption standards and technology does the product/service use?
5. When does the data encryption take place?
6. What file compression does the product/service use? Will it tie up my company's bandwidth?
7. How quickly can we access/recover our data?
8. What sort of testing capabilities are built into the product/service?
9. How will the product/service improve our overall DR efforts?
10. Does the product or service allow us to manage the backup and restore process from more than one location?

Hosted Backup and DR Solutions
The best vendors will offer solutions that address these and other concerns. Here's a look at a few products and services.

Backup Solution: Intronis eSureIT Online Backup Service
Like many hosted backup and DR solutions, Intronis Software's eSureIT is a remarkably simple product that consists of a software suite that automatically backs up Microsoft Exchange servers, SQL databases, and multiple computers. The software operates in the system background and, working on a user-determined schedule, will search all folders and files contained in a user-defined backup set. Any new files and all files that have changed since the last backup are compressed, encrypted on-site using 256-bit AES file encryption backup methods (accessible only with a unique user-only encryption key), encrypted again prior to transmission, and then sent to a pair of offsite Tier-4 data centers that are located hundreds of miles apart from each other. Users can restore data at any time by opening the software and simply choosing the files in question. What's more, if you have a system failure, you can reinstall the eSureIT software and then restore all of your files. One point to note: eSureIT is not designed for Macs or Linux-based computers.

Backup Solution: Iron Mountain Connected Backup for PC
Like Intronis' eSureIT, Iron Mountain's Connected Backup for PC does its work automatically in the background, backing up data without interrupting users. In addition, the company's patented DeltaBlock technology backs up data at the block level-i.e., only items that have changed or added since the previous backup procedure, which can cut down transmission time and the amount of storage you'll need. From there, the company's SendOnce tool prevents identical copies of the backed-up data from being stored in multiple user archives and transmits the data to Iron Mountain's underground data storage facilities (which feature 24x7 armed security). Finally, the Connected Backup for PC solution also provides a secure Web portal that allows users to recover data without IT department help.

Backup Solution: Symantec Online Backup
Symantec Online Backup is a key player in the company's Symantec Protection Network and allows data to be backed up and restored from any location via a supported Web browser. This sort of flexibility allows individual users to protect data while on the road or at a remote or home office. The backed-up data is encrypted with a 256-bit AES algorithm and transmitted securely to Symantec's multiple data centers. (Customers are also provided with a password-protected encryption key-and only the customer and a third-party escrow service have access to the password.) Backups (which are also performed at the block level) can be arranged on set schedules or triggered by file changes, and all modified files receive continuous protection-new versions can be stored up to every 10 minutes. Finally, the service also supports bandwidth throttling to ease potential network congestion.

DR Solution: CA Instant Recovery On Demand
CA's Instant Recovery On Demand is a hosted business continuity/DR service offered on a subscription-based model that provides real-time, continuous replication from a company's primary servers to CA's secure data center servers. The company notes that the solution, which uses its CA XOsoft High Availability software, can be deployed in less than 24 hours without the need to purchase any hardware or software, and that it supports Microsoft Windows Server, Exchange Server, SQL Server, and IIS Web server, as well as 32- and 64-bit Windows applications. Instant Recovery on Demand also offers Web-based status reporting and automated, nondisruptive DR testing at no additional charge. The system also has some built-in flexibility-it can be configured for automated failover, in which case it will redirect all of a company's users to replica servers at CA's DR data center. It also can be set up to send alerts to IT staffers and allow them to manually manage the redirect process. As with the best such solutions, users can have nearly seamless recovery experience-after a system failure or interruption, they typically have to restart the application they were using; any open files, databases, or e-mails will be automatically recovered from the set point where the application was configured to protect any work in progress.

Conclusion
The bottom line to all of this: While no amount of preventative action will immunize your business against disruptive emergencies, well-crafted DR and backup plans are a necessity-not a luxury-in today's environment. And hosted services are a powerful, cost-effective tool that can help your company construct a plan that fits your unique needs.

For more information on hosted DR and backup solutions, contact Productive Corporation:

We Can Help You
Deployment Questions
Licensing and Technical Support
help@productivecorp.com
800.726.4099

About Productive Corporation
Productive Corporation is a specialized software reseller that helps small and medium businesses across North America with software initiatives in security, storage, and infrastructure. We provide subject matter expertise, access to technical resources, and excellent customer service. We also strive to provide the most relevant resources for our customers.

About the Author
Chris Mikko is a Twin Cities-based writer and editor who specializes in technology topics.