What about disaster recovery and testing?
Current backup systems also lack an easy way to verify that the disaster plan works. To fully test a server backup one must either restore over the current server (which is usually not an option), or purchase a second, identical server to use as a backup test platform. As many organizations have multiple servers, this can become expensive in terms of both time and equipment costs. Needless to say, few companies go through the trouble to ever actually test a backup plan. Yet, without testing, one can never be sure that the plan actually works.
How can new backup technology help?
A new breed of backup technology has recently emerged. Made possible by the recent intersection of high-speed Internet service, server virtualization technology, advanced data encryption and specialized delta-based backup software, this new high-tech backup solution resolves the problems we’ve outlined here. It is completely hands-free, automated, secure, redundant, verifiable and, best yet, highly affordable.
How does it work?
Using special backup software, an initial snapshot is taken of the file system on the server. Then, each hour, any disk changes are snapped. These changes or ‘deltas’ are saved along with the master image on a local backup appliance. Because only changes are saved, the amount of the data stored each hour is relatively small and manageable.
From the appliance, it takes literally minutes go back to any point in the past and recover files that might have been accidentally deleted or changed. Should the server crash, the appliance can run the image it has stored and actually become a replacement server. For the first time, the organization has a testable and complete disaster recovery plan — in a single box.
What if the office is robbed or burns to the ground?
If the server and the appliance are both lost and all the data is gone with it, this is where the Internet comes to the rescue. Every night, the appliance combines all the changes it has backed up over the day and compresses, encrypts and sends them over the Internet to a secure data center. When a disaster occurs, a disk is restored at the data center and delivered to load on a new server. Until a new server is obtained, the data center can load the image on its appliance and have the business up and running in hours instead of the days that might typically be required to procure a new server and recover a tape backup.
What will this cost?
An office with a single server can usually be protected for as little as a few hundred dollars per month. This would include the appliance and sufficient storage to keep a year of changes online. So now there’s no excuse not to have a bullet-proof backup and disaster recovery plan. And remember, failing to plan is planning to fail!
Steven Vicinanza is the CEO of BlueWave Computing LLC. For more information, visit BlueWave-Computing.com.
