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THINGS TO CONSIDER BEFORE YOU SIGN UP TO AN ONLINE BACKUP SERVICE
There are dozens of online backup services claiming they can back up your data. Choosing between them can be difficult. This guide sets out some key things you need to consider before you choose who to trust with your businesses data.
THERE ARE TWO CLASSES OF ONLINE BACKUP SERVICE
Those designed for consumers, and those designed for business. The key differences are summarised below:
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CONSUMER
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BUSINESS
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DataBank
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Cost
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Cheap
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Not cheap. Affordable for most businesses
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Upto 50% cheaper than it’s main competitors
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Based In
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US
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UK
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UK
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Charge Structure
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Tiered Packages
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Charges proportional to either the amount of data stored or the amount of data backed up
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Charge banding on compressed data storage
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Target Market
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Consumers + Small Business’s
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Business’s of all sizes
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All Business’s and remote home workers with Laptops
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Email Support
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Yes
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Yes
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Yes
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Telephone Support
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Possibly
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Yes
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Yes
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Support hours
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US Working day
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UK Working Day
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UK Working days
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OS Support
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Some Windows OS
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All Windows OS
+ Linux
+ Mac
+ Other
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All Windows OS
+ Linux
+ Mac
+ Unix
+ Novell
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Individual emails can be restored
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No
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Yes depending on Agent
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Yes for the Pro version
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DataBase Support
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Minimal
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Exchange
MS SQL
MySql
Oracle
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Exchange
MS SQL
MySql
Oracle
Lotus Domino Notes
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Encryption in Transit
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Yes
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Yes
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Yes
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Encryption at Storage location
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Possibly
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Yes
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Yes
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Service provider can decrypt data without your consent
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Typically Yes
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Varies
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Not when a private key is used
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Devices: Backups from
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1 Computer
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Multiple Servers + Laptops
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Multiple Servers + Laptops
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Location : Backups from
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1 site
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Multiple Sites
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Multiple Sites
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Local Backup Copy
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No
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Varies
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Yes
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Seed Install for large Data sets
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No
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Varies
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Yes
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USB Drive Data Transfer
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No
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Varies
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Yes
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Assisted Restore
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No
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Unknown
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Yes
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If you’re backing up data from your personal computer, a consumer-class service is likely to be more than adequate to meet your needs. If you’re in business, a consumer-class service might still be an option. If you are looking to backup a handful of Gigs of static files from one server/computer running windows, and are not using Exchange/MS SQL/Linux etc then a consumer service will probably be fine for you too. However for most businesses, a consumer-class service provides inadequate levels of support and functionality.
HOW MUCH DATA DO YOU WANT TO BACK UP?
‘All of it,’ you say. However, the more you back up, the more it’s going to cost you. So consider how much of your data is …
· Critically important
· Important but not critical
· Nice to have, but not really needed
· Non-essential (mp3 files, photos from the office Christmas party etc).
Once you know how much you really need to back up, you’re in a position to find out whether online backup is feasible, given your internet connection.
HOW MUCH BANDWIDTH TO THE INTERNET DO YOU HAVE?
If you were to copy 1 Gigabyte of data over a 1Mbps connection, without using compression, it would take over 2¼ hours. If you multiply that by the number of Gigabytes you are planning to back up, the numbers quickly look scary! But don’t worry...Only 5% of your business files are likely to have changed on any given day. So there’s no point backing up 100% of your data every night.
Most online backup services don’t back up all the data every night. After an initial backup of everything, they just copy the files that have changed. What’s more, those changes can be compressed, typically by a factor of two So if you’re backing up 100 Gigs, only about 5 Gigs is changing each night, and that compresses to about 2.5 Gigs. Over a 1Mbps connection that would take just over 4½ hours to transfer.
Some backup solutions use ‘delta blocking’ to make the process even more efficient. When a file changes, they don’t backup the whole file. They just back up those segments of the file that have changed. This process reduces the amount of data to be transferred still further, shrinking the backup window.
OPERATING SYSTEMS
Many of the cheaper online solutions only support a very limited number of operating systems or applications. You need to ensure that the provider you choose guarantees that their backup solution handles all your data requirements and understand where there are gaps and take alternative measures to protect data. Many companies believe the marketing hype that this product will solve all your back up needs, only to find later that the solution doesn’t support things they need.
DATABASE SUPPORT
Databases are more difficult to backup than normal static files. So if you’re using any of the following databases, check that your online backup service is designed to deal with them
· Microsoft SQL Server
· Oracle
· MySQL
· Exchange
· Lotus Domino Notes
· System state
RESTORING INDIVIDUAL EMAILS
If you need to restore an important email, most solutions that ‘support Exchange’ won’t let you! They only let you roll-back the entire email database! It’s ‘all or nothing’. Restoring these thousands of emails can take hours, and cause a lot of disruption.’ Message Level Retrieval’ lets you restore individual email messages. If you’re backing up Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Notes or Novell GroupWise you ought to strongly consider choosing a service that can provide ‘Message Level Restore’.
DATA CONFIDENTIALITY
Nearly all online backup services encrypt your data, so that no-one can read it while it’s being transmitted from your site to the backup provider’s primary data centre. But many services decrypt your data once it reaches their data centre! This leaves your confidential data unencrypted on their storage hardware! To avoid this happening to you, choose a service that keeps your data strongly encrypted both in transit and in storage. But that alone is not enough. If your online backup service provider has the key, they could unwittingly release your confidential data to other customers (e.g. as a result of a software problem mixing up account numbers). They could also deliberately release your data, for example as the result of a court order or a police request. They might not even be able to tell you that they’d handed a full copy of your data to an organisation that’s planning to use it against you! But there’s a solution. If your online backup provider doesn’t keep a copy of your decryption key, they can’t release your data to others without your consent. The downside is that if your key is lost or corrupted you may not be able to recover your data. The solution is to have your provider provide you with a duplicate key, which you have stored in a secure location – such as your lawyer’s office, or your bank.
THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE ON YOUR SERVERS
Some companies prefer not to let other companies run software on their servers. They fear it might corrupt my data, or impact performance. Luckily some solutions to online data backup are sophisticated enough to work from a single administration console either a separate device or an application loaded onto a single device. Logging into the console will give the user access to all relevant servers over the LAN/WAN using standard Windows NT domains or Linux protocols. Not only does this mean it is easy to install it is also easy to maintain and cannot be deleted by accident from individual servers. Simplicity itself.
BACKUPS FROM MULTIPLE SERVERS, MULTIPLE SITES
If you want to back up from …
· Multiple servers
· Servers at different locations
· Multiple sites
· Servers and Laptops or Desktops
… check that the service you’re thinking of using supports this. Many of the cheaper solutions only support backups from one server.
REDUCING STORAGE REQUIREMENTS AND COSTS THROUGH COMPRESSION AND DE -DUPLICATION
Top-quality storage hardware doesn’t come cheap. So most business-class online backup services charge you a fee that’s proportional to how much data you are storing on their expensive storage hardware. A lot of data files make inefficient use of disk space, consuming significantly more space than they should. If you don’t want such waste to cost you money, you should choose a service that compresses your data before it stores it, and charges you only for the amount of data storage you use AFTER your data has being compressed.
VERSIONS
When combined with incremental backups, compression often enables some advanced solutions to store ten generations of common files in the same space as the original application file.
TELEPHONE SUPPORT
There is no substitute for being able to pick up the phone and speak to an expert who knows how to solve the problems you are struggling with. If you have a problem, you don’t want to spend your time reading through page after page of online technical documentation. Email support is useful, but it lacks the immediacy of telephone support.
UK BASED
If you’re US based, you should go with a US online backup service. If you’re UK based, you should go with a UK online backup service. Here’s why If you lose all your data, it may be faster to courier you a copy of the data, than to squeeze all those gigabytes to you through your internet connection. If you choose a US provider, couriering the data will be out of the question. · The technical support staff will be, as a minimum, working the same hours
as you. · You’ll be billed in £, not $. The support staff will have a better understanding of your internet connectivity issues. The European Commission’s Directive on Data Protection places some restrictions on transferring personal data outside the EU. If you’re backing up to the UK, this isn’t an issue. If you’re backing up to the US, it could be.
FINANCIALLY SOUND PROVIDER
Many of the high-profile consumer-class online backup services are run by small loss-making start-up companies. If they fail to turn a quick profit, they may burn through all their money and go out of business – causing you to suddenly lose all your backed up data. Whenever possible, you want to work with a profitable company that has been in business for several years.
LOCAL BACKUP OPTION
If you back up 300+ gigabytes of data you may wish to consider augmenting your off-site backups with a local backup. That way, if typical ‘disasters’ strike, you can restore vast amounts of data rapidly over your LAN, without needing to access the off-site backup. Some online backup providers can set up and manage these local backups for you.
GRANULAR CONTROL OVER GENERATIONS
Some types of data are constantly changing e.g. sales proposals but others rarely change e.g. letters or memos to staff. It is important to be able to match the number of generations required to the type of data and the frequency it changes. Many online backup solutions require you to use the same number of generations for all classes of data. This in effect forces the user to choose between paying for generations they do not need or keeping less generations than they would otherwise like to. The more advance solutions allow the user to vary the generations by server, folder or file type. Saving money in the short term may actually cost more in the longer run. Yet again the rule here is the need to balance costs with the risks of not incurring the cost.
I DON’T NEED TO BACK UP ALL MY DATA ON THE SAME FREQUENCY, DO I?
There are many types of data. Some are altered or created daily others happen less frequently e.g. monthly for employee details, less frequently for bought in marketing lists. Companies in highly regulated industries may wish to back certain types of transaction data up on an hourly basis. If you have lots of different types of data you may need a more flexible system that enables different back-up schedules for different types of data.
Many systems operate the one size fits all category. Whilst this may not result in larger file storage it may mean that the backup takes longer and the backup window may need to increase impacting on operational performance of the systems. The best systems allow users to schedule backups by server, by folder, by file type or individually named files.
RESTORING YOUR DATA IN THE UNLIKELY EVENT OF DISASTER
Most organisations are happy to spread the initial backup over several days or weeks, this enables large data files to be protected with relatively low bandwidths. It is often not feasible to maintain large bandwidth connections just in case you need to use them in a disaster, versus that horrible cost benefit analysis that your FD keeps talking about. So how do you get all your data back over limited bandwidth? Again you can prioritise your data and restore critical data first and then the next most important etc. etc. But even so this can take a long time and eat up valuable IT resource.
Cheaper solutions only allow you to use self service restores, which is fine for smaller data volumes. However, this is often not good enough for larger firms or where there are large volumes of data or where the business is regulated. In those instances you need a managed service, where the provider will assist in the restore process. The provider could cut the data to USB disks and send the disks to you, or perhaps bring the original data store to your premises. It is not until you have a disaster that you think about this. But thinking ahead will keep you ahead. It is therefore probably better to choose a provider who has alternatives for restore from self service to assisted restore to managed restore.
BUSINESS CONTINUITY INSURANCE – BUT NOT TO THE INSURER
Some of the solutions will cost money, although changing ways of working can help mitigate a large chunk of these costs. All companies pay insurance premiums for Employer Liability, Product Liability and some pay for business interruption insurance. Think of managed services as an insurance premium paid to a service provider not an insurer. No insurance claims to fill out and value delivered every day!
SUMMARY OF OUR BUSINESS –DataBank BACKUP SERVICE.
UKsubnet DataBank supports the following Operating Systems:
· Windows Server 2003
· Linux
· Mac OS X
· Windows 2000
· Novell Suse Linux
· Windows NT
· Novell NetWare
· SUN Solaris
· Windows XP
· Unix
UKsubnet DataBank Additional Agents
· Microsoft SQL Server
· MySQL
· Microsoft Exchange
· Oracle
· Lotus Domino notes
· MS Exchange at Email Level
· Lotus Notes/Domino Server at Email Level
· Novell GroupWise at Email Level
UKsubnet Technical support:
· Telephone and email support
· UK-based support
UKsubnet Data Security:
AES encryption used Data is strongly encrypted before it leaves your site with private only you can decrypt your data
UKsubnet Data Centre Security:
· Fire suppression
· Air-conditioning
· Electronic door access & monitoring
· Generator backup
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