| tart --> | | | | sure they are always developing their products for |
| The concept of offsite data backup is not new; | | | | the future, your companies future. |
| some time ago it was only available to corporate | | | | Getting data to an offsite location is the easy bit, |
| institutions that had multiple locations, high | | | | anybody can click and drag to an ftp site, to optimise |
| connectivity speeds and very high budgets. Today | | | | your backup and more importantly your recovery |
| the cost of hardware and high speed connectivity | | | | times make sure your data is compressed locally or |
| has greatly reduced, as a result the number of | | | | at source. The most important element of any data |
| companies offering backup to a remote location has | | | | transfer is security, make sure your data is |
| greatly increased. For purposes of conversation, we | | | | encrypted before it is transmitted and remains |
| can call it jumping on the band wagon. | | | | encrypted whilst in storage if this is the case only |
| You may think the increased competition is good for | | | | your organisation will have access to your data. |
| the consumer, to an extent, I agree, but not at the | | | | In what environment is your data stored? There is |
| cost of cutting corners and jeopardising the security | | | | no point just moving your most important asset to |
| of your data. We all know and agree a company's | | | | another location, make sure it is totally safe, data |
| data is its most important asset, and to lose or give | | | | should only be backed up to a class 1 data centre |
| access to your competition such an asset is never an | | | | with the highest security and safety measures in |
| option. So please be careful where you store your | | | | place, hardware should be clustered so there is no |
| data. | | | | single point of failure within that data centre and for |
| The general idea of offsite backup is a good one, | | | | added security and peace of mind the whole data |
| after all it has a very low proportionate | | | | centre and hardware within should be a replicated in |
| implementation cost and as the correct system | | | | real time to a second location in preferably another |
| should be completely automated the cost of | | | | country. |
| ownership is also very low as well. Unlike tape backup | | | | Imagine your local data backed up every night or |
| it is also very scalable, you can start small and grow | | | | when ever you wish to a secure remote location in |
| into larger solutions as and when you require with | | | | the UK and then replicated in real-time to a second |
| zero disruption but you have to be with the right | | | | data centre in a different country. |
| offsite backup company in the first place. | | | | Finally this whole process must be as efficient as |
| In today's data centric environment even smaller | | | | possible. It must be totally secure, fully automated |
| companies may have more than one server, just for | | | | ensuring your staff are focussed on revenue |
| example a server for Microsoft Exchange/Lotus | | | | generating functions, it must support open files |
| Notes, a server for Microsoft SQL/Oracle/MySQL and | | | | enabling you to backup regardless of what your |
| potentially a file and print server, or maybe a single | | | | systems are doing and it must be capable of |
| server which carries out all tasks. Smaller companies | | | | incremental backups, after all there is no point |
| may still use older inherited Unix based or Novell | | | | re-transmitting a file which has not been accessed for |
| based systems or may be considering migrating to a | | | | a year. |
| lower cost Linux environment. Whet ever you | | | | So after reading this article I now hope it has made |
| currently use or what you may use in the future | | | | you think and understand why the cheapest offsite |
| your offsite backup solution will need to adapt. Please | | | | backup solution is rarely the best. |
| check, what ever backup company you use, make | | | | |