3-2-1 Archive to the Cloud!
We can all agree, companies of all shapes and sizes need to ensure their data is available at ALL TIMES. Being ‘available’ is a critical part of success! One of the most challenging pieces of an organizations overall availability strategy is attempting to get their data off-premises. In the legacy days Tape Backup was the most efficient way of achieving this. On a nightly basis the Operations Team would visit the clunky old robotic tape library to swap out the old tapes with new ones that were ready to be overwritten. Next those tapes would end up in the back of the Administrators car and make their home in their basement or if the business is large enough they would leverage off-site storage services, through someone like Iron Mountain. Only a few scenarios would render those tapes useful! They’re unreliable, have extremely high rates of failure and are extremely slow. Typical RTPOs associated with Tape restores are in the magnitudes of days. So if you’re finding yourself calling back tapes or perhaps lugging them off to the local Sungard for “DR Testing” it might be time for a change.
Old LTO4 Tapes
One of the great benefits of modern server virtualization is the portability of the applications – aka Virtual Machines – At the end of the day they’re just files, VHD/VHDX/XML/VMDK/VMX…etc. True public cloud providers like Microsoft Azure make it very easy to consume these Application. You’ve likely heard the buzz words, Infrastructure as a Service (Iaas), Hybrid Cloud, Public Cloud. The benefits these IT models provide can truly extend the data center. It’s not uncommon for organizations to run some applications on-premises, in their own brick and mortar data center along with running a subset of applications in someone else’s data center.
Modern Data Center
Industry best practices advise to:
3 – Copies of the production data
2 – Different types of media
1 – OFFSITE
The portability of VMs and Applications extends the possibilities from production running mode to the hosting of their long term archival off-premises. For most businesses, this is has been an extremely challenging pill to swallow. Many, continue to leverage tape because it’s what they know, it’s what’s most familiar. However, a second great use case for Microsoft Azure (and other Cloud Hosting Providers) is the concept of Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS). Local Service Providers or Value Added Resellers (VARs) that you’re likely purchasing IT Hardware, Software and Services through provides a hosting practice. Some choose to build their own data center and host themselves, while others leverage these public providers and simply resell to common business. Modern server virtualization tools like Veeam Cloud Connect allow Service Providers to leverage a customer’s existing on-premises VM-Level Backups.
Conclusion
There are many availability strategies. Make sure to test often, you definitely don’t want the first restore to be when the CIO is looking over your shoulder. Make sure to leverage off-premises facilities that can provide fast and reliable recovery options. Technology has evolved through the years, align business availability strategies with business continuity methodologies that make sense!
Cheers- CW
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