Online data backup & recovery takes hold: outsourcing better addresses data protection

Computer Technology Review, March, 2004 by Bud Stoddard

Due largely to recent environmental disasters such as the fires in California and the blackout, challenges in the Middle East, and new regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA calling for increased data integrity, server backup and recovery has risen to the top of storage agendas. According to META Group Research, more than 80% of Global 2000 companies will significantly increase their business continuity/disaster recovery budget by 2006--from the current average of about 2-3% of total IT budgets to 5% of their budget.

A vital component to ensuring business continuity and recovering from a disaster is having sufficient data backup practices. Most storage professionals today utilize either traditional tape or disk backup and, as a result, most companies employ either method for their data protection. However, any sufficient data protection strategy should include an off-site component where data is available at a secure off-site location in the event of disaster. Often, because of this, outsourcing plays some role in this process such as having a courier service transport backup tapes to a secure vault.

At the same time, remarkable changes in the way businesses work are being fueled by online and other electronic processes going on 24 hours a day. Business processes are becoming more compressed, and business activities that took days now happen within hours or minutes globally. Companies without a strong foothold in technology will be disadvantaged when facing the evolutionary trend of business changes. Storage planning must change to coincide with the fast-paced and highly competitive business environment and offer protection against uncontrollable looming disasters.

Because of these changes in our business climate, the increasing need for an effective backup and disaster recovery strategy and slimmer budgets, the outsourcing of parts or of all of a company's backup and disaster recovery has increased significantly in adoption. Companies are beginning to realize the tremendous cost savings associated with outsourcing such a vital function. Luckily, with many recent technological advances in the area of storage and storage management, there a number of new outsourcing services and technologies available which can better address data protection as compared to traditional solutions. One such technology is online backup and recovery.

Online Backup

With its ability to quickly and efficiently perform backup and recovery, online backup and recovery or electronic vaulting (pioneered by AmeriVault in 1998) is responding to the demands of today's businesses in these uncertain times. With online backup, the ability to automate your backup and remove the data off site to a secure vault with a click of a mouse button is now a reality. It's no wonder a technology that used to be seen as unconventional and experimental is quickly becoming mainstream. IDC estimates that through 2006, rapid growth will continue in the area of remote backup.

A fully automated and electronic process, like AmeriVault, recognizes changes to files in the server backup set, encrypts the files for enhanced security then sends the backup files over high speed telecommunication lines via the Internet to secure, off-site Mass Storage Vaults. This can best be described in a five-step process.

The first step is installing the Administrator software on a Windows machine and the client agents on all the servers and client machines that will be backed up. Using the machine with the Administrator software, one selects the files and/or directories to be backed up. Then, the frequency of backups is scheduled and encryption methodology, vault passwords and type of backup for each machine are determined. After the first full backup, subsequent backups will most likely be incremental (at the client's choosing), to reduce time and bandwidth for future backups. After completing step three, one can essentially forget about it, as all backups will then be performed automatically per the set schedule and the backup will be sent off site to a Mass Storage Vault. When restoration is necessary, a file or files can be retrieved on-site or remotely from the Mass Storage Vault promptly using the installed software.

Essentially, one can schedule backups to run at any time of the day or night, as frequently or as little as necessary. The backup window is further reduced by utilizing "delta processing" technology which compresses the data, minimizing transmission time and saving time and resources. Delta Processing backs up changed files down to the bit level, so that only the portions of the file that have changed are backed up rather than the entire file.

Security is also a central component. The first is an encrypted authorization feature for every user that connects to the Mass Storage Vault. This protects data from unauthorized access. An additional option is to encrypt the data before transmission to the Mass Storage Vault. This protects data both during transmission over the network and while it is stored on the remote storage server.