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Explore the latest advances in data backup
and recovery technologies This guide explains the recent advances that backup and recovery technology has undergone. These improvements are helping businesses to better respond to increasing regulatory pressure, users who demand that their data be continuously available, and IT departments that need to do more work with fewer resources.
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Understand how EVaulting is making traditional backups a thing of the past Implement your own backup and recovery solution the quick and easy way See how compliance regulations are driving some changes in the industry
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Data Backup FOR
DUMmIES
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i365 EVault Data Protection Edition
by Peter H. Gregory, CISA, CISSP
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Data Backup For Dummies®, i365 EVault Data Protection Edition Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. 111 River St. Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774 www.wiley.com Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201)748-6011, fax (201)748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/ go/permissions. Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley Publishing logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. i365, EVault, EVault SaaS, Evault Software and the i365 logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of i365, A Seagate Company. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: THE PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS WORK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES OR PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS. THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES CONTAINED HEREIN MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR EVERY SITUATION. THIS WORK IS SOLD WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THE PUBLISHER IS NOT ENGAGED IN RENDERING LEGAL, ACCOUNTING, OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL SERVICES. IF PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE IS REQUIRED, THE SERVICES OF A COMPETENT PROFESSIONAL PERSON SHOULD BE SOUGHT. NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR THE AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES ARISING HEREFROM. THE FACT THAT AN ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE IS REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK AS A CITATION AND/OR A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF FURTHER INFORMATION DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE AUTHOR OR THE PUBLISHER ENDORSES THE INFORMATION THE ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE MAY PROVIDE OR RECOMMENDATIONS IT MAY MAKE. FURTHER, READERS SHOULD BE AWARE THAT INTERNET WEBSITES LISTED IN THIS WORK MAY HAVE CHANGED OR DISAPPEARED BETWEEN WHEN THIS WORK WAS WRITTEN AND WHEN IT IS READ.
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Introduction
I
t’s a tough world for IT departments these days. They’re expected to do far more with a lot less. Backups have been squeezed from all sides: data sets are growing at phenomenal rates, users demand instant availability of information, they no longer tolerate maintenance windows, and regulation is watching backup pretty closely with requirements for encryption and retention. Like flying on commercial airplanes, doing backups just isn’t fun any more (well, if it ever was).
There is a light at the end of the tunnel. EVaulting — now often referred to as “backup to the cloud” — addresses many of the problems experienced by IT departments. This book will guide you through the features available in EVaulting, online, disk-based and cloud-based backup, and help you to understand how this technology can address the performance, regulatory, and privacy issues related to backup.
How This Book Is Organized Unlike backup tapes, which must be read from beginning to end in order, this book is set up so that you can skip around and read the sections that are of the most interest. In Chapter 1, Wrestling with Backup Challenges, I explore the typical backup-related issues facing IT departments and the businesses they support. Chapter 2, Understanding Backup Technologies, explains EVaulting technologies and the ways they These materials are the copyright of Wiley Publishing, Inc. and any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited.
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2 can help organizations improve their backup and dataretention strategy. In Chapter 3, Evaluating Backup Solutions, I describe the various hosted, licensed, and managed solutions available from companies like i365. The chapter also lists many of the desirable characteristics of EVaulting solutions. Chapter 4, Ten Reasons to Switch to EVaulting, is a concise list of motivations to move from traditional backup to EVaulting. Some of these reasons can be used to help build a business case for your own organization.
Icons Used in This Book This book uses the following icons to indicate special content. You won’t want to forget the information in these paragraphs. This icon indicates technical information that may or may not interest you. I provide it just in case. These paragraphs provide practical advice that will help you craft a better EVaulting strategy.
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Chapter 1
Wrestling with Backup Challenges In This Chapter 䊳
Exploding growth of information
䊳
Demanding instantaneous access
䊳
Being challenged by distributed systems
䊳
Understanding technology gaps
䊳
Wading through regulations
䊳
Dealing with disasters and security concerns
T
his backup isn’t like your father’s reel-to-reel tape backup. In those “olden” days, all the enterprise data resided in one place: the mainframe behind locked doors. There were no desktop or laptop computers, networks, or distributed applications, and organizations did not depend on instantaneous access to enterprise data any time, from any place. The notion of online privacy had not yet been thought of, and there was hardly any regulation on data integrity, security, or privacy at all. That was 20 to 30 years ago when tape backup was not only the standard choice, but also the only choice.
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4 Today, IT departments are responsible for assuring the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information. This task is known as data protection, and the task is getting a lot more difficult. IT departments are caught in the “perfect storm” of developments: ⻬ Rapid growth of databases ⻬ Growing intolerance of downtime ⻬ Distributed systems and lack of control ⻬ The technology gap ⻬ Regulation IT departments are expected to be accountable for data assurance that often exceeds the boundaries of the enterprise, and to achieve data assurance with fewer resources even in the face of growing databases and expectations.
Colossal Growth of Information Everything is online these days. Virtually all forms of business- and consumer-oriented dealings can be conducted online, and rich records of past transactions and events are also available for historical research purposes. Information that belonged to the domain of paper records is going online. Public records, hospital records, and many other types of formerly paper business records are being converted to online resources. Archives of paper records are being scanned and digitized and put online to streamline future access.
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5
Demanding Instant Availability The near-instantaneous access to current and historical business information has resulted in new service capabilities where businesses and government often make these records available on demand. What used to take weeks is now expected in seconds. Instant access to information has become the norm, and often the failure to live up to this expectation is considered disastrous. Customers and consumers aren’t the only ones who are growing accustomed to immediate access to information. Business workers need specific information right now so that they can complete the tasks that support time-critical business processes. Downtime is no longer tolerated but instead is seen as a failure to provide adequate infrastructure and capacity. Backing up quiescent systems during spacious maintenance windows is a thing of the past. This is partly because users are no longer just “local,” but are located all around the world — so “late night” in one market is “prime time” in another. IT departments need to be able to create backups with shortened (or no) maintenance windows, including the ability to back up open databases and files.
Challenges of Distributed Systems Distributed applications rely on many servers and databases, often located in remote places. Various server and data components often are based on different technologies: Windows, UNIX, and mainframe, to name a few. These materials are the copyright of Wiley Publishing, Inc. and any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited.
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6 But even when all the components in a distributed system are within the control of the organization, their complexity often makes it more challenging to properly manage their information. Some of the systems in a distributed application are not even owned or controlled by the organization, but they still provide a vital (and sometimes critical) part of the correct functioning of applications. For example, an online application that lets users search for information about homes for sale might depend on real-time access to government parcel and tax data.
Increased complexity means increased risk One of the dirty little secrets of distributed systems is that the applications, servers, integrations, interfaces, and networks that deliver these applications are becoming increasingly fragile. Developers and administrators have less time to thoroughly design and test systems, which means it takes less to “tip over” a distributed IT system than at almost any time in the past. The reason for this is not because supporting hardware is less reliable. On the contrary, the MTBF (mean time between failures) of system and storage components has never been better. However, as a result of stringing so many different components together, today’s complex distributed application environments are statistically more likely to fail. This risk puts increasing pressure on IT departments to make all the components more reliable than before. You could say that IT departments need to make data recovery of distributed systems even better, in partial compensation for their relative fragility. These materials are the copyright of Wiley Publishing, Inc. and any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited.
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7
Struggling with the technology gap Tape backup just isn’t cutting it any more. Although significant advances in tape backup medium have taken place, primarily in capacity and speed, tape is now in its fifth decade of commercial use and is being overtaken by disk-based solutions, as I discuss in Chapter 2. But tape is still tape: it’s a serial-access medium that is hundreds of times slower than online disk-based storage. Tape is also a fragile medium: it’s subject to stretching and tearing, it’s sensitive to temperature swings, and data on tape medium slowly decays over time.
Compliance and Regulation New laws in nearly every industry sector require organizations to improve the backup and archival capabilities in their key systems. Regulations require robust controls and recordkeeping for key business activities. Because the majority of business processes are information-based, this translates into the need to frequently back up data as a hedge bet against the potential for hardware and software failures that can corrupt or destroy vital business information. Legislation has a distinctive “trickle down” effect: while certain laws apply to companies in specific industry sectors, often the laws also apply to companies that provide services to directly affected companies. For example, a bank may outsource its e-mail system to an online e-mail service provider in order to
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8 reduce costs. However, the e-mail service provider will be required to demonstrate compliance to laws related to the protection and archival of e-mail data that the bank is required to comply with.
Sarbanes-Oxley Every U.S. public company and many private companies are required to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley legislation. The primary impetus behind Sarbanes-Oxley is the reform of accounting practices by publicly held companies. Within this, a particular emphasis is placed on records integrity, retention, and availability. Backups are a strategic component here.
Health care Companies providing health-care-related services in the U.S. are required to enact several safeguards to protect business information. HIPAA’s (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) Security Rule requires that organizations securely back up data, provide safeguards for backup media, and develop a disaster-recovery plan that ensures that vital records will not be lost in a natural or man-made disaster.
Banks, credit unions, and other financial institutions Banks, credit unions, and other financial institutions endure a significant regulatory burden that requires the protection of business records and information about depositors.
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9 ⻬ Gramm-Leach Bliley Act (GLBA) requires that financial institutions must protect data from unexpected losses through backups, and that backup data be adequately protected against unauthorized access. ⻬ FFIEC Information Technology (IT) Guidelines requires financial institutions to employ best practices for securing systems that process and maintain information. This includes business continuity planning, outsourcing, IT management, and computer operations. ⻬ FDIC Information Technology Examinations require that banks verify their Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Plans, and that they’ve been tested. ⻬ Sarbanes-Oxley legislation, discussed earlier, also applies for all financial institutions that are U.S. public companies.
Planning for Disasters Business Continuity Planning (BCP) and Disaster Recovery Planning (DRP) together encompass a vast array of prevention and response activities that ensure the survival of a business through a natural or manmade disaster. In many disaster scenarios, IT systems are directly damaged or made inaccessible, which effectively knocks vital business processes “off the air” until IT system functionality and connectivity is restored. Often this requires that critical data be recovered onto servers in original or alternate business locations.
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10 Backup data needs to be located at a secure location that is far enough away that it is not also involved in a regional disaster (businesses affected by Hurricane Katrina took little solace in the fact that their backup data was across town in a flooded vault), but positioned for rapid “over-the-wire” recovery that does not depend on couriers to ship backup tapes to a disasterrecovery site. For more information on this, consider Remote Disaster Recovery (RDR) solutions.
Security The increasing body of laws and regulations that require the protection of stored information also applies to the same data on backup media. Data must be protected from unauthorized disclosure regardless of its location or the type of media that it is stored on. To be truly secure, backup data must be encrypted, not only in transit but also in storage. This measure will effectively eliminate the risk of disclosure of sensitive data to any unauthorized party. The elimination of physical transport of backup media can further ensure security.
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Chapter 2
Understanding Backup Technologies In This Chapter 䊳
Taking a look at EVaulting
䊳
Comprehending recovery objectives
B
ackup is really just any method used to make a copy of important data in another place. Then, if something goes wrong, you can recover the data from the backup back into the original system, and you’re off to the races. I’ll presume you have some basic IT knowledge and just skip over the old standby, copying data to any form of tape media. Equally obvious is copying data to another computer’s storage system (such as from one disk to another) — in fact, some would not even consider that a backup. I’ll also skip over replication and mirroring — while those function as backup-like technologies, their intention is slightly different: with replication and mirroring, you’re usually not backing up data so much as you are copying live data to another online server in the cloud where it can be accessed in near real time.
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12 In terms of providing real value to organizations, the only choice that’s left is the one that holds the greatest hope: EVaulting.
Understanding EVaulting EVaulting, or electronic vaulting, is simply the process of performing an over-the-wire backup of critical business information into the cloud to an on-site or off-site data storage facility. This is similar to network-based backup, where software on a server or workstation initiates the transfer of information to a centralized backup server.
Disk-to-disk media While EVaulting has been around for a while, the newer EVaulting solutions use disk technology as the backup medium. Using disk as a backup medium is superior to tape for three principle reasons: ⻬ Cost. The cost of disk drives has dropped significantly while capacity and speed have dramatically increased. As a result, the cost of disk-based backup solutions has dropped significantly, adding to the value of its technical benefits. ⻬ Reliability. Disks are far sturdier and “tougher” than fragile magnetic tape cartridges. ⻬ Speed. Tape media is “serial,” which means it must be read serially to locate data. All the data on a tape must be read in order to identify the location where specific data resides. The throughput (speed at which data can be read from or written to) for disk is significantly greater than tape. Further, techniques like compression and saving These materials are the copyright of Wiley Publishing, Inc. and any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited.
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13 only changed disk blocks can also markedly improve performance.
Backing up from multiple locations Because EVaulting relies only on network connectivity to the data center, data can be backed up from any location to the cloud. Although servers tend to stay in one place, users and their laptop workstations tend to travel a lot and spend a good part of their time away from the enterprise network. This is not a problem with EVaulting, which works from anywhere a network connection is available. Better EVaulting solutions also support slow connections, which includes ⻬ Background transfer. Backup data should take a lower priority than interactive user traffic, so that a running backup does not degrade any user programs that require network access. ⻬ Transfer changed data only. Only the data blocks that have actually changed should be transmitted to the electronic vault. This is particularly important when only small portions of large files are changed; for example, Microsoft Outlook’s local mailbox files can be gigabytes in length and probably change daily, but only the changes should be transferred.
On-demand backup An EVaulting solution should have the ability to schedule backup tasks. But users should also be able to run on-demand backups. For example, if a salesperson on business travel has just completed working on presentations and legal contracts, it will be vitally important to get those important files backed up as soon as possible. These materials are the copyright of Wiley Publishing, Inc. and any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited.
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Secure EVaulting Data that is being transmitted over the wire, into the cloud, should be fully encrypted in order to protect it from any eavesdroppers. This includes not only the backed-up data itself but all other communications between the system being backed up and the vault.
Remote EVaulting The electronic vault should be located in a remote data center, preferably a Tier 3 or Tier 4 facility, and better yet a facility that has a SAS70 Type II certification. A Tier 3 or Tier 4 facility refers to a data center that is built and operated to strict standards that provide high levels of security and reliability. SAS70 Type II is an independent audit of internal processes and controls, to ensure conformance with industry standards of security and integrity.
Backing up to multiple vaults Larger organizations may want to employ multiple electronic vaults, to expedite with backup or recovery operations. If an organization has an extremely large database or a database with a short Recovery Time Objective, recovering from a remote vault may take longer than needed. The organization also may want to utilize a vault within its own network (or cloud), in order to maximize network bandwidth and therefore assure a faster data recovery.
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15 It is common for data at remote locations to be backed up to nearby local vaults, which can then be replicated to off-site data centers or to electronic vaults at company headquarters.
Ease of recovery Backups are a waste of time if backup data cannot be recovered reliably. Moreover, data recovery should not be the difficult affair that it was “back in the day” of full, incremental, and differential backups. A modern EVaulting system should provide single-action recovery regardless of the methods used to back up data in the first place. What I mean is this: Even if a data set is backed up in many small pieces over time (using full, incremental, differential, or just changed-blocks methods), data recovery should consist of a single step that is the GUI equivalent to “recover this data set to that computer.” The system should then take care of all the details without the user (even an experienced system administrator or database administrator) needing to get tangled up in all the details on how the backup data was created in the first place.
Establishing Recovery Time Objectives When an organization is setting up or refining a backup and recovery plan, one of the most important decisions
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16 is the length of time required to recover key systems and how recent the data will be on a recovered system. The two key targets are Recovery Time Objective and Recovery Point Objective, which I discuss in this section.
Achieving Recovery Time Objectives The ability to achieve a given Recovery Time Objective (RTO) depends on how rapidly a system can be recovered from backup. The main factor at work here is the speed at which data on backup media can be restored onto a system. The frequency of backups doesn’t matter much for RTO; whether data being restored is a few hours old or a week old has more to do with Recovery Point Objectives (RPO), which I discuss in a minute.
Example of Recovery Time Objectives A popular online retailer has established RTOs for the primary components in its database, as follows: ⻬ Online catalog. The retailer considers its online order catalog to be its most important database. Recovering the online catalog quickly means that customers can browse the catalog for goods that they would like to purchase. The retailer placed a two-hour RTO on its online catalog. ⻬ Online purchase. The retailer decided that the ability for customers to place orders was its next highest priority. The retailer chose a three-hour RTO on its online purchase data.
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17 ⻬ Order history. The retailer reasoned that the ability to see an order history was far lower than the need to place new orders. They chose a 48-hour RTO for order history. As you can see, RTO is not an all-or-nothing proposition. Organizations with large databases can establish RTO figures for different parts of its data in order to prioritize recovery efforts.
Achieving Recovery Point Objectives The ability to achieve a given Recovery Point Objective, or RPO, depends on how frequently backups are performed. RPO is the maximum acceptable period of time that data loss will occur if data is lost for any reason.
Example of Recovery Point Objectives A document management system is used to store updated documents. The system is backed up twice each day. If a system failure or disaster requires the system be rebuilt, the most data that will be lost is about half a day. The RPO for this system would be approximately 12 hours. An RPO of two hours means that, at most, two hours of data will be lost if a malfunction or disaster occurs. It does not, however, mean that a system will be recovered within two hours. On the contrary, a system with a two-hour RPO could have an RTO of one day. This means that a system could be down for an entire day, but once it is back up and running, only two hours of data will be lost.
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Chapter 3
Evaluating Backup Solutions In This Chapter 䊳
Venturing into backup and recovery
䊳
Exploring licensed backup solutions
䊳
Taking a look at managed services
䊳
Evaluating solutions
W
hen you buy a pair of shoes, you probably try them on for look and fit, and take a few steps to see how they feel in action. Most IT systems and solutions are that way, too: even when you’re impressed by a demo, you still want to try it out on your own system to see how it will really run. Why should backup solutions be any different? In this chapter, I describe the various EVault backup and recovery solutions that are available from i365, A Seagate Company. One is sure to fit your needs well.
Online Backup and Recovery One solution is Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), where all you have to do is install backup agent software on your systems, and your service provider securely stores your critical data in the cloud over the Internet. If and when you need to recover data, you log in to the servThese materials are the copyright of Wiley Publishing, Inc. and any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited.
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20 ice provider’s network to perform data recovery operations. Unless you need support from your i365 service provider for some reason, you can usually recover data on your own. The i365 EVault SaaS family of solutions provides exactly that. With Evault SaaS, your data is safely transmitted over encrypted network connections through the cloud to one of ten secure data centers. Using EVault SaaS is as easy as using a Web browser: You set up backup policies to customize and optimize how backups are run on specific systems or classes of systems (like all laptop users in a single configuration). With EVault SaaS, you solve several vital problems all at once: ⻬ Data de-duplication. Helps eliminate redundant backup of identical files, which reduces bandwidth and backup times. ⻬ Ease of use. You don’t need special IT skills to manage backups. Anyone can do it. Your IT staff is freed up to devote time to more productive tasks. ⻬ Media management. i365 stores all your backup data, so you don’t have to manage backup tapes ever again. ⻬ Off-site cloud storage. Outdated tape backup solutions also require that you find a service provider to store your backup tapes off-site, as well as secure courier service. With EVault SaaS, your data is stored in the cloud in one of i365’s ten secure, Tier 3 and 4, SAS-70 Type II certified data centers. Your storage problems are solved!
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21 ⻬ Regulatory compliance. i365’s disk-to-disk technology, encryption, and assured disaster recovery make it easy to satisfy data protection and privacy requirements. ⻬ Reliable and robust media. When you use EVault SaaS, you never have to worry about those fragile backup tapes that stretch and break and grow old and unreliable. EVault SaaS stores your backup data on reliable disk media. And, you don’t have to worry about whether someone remembered to load the tapes or label them properly. ⻬ Security Stories of lost backup tapes keep CIOs up at night, but with EVault SaaS, you have no couriers, since your backup data is safely transmitted using end-to-end encryption into the cloud directly to one of i365’s data centers. ⻬ Simple recovery. Back when you managed your backup media, recovery was complicated and involved restoring data from many different backup sets and tapes. When you use EVault SaaS, you can recover data to any server from anywhere with just a Web browser. Figure 3-1 depicts the EVault SaaS logical architecture.
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WWW
Figure 3-1: EVault SaaS’s simple-yet-powerful architecture.
EVault Data Transfer Process
EVault
Over-the-Wire encryption
Secure Data center
Compression encryption Backup/Restore Protocol (BRTP)
EVault
Backend Deduplication Data remains encrypted on the vault
Secure data center
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Customer Office
Agents
EVault DeltaPro processing
WWW
EVault SaaS
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Centralized administration
EVault
EVault
CentralControl
Ch Changed files
Client systems running EVault Agents
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Licensed Solutions Although EVault SaaS’s model is suitable for many businesses, some backup and recovery models require that backup data reside on customers’ premises instead of in i365 secure data centers. Possible reasons for this include unusually large data sets combined with required short recovery times. Businesses in some industries are required to keep sensitive data under their direct control and within their own data centers. More complex environments may also dictate need for companion products and plug-ins (for example, VMware and Exchange). The solution in these cases is EVault Software, a licensed software version of i365’s EVault technology. EVault Software provides the granular control needed when data protection means managing a wide range of factors including multiple operating systems and broadly distributed networks. Its functions include ⻬ Administration. Administration and recovery is performed via the same secure Web interface that can be located anywhere. ⻬ Agents. Lightweight software agents operate on servers and user workstations, conforming to your backup policies. ⻬ Data de-duplication. Helps eliminate redundant backup of identical files, which lowers your storage costs and backup times. ⻬ Efficient backups. EVault’s DeltaPro™ technology makes backups super-efficient by only backing up the changed data.
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24 ⻬ Secure backups. Backup data is encrypted when transmitted to and from the vault, and also encrypted in the vault itself. i365 also offers EVault Plug-n-Protect, an all-in-one backup and recovery appliance that consists of preconfigured hardware and software and is priced for businesses in the SMB market.
Managed Solutions Organizations with complex environments but limited IT resources for operating a backup solution can turn to i365’s EVault Managed Services. Designed for midand large-sized enterprises that are distributed and regulated, EVault Managed Services partners with you to implement a backup solution, on your hardware or theirs. A few of the many advantages of using EVault Managed Services are ⻬ Proactive monitoring. With EVault Managed Services you get a dedicated data protection expert who monitors your backup processes so you don’t have to. ⻬ Resource efficient. You can deploy your scarce IT resources where they’re needed, and leave backup chores to others. ⻬ SAS70 Type II certified. You can have confidence in the business and technical controls already in place. ⻬ Scalability. You build as you grow .
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Evaluating Solutions Before you begin an evaluation of a backup solution, you need to understand the type of solution that will work best for your organization. Some questions that you can ask yourself include ⻬ Does your regulatory landscape permit your data to reside on a backup service provider’s environment? If so, then an online (or cloud-based) backup solution can be considered. ⻬ Is your critical data so large that you must have local storage of backup data? ⻬ Do you have backup experts on your IT staff? If not, then you may want to rely on managed services to get your backup solution up and running. ⻬ Have you established your recovery time and recovery point objectives? If not, then you may need to start with a managed service provider who can help you develop these targets. ⻬ Do you require a tiered recovery architecture with replication offsite to provide disaster recovery to address RTO requirements? Make sure your vendor offers these capabilities. When you think you’ve decided which type of backup solution is right for your organization, you can drill down and explore the characteristics of various backup product/service vendors. Some of the items you’ll want to look at include ⻬ Unattended backups ⻬ Ability to back up open files and databases
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26 ⻬ Ability to centrally manage backup and restore operations from any location ⻬ Off-site cloud storage located in a secure Tier 3 or Tier 4 facility ⻬ Rapid restoration 24x7x365 via an easy-to-use Web interface ⻬ Encryption of data in transit and when stored ⻬ Encryption keys always and only in your control ⻬ Customizable backup and retention schedules ⻬ No hardware changes needed for off-site storage scenarios ⻬ A single management interface for backing up many types of systems and data types from workstations to mainframes and flat files to databases ⻬ SAS70 Type II certification ⻬ Data replication and disaster recovery ⻬ Bare metal restores if an entire system fails
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Chapter 4
Ten Reasons to Switch to EVaulting In This Chapter 䊳
Gathering enough ideas in one place to get an EVaulting project under way in your company
I
f you’re looking for more ideas on how to convince management that EVaulting using cloud or software disk-based backup and recovery is the way to go, you’ve come to the right place. All of the ideas appear elsewhere in the book and are included here in one convenient place for you to cherry-pick as needed.
Reliability EVaulting uses highly reliable Internet connections to cloud-based storage and proven backup, retention, and archival technologies in hardened Tier 3 and Tier 4 data centers. When you upgrade to EVaulting, you can kiss fragile backup tapes good-bye, while you wonder why you bet the business on spools of flimsy acetate in the first place.
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Security EVaulting is more secure than tape backup. There are no backup tapes to be stolen from delivery trucks with headlines in the local newspaper the next day. In fact, EVaulting simplifies your backup strategy by completely eliminating off-site tape storage and couriers. EVaulting solutions worth considering will fully encrypt your data, both in transit as well as in storage. Further, only you will have the decryption keys, which means that only you can retrieve your data, no matter where it is located. Because all of your data is located in the cloud, your off-site storage and disaster-recovery requirements are automatically taken care of.
Usability Today’s EVaulting solutions have secure, easy-to-use Web interfaces that provide centralized control and management capabilities. And because they’re Web interfaces, they can be accessed from anywhere and require no special client software. Administrators should no longer have to understand how full, incremental, and differential backups work, and to have to figure out which tapes are needed to restore data. Instead, the UI should permit the administrator to just select the files to restore, regardless of how they were backed up or how they are stored. It should be as easy as point and click!
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Compliance An EVaulting solution should have provisions for satisfying today’s stringent compliance requirements. Features that should be present include security, encryption, disaster recovery, retention scheduling, access controls, and recordkeeping.
Performance EVaulting is just plain smarter than old backup programs. In addition to compression, one of the biggest gains is a feature where only changed disk blocks are backed up, which can dramatically reduce the time, bandwidth, and storage needed to back up data. i365’s EVault DeltaPro technology offers this capability. Another is bandwidth throttling, which lets you control how much of your network traffic is devoted to backups.
Broad Platform Support C’mon, we all want one interface for backing up all kinds of data on all kinds of systems from laptops to mainframes. Some of today’s EVaulting solutions provide this capability where the complexity is appropriately hidden from administrators who can then concentrate on backing up and restoring systems and data sets.
Support for Multiple Locations EVaulting permits servers and workstations to be backed up, no matter where they’re located, even if
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30 they are mobile! With EVaulting, location is just an attribute and is practically irrelevant. As long as a target system has a network connection and a running agent, backups and restores can take place behind the scenes.
Frees Up Resources EVaulting streamlines and simplifies backups, which reduces the IT footprint necessary to support it. Those scarce IT resources can be better placed in tasks and jobs that are more relevant to the business instead of managing backup media as it is loaded, unloaded, racked, unracked, and transported to and from off-site storage locations.
Scalability EVaulting is as scalable as your business, whether you are backing up onto your own media or a backup service provider. You can just add agents to any new systems to back up and add storage capacity as needed.
Simplify and Reduce Cost Because EVaulting simplifies enterprise backup, it reduces and simplifies cost. Before EVaulting, you had to allocate budget and floor space for backup media, racks, transportation containers, tape-drive maintenance and replacement, courier service, and off-site storage. All of these represent activities that IT staff members are attending to daily or weekly. EVaulting eliminates all these activities in favor of one unifying, scalable, secure solution that permits you to easily manage backups and restores from anywhere with just a Web browser. These materials are the copyright of Wiley Publishing, Inc. and any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited.
Improve data protection and ensure compliance
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Explore the latest advances in data backup
and recovery technologies This guide explains the recent advances that backup and recovery technology has undergone. These improvements are helping businesses to better respond to increasing regulatory pressure, users who demand that their data be continuously available, and IT departments that need to do more work with fewer resources.
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Understand how EVaulting is making traditional backups a thing of the past Implement your own backup and recovery solution the quick and easy way See how compliance regulations are driving some changes in the industry
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New cloud-based data backup and recovery technologies can help businesses like yours
