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19/12/201628/12/2016 by Nick Shmakov

How to design a backup strategy

Your business continuously generates additional data. Being without your data for even an hour could be expensive and extremely detrimental. The answer is to back up everything. All the time. First, you need to choose what you’ll use for backup, and then you need to decide on a combination. One source of backup is never enough.

Readily available options

Direct attached storage (DAS)

DAS devices connect to your PC or server (usually via USB). They are handy and portable, which means they could be taken out of action at the same time as your main storage if the issue is something like theft or fire damage. That makes them a great first line of defense, but don’t make the mistake of depending on these devices for your entire archiving and disaster recovery plan.

Network attached storage (NAS)

NAS appliances connect directly to the network. They have file server and redundancy capabilities, and in some cases, they have the ability to synchronise data with a compatible remote NAS.

This demonstrates the necessity for a remote solution, which is essential to any robust strategy. This might involve physically rotating devices offsite; however, if they aren’t taken far enough away from the site, the same event, such as an earthquake, might still jeopardise the components in your backup system.

Disaster protected storage

One precaution to take against fires, floods, or earthquakes is disaster-protected NAS or DAS units. These devices are built tough, and manufacturers claim that the devices have the ability to survive day-long baths or periods of fire. This isn’t always the case.

Fears of Mass Data Loss Disaster with ATO storage.

Therefore, we always recommend to check and verify that data is recoverable at least once a year and ideally every quarter.

Going online

Assuming your online provider’s servers are located far from your computers, you’re insulated from a city-wide disaster when you upload your data. On the upside, you’re not investing capital upfront, and sending data online works well if it’s done in installments; however, an initial upload (seeding) can require a long period of time, as can downloading data in the event of a disaster, if you need a full restore. We can do initial seeding of your backup, which means we’ll upload your data at our office with the fast link to a cloud storage.

Private cloud

A private cloud has all the advantages (and disadvantages) of sending your data online without the worry that it’s in the hands of a third party. It can be prohibitive for small businesses, but innovations have made the private cloud more affordable and worth exploring.

Old school

Backing up data to tape drives, DVDs, and Blu-Ray DVDs may seem obsolete, but Google and Facebook use tape and optical media.

The right combination

A good starting point is the rule of three: 2 + 1.

2: A full copy of everything on at least two different physical devices plus plus
1: A third copy that’s offline at another location. Consider investing into automatic cloud backup

The offline version is critical. It can’t be hacked, it can’t be corrupted accidentally, and it’s harder for someone with malicious intent to access (a rampaging ex-employee, for instance). Like everything else associated with data, a good backup strategy involves simple math.

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Four Lightning Strikes and Your Data is Out – Rescue Australian Cloud

It takes four lightning strikes to wipe out data in the modern day datacentre, and if you think it doesn’t happen, prepare to be surprised. Backup is your only medicine.

In August 2015, four successive lightning bolts hit one of Google’s facilities in Europe, taking out the local utilities grid and sending power surges throughout the storage systems used by Google Compute Engine (GCE) infrastructure, which allows customers from around the world to run virtual machines and store data in the cloud. It is the same datacentre and the same infrastructure that powers the search engine, Gmail, YouTube and other services.

As a result of the lightning strikes, some of the customers’ data was lost. While most of it came back online, small parts of data could not be recovered.

“Although automatic auxiliary systems restored power quickly, and the storage systems are designed with battery backup, some recently written data was located on storage systems which were more susceptible to power failure from extended or repeated battery drain,” Google said in a statement published online.

In the same statement, the Internet giant highlighted “an important reminder” that GCE virtual machines “unavoidably vulnerable to datacenter-scale disasters” and customers must remember to take GCE snapshots and store them in the cloud.

In other words, Google used the incident to remind customers about data backup and the importance of storing it in a remote location. When disaster strikes, services can be brought back online much faster by restoring them from a backup.

There are four things that can be learned from this incident.

First, nobody is immune to data loss, even leading industry players, whose job is to keep data online. The best hardware and advanced technology once again proved to be powerless against the forces of nature, reinforcing the need for data backup as the ultimate measure for data integrity.

Second, data loss is often caused by the most unexpected and unlikely events, in this case — the four consecutive lightning strikes. Most likely no other datacenter will ever experience it again, but floods, hurricanes and other natural disasters are known to affect the data safety in the past. In 2012 a number of datacenters went offline in New York caused by flooding that followed Hurricane Sandy. Customers with a business continuity plan were able to restore their backups elsewhere to carry on their business.
Third, the 0.000001% of the GCE data that Google lost last week could be your personal and business files. Are you prepared to lose pictures of your loved ones or important documents that your business depends on? How important is your data to you and how valuable are your digital memories?

Data loss is something that most of computer users have to go through at some point of their lives. Data backup remains to be the only remedy against the lost thumb drives, faulty hard disks, human errors and other data security hazards.

When was the last time you did a backup of your computer?